Yogurt is a tasty and healthful treat, but not many people realize that it may also serve as a weight loss aid.

In a study by the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, it was found that women who ate three servings of yogurt each day lost more fat than a similar group who was on a lower calorie diet.

The women eating yogurt regularly were actually taking in a higher number of calories and still dropping fat at a higher rate than their counterparts.

One of the reasons it burns fat may have to do with it being a good source of calcium. Adequate calcium intake has been associated in studies by the American Dietetic Association with healthy BMI levels and a reduced amount of body fat.

It also offers benefits in the form of active cultures that give your body's digestive tract a dose of healthy bacteria. This can not only help to pull more nutrients out of the food you eat but can also increase your resistance to various forms of food born illness such as salmonella. To reap this reward, always make sure that your yogurt boasts live and active cultures on it’s label. If it does not specifically say that it has live and active cultures or pro-biotics then it most likely doesn't and you are losing out on one of the best reasons to eat it in the first place.

If you want the most benefit from yogurt, choose the plain, unsweetened kind and flavor it with fresh fruit or honey or eat it on the side of various dishes. The plain kind is by far the healthiest and also goes well with many different meat dishes or other dishes with strong flavors.

Yogurt has been eaten for centuries to aid in digestion but we have just recently come across the fact that it can help reduce body fat more quickly than diet and exercise alone and can help maintain a healthy body weight when eaten on a regular basis. You can actually get away with eating more calories and still maintaining or losing weight when incorporating this tasty treat into your daily diet.

For those of you who are lactose intolerant, keep in mind that to some extent, the active cultures eat the lactose, so there is less of it in yogurt than any other natural dairy product. If you are only mildly allergic to lactose then this form of dairy may not bother you as much as cheese or milk or even at all.