As the colder weather approaches, so does the sometimes seasonal habit of ‘binge eating’ or ‘comfort’ eating. Chocolates and other sugar-rich comfort foods are often consumed at this time by people who are anxious, depressed or unsettled. All of this leads to unwanted weight gain and problems like guilt and add to the anxiety and depression levels.
And while research shows dieting affects the way one’s brain works and hormone changes encourage a person to eat and store even more fat. It shows that in most cases dieters put on more weight than they lose.
But hypnotherapy can effectively treat what many diets cannot.
Members of the National Council for Hypnotherapy have training in treating weight loss issues.
Says Paul Howard, NCH Marketing Director: “In a hypnotherapy weight loss programme the hypnotherapist can ask the subconscious to modify your lifestyle without any undue stress or distress.
“Factors such as old behaviours, feelings and emotions, habits and exercise levels can be altered during the hypnotic process. Furthermore, we can use hypnotherapy to keep your metabolic rate up, stimulate Leptin and Peptide YY levels and help to suppress Ghrelin by suggesting to your subconscious mind that you are actually eating more than you really are.”
Eating for comfort can become an eating disorder – that is when the relationship with food affects the way you live your life.
Binge eating, bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are all categories of eating disorder.
According to the NHS, It is estimated that about 50 per cent of people who binge eat have been depressed at some point in their life. However, it is not clear whether depression causes binge eating or whether binge eating causes depression. Stress is another common trigger of eating disorders.
Stressful events, such as moving house, job or school, or the death of a friend or relative, can sometimes cause someone to binge eat.
People with eating disorders usually experience difficulties in their personal life. Those who binge eat are often ashamed at the amount of food that they consume. They may also feel that their lack of control around food mirrors the lack of control they have over their personal lives, commented the NHS.
Back to NCH’s Howard: “The good news is that you probably already know what you should be eating and you probably know what exercise you should be taking.
“We don’t have to educate you on how and what you should eat and tell you what exercise you should be doing to lose weight.
“All we have to do is to use hypnotherapy for weight loss to remove the subconscious programming that is getting in the way of your success.”
So how does the hypnotherapy treatment work and is it successful?
There’s the well-documented case of singer Lily Allen dropping six dress sizes after treatment and most hypnotherapists report a success rate in excess of 98 per cent.
Hypnosis is a temporary, altered state of consciousness. Using hypnosis for weight loss is usually a two-part process.
First, the therapist attempts to help the person understand their problematic behaviors, such as overeating or shunning exercise. Then, while the patient is in a relaxed, impressionable state of mind, the therapist suggests altering those behaviours. Or as Howard says hypnotherapists ‘remove subconscious programming’.
Hypnotherapy for weight loss has become very popular with millions of people who are now using this treatment to give themselves a healthier body.
More and more celebrities – like Lily Allen – are or have used hypnotherapy and are turning their backs on diets after discovering what many health professionals already know, traditional diets do not work for the majority of people.
Hypnotherapy is safe too. It involves using the state of hypnosis to treat a variety of medical and psychological problems. It is estimated that 85 per cent of people will respond at some level to clinical hypnotherapy.
It may even succeed where other more conventional methods of treatment have not produced the desired result.
When carried out by a trained and qualified hypnotherapist the benefits can be long lasting and often permanent. It is natural and safe, with no harmful side effects.
If you have any further questions about weight loss, please contact a local NCH accredited hypnotherapist for weight loss in the NCH Hypnotherapy Directory.
