As the mercury climbed over the weekend many people looked into their cupboards and sighed, making a promise that they will cut back on the booze or snacks and fit into their light summer clothing. Dieting is big business. A quick Google search revealed that in the last 24 hours’ several pages of news articles have been published about the latest celebrity endorsed plan or diet ‘hack’.
However, the evidence is clear that diets don’t work long term. 95% of people who lose weight by dieting will regain it within 1-5 years. Moreover, the deprivation of restrictive diets may lead to a diet-overeat or diet-binge cycle. Fad diets can be harmful. They often lack essential nutrients and they teach you nothing about healthy eating. There’s a growing body of research that points to low fat and low calorie dieting leading to depression and other mental health problems as well, which should be even more incentive to ditch the diet mentality.
An a society we are weight obsessed to the point where roughly 10% of 13-year-old girls are ‘terrified’ about putting on weight, reports the BBC. So what can we do that’s actually effective and won’t damage our mental health?
Hypnotherapy can help those who want to manage their weight. The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) says this is one of the areas that hypnotherapy is most effective. Losing weight with hypnosis boosts self-esteem, enabling the client to feel good about themselves, whatever size they are. It focuses on making healthy changes to the diet and lifestyle that will remain for the rest of their life.
Rather than just reducing calories, hypnotherapy can help you learn about how your body works. For example, when you’re stressed your body produces higher levels of cortisol and adrenaline, our stress hormones, and puts us into a fight or flight mode. This hike in cortisol and adrenaline means we often crave sugary foods, as the body needs a quick fix of glucose.
When this cycle is interrupted by stress management and lifestyle interventions you’re much less likely to reach for the cake or bag of sweets. No willpower needed!
Hypnotherapy can also help you get in touch with the reasons why you unconsciously eat. Perhaps you struggle to stop once you’ve unwrapped a bar of chocolate or eat pizza until you’re well past the point of fullness. Working with a hypnotherapist can help you understand the why’s of these behaviours and you can learn new healthy self-management techniques.
Successful hypnotherapy for weight loss will help you change lifelong negative habits around food and body image; by committing to a course of sessions with a qualified practitioner you can have the body and the wardrobe that you desire. If you know that diets don’t work why not find an insured and registered hypnotherapist using the NCH therapist finder. With over 1,800 registered therapists throughout the UK there’s sure to be someone near you.