Hypnosis - Can It Really Help You To Lose Weight?

Hypnotherapy, because of movies and TV shows, the very word conjures up the picture of a hawk-eyed hypno-technician swinging a pendulum repeating, "You are getting sleepy."

Use any Internet search engine, and you will find several million web pages devoted to the subject, especially weight loss hypnosis. Unfortunately, many websites that sell hypnosis programs for weight loss make wild, unsubstantiated postulations. I've been in the business since 1978. So I think that I'm larger than qualified to set the record straight on weight loss hypnosis.

First of all, self-hypnosis is a tool, just like a scalpel is a tool. Just as noteworthy surgeons have assorted skill levels in the use of a scalpel, remarkable hypnotists have different skill levels in the use of hypnosis for weight loss. And to complicate the matter, there are many assorted forms and types of hypnosis.

Here are just a couple of the ridiculous suppositions about weight loss hypnosis that I've seen on websites, along with the truth of the matter:

"Hypnosis for weight loss will speed up your metabolism." If you want a dose of reality, the fact is that weight loss hypnosis can't directly speed up your metabolism. But it can be very compelling at helping to program your unconscious with increased motivation to exercise, and exercise will increase your metabolic rate. Similarly, hypnosis to speed up the metabolism for quick weight loss can be effected by programming the subconscious to motivate the intake of increased amounts of protein, because that intake will step up your metabolic rate.

"Hypnosis will make you lose a few pounds." This is false. But weight loss hypnosis can be used to help abandon your appetite, so that you eat less, and eating less can help you to get rid of weight.

Your appetite is caused by two subconscious programs:
A. When you pair eating with any other behavior, the other behavior will trigger cravings for food and a strong compulsion to eat. This is called a conditioned response. For example, if you eat when you watch TV, you will automatically get an urge to eat each time you sit down to watch TV.

B. When you feel tense, you feel compelled to put something into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure. This is because of programming that you got when you were a baby. When you got grouchy, your mother put a bottle in your mouth. You got distracted, relaxed, and probably fell asleep. Now when you get cranky (anxious or tense), you feel compelled to put something into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure.

C. There is a third subconscious program that is present for some people. It's called emotional eating. Emotional eating takes place when a person is motivated to make him or herself fat, because by being fat they will protect themselves in some way.

For example, if someone got their heart broken in a relationship, their subconscious can force them into an action that would prevent them from getting their heart broken again. Example: They are motivated to get fat to keep them out of new relationships, because that will clear out the possibility of another broken heart.

D. I have written several articles on hypnosis for weight loss and emotional eating that are available on my website.

There are some effective ways to use posthypnotic suggestion to wipe out emotional eating. So just how can weight loss hypnotherapy fix the above problems? Let's cover them one at a time.

In paragraph "A" above: Conditioned responses can be "eliminated" without very much effort using a system that I call the "Flash." The flash trains the unconscious mind to setup a new set of triggers. In the above example, the subject had unconsciously joined the depiction of food in the hand, with the TV. Each time he / she sat down to watch the TV, the subconscious mind filled in the missing part of the picture: It "Flashed" the visualization of the food in the hand, and the subject felt a craving, and an compulsion to eat.

The Flash is a method that helps us program the subconscious to use the picture of the TV as a trigger for an impression of yourself watching TV without eating. When we lose the picture of the food, we lose the cravings.

When we momentarily disassociate (see ourselves from the point of view that another individual would), we are not able to sense our feelings (cravings and urges).

When we see ourselves in an action (watching TV without eating), we feel a compulsion to engage in that behavior. So the subject loses the cravings, and actually gets a compulsion to reject food.

In paragraph "B" above: The subject is eating and drinking for relaxation and pleasure. We teach the subject self-hypnosis for weight loss, because the very essence of the hypnotic state is deep relaxation.

And we utilize the "Flash" to program the subconscious to use the mental pictures and thoughts that are triggering feelings of anxiety and worry, as triggers for secondary mental pictures and thoughts that will trigger the relaxation response. When the subject feels more relaxed overall, oral urges are greatly diminished.

In paragraph "C" above: We discussed obsessive eating which makes the person overweight. The "behavior" of being overweight then provides some sort of emotional protection. So we use a technique called an NLP Six-Step Reframe, which programs the subconscious to take the responsibility for making the subject automatically substitute some other more acceptable behavior that will provide the same emotional protection, in place of being overweight. And that reframe will erase the urge to eat for emotional purposes.

Self-hypnosis for weight loss can be a very effective method. I can only uncover the tip of the iceberg in this short theme. Please see my website for more comprehensive articles and information.

(c) 2007 by Alan B. Densky, CH. This article may be reproduced on your website as long as you retain all clickable links contained within.