Hypnosis and Weight Loss, Breaking the Ties That Bind - By: Steve Kelly

Hypnosis is gaining traction as a safe, effective tool to use in weight loss programs. Hypnosis targets and attacks three major causes of overweight, which are: overweight people have a distorted perception of portions, they tend to eat out of habit rather than hunger, and they have an emotional attachment to food.

Hypnosis is a state of extreme focus, and a person in a hypnotic state can create a mental image and fix it in their memory. This process allows a chronically overweight person to see him or herself as thin and healthy. It also allows them to reform their perception of a normal portion. Studies have shown that overeaters who guess how many calories they eat daily consistently underestimate their intake by as much as 22%. That adds up to a weight gain of a pound per week for a person who should eat 1500 calories daily but actually eats 1850. Another study by graduate student Stephanie Wilburn found that overweight people are most likely to underestimate portion sizes for starchy foods, such as pasta or cereals; overweight adults in her study correctly chose the right sized serving of green beans, but heaped spaghetti on their plates. Further, a study by Steenhuis and Vermeer showed that people who are continually exposed to large portions develop "portion distortion," or the feeling that a large portion is normal. Decreasing portion size with this mindset leads many dieters to have a feeling of deprivation and compulsively think about eating. Hypnotic suggestions can recalibrate the mind so that a person is comfortable with small portions. The overweight person chooses to use a smaller serving plate and eat smaller servings of food without the sense of loss or resistance.

Habitual eating, or mindless eating, is eating that is triggered by situations rather than hunger. For example, many people snack while watching television or when they are sitting at a desk working. One feature of mindless eating is that a person is unaware of how much they have eaten. It isn't unusual for a person to down an entire bag of potato chips or a bag of M & Ms without realizing it. Habits literally burn neural pathways in the brain, so overcoming habits using "willpower" introduces a situation in which a person is at war with his or her brain. Hypnosis helps the person to redirect his or her energies into more constructive behaviors. For example, they may be given the suggestion to chew gum or to get up from their chair and take a short walk when they feel the urge to open another box of Hot Tamales. Habits are much easier to make than they are to break, and using replacement behavior techniques in combination with suggestions that reduce emotional resistance allows mindless eating to be replaced with a healthier set of behaviors.

Finally, overweight people tend to form emotional attachments to food. In a recent study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, participants were shown a photograph of a chocolate milkshake and then given a brain scan. The overweight participants' brains lit up in areas that are most associated with drug addiction. Looking at pictures of food can trigger cravings that are no less powerful than a heroin addict's urge for another dose of the drug, and like an addict, it takes more of the food to reach a level of satisfaction. Hypnosis helps a person to induce a sense of calm when they need to do so. In turn, this reduces the powerful cravings for food that often sabotage a dieter's best efforts. Hypnosis replaces the emotional response that food triggers in an overweight person with a sense of calm and contentment.

For hypnosis to be effective a participant must be highly motivated to change and should also work with a physician, nutritionist or other health care provider in order to make appropriate lifestyle and diet changes. Hypnosis affords a person the sense they are choosing to change instead of the feeling they are being forced to change, and that all changes are under his or her control. Hypnosis liberates the overweight person from the emotional ties to food and eating that helped to create and serve to maintain the fat that entomb him or her like a mummy's wrappings.

About the Author

Cinergy Health & Life Insurance Agency is dedicated to providing quality health and life insurance plans for people in a variety of life situations. For more information on a selection of health and insurance topics, visit the Cinergy Health & Life Learning Center at http://www.cinergyhealth.com.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Steve-Kelly/124841

Additional Articles From - Home | Health & fitness | Hypnosis