Many people struggle with being overweight, or even obese. It’s a common topic, and we know that excess weight is associated with potentially serious health conditions such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol. Excess weight is also a factor that contributes to sleep apnea, fatty liver disease, and back and knee problems, among other things. Oh! And we can’t forget the way it makes us feel about our appearance, how it affects our self esteem, and contributes to depression.
It is tempting to try for the “Easy Out.” There certainly are hundreds of “fad diets” out there that all promise to shed away the pounds easily and quickly. Those programs may work in the short term, but they are difficult to maintain over a longer period, and the result is that you regain the weight, and your self-esteem takes a hard hit thinking that you failed. The reality is, the diet failed, not you.
Grapefruit. Maple syrup. Cabbage. Apple-cider vinegar. Juice. All these “miracle” diets are supposed to help you melt pounds and trigger fat burning. The hard fact: Not only is it hard to lose weight on fad diets, but also they can be so restrictive that they’re almost impossible to follow, and they can damage your metabolism. When it comes to weight loss, remember that if it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is. Not to belabor the point, but the key to weight loss is to be diligent about eating right, and moving right, and allowing your body to reach its balance naturally.
Those little pills that claim to supercharge your metabolism are tempting, but there’s little evidence that they work. After a review of thousands of dieters, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston found that liquid diets, fad diets, and over-the-counter supplement were not linked to weight loss. So what worked? Portion control, regular exercise, and group support.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you have to change your behavior not just until you reach your goal weight, but for the months and years to follow. That’s because as soon as you stop your “diet,” you’re likely to gain back the pounds you worked so hard to shed. To be successful at weight loss, you need to make lifestyle changes, healthy food choices at most every meal, and exercise almost every day for a minimum of 30 minutes a session, and 60 minutes is even better. Getting to your healthy weight and staying there really has to be a way of life for the long haul.
Everybody is unique, so the diet that works for your friend, your co-worker, your mother, or your sister might not work for you. When looking at how best to lose weight, consider your health and family history, your metabolism, your activity level, your age, your gender, and your likes and dislikes. When you’re dieting, it’s important to allow yourself some foods that you enjoy, or else you’ll feel deprived and be less likely to stick with an overall healthy eating plan. For weight-loss success, tailor your diet to your body and accept that one diet won’t work for everyone.
And, it doesn’t seem fair, but men can eat more than women and still lose weight. That’s because men tend to naturally burn more calories than woman, thanks to their larger size, muscle mass, and elevated levels of the hormone testosterone, which promotes muscle growth. Plus, the male body is genetically designed for more muscle and less fat than the female body because men do not have to store the energy required to bear children. Once you come to terms with this fact and start eating less than your male partner or friends, the scale will thank you.
Yes, exercise helps you lose weight and keep it off. The National Weight Control Registry reports that people who are successful in maintaining their weight loss exercise for at least 60 minutes most days. But it’s nearly impossible to lose weight from exercise alone. To lose a pound of fat, you have to burn 3,500 calories more than you consume, so you can see how hard it is to exercise your way through eating the wrong foods. Instead, you have to watch what you eat and exercise. If there’s any “magic” to dieting, it’s in following that combination of eating right and moving right. As you start to make positive changes to your diet, remember that slow and steady weight loss is the easiest to maintain. Aim for one to two pounds of fat loss each week.
The Role of Hypnosis
Hypnosis is for anyone looking for a gentle way to lose weight and make healthy eating into a habit. Hypnosis is not right for anyone interested in a quick fix. Reframing the way we think about our relationship with food takes time. One client said that it took a month before she started to notice a real change. "The weight dropped off slowly and surely, without huge changes to my lifestyle. I was still eating out numerous times a week, but often leaving plates with food on them! For the first time ever, I was really tasting my food, spending time to take in flavors and textures. Almost ironically, it was as if I had embraced my love affair with food, and I was able to lose weight by doing so," she says, adding that in between appointments she worked hard to maintain her new healthy habits.
Hypnosis isn't meant to be a "diet." Instead, it is one tool to help you be successful with eating nutritious food and exercising.. Hypnosis helps people experience with all their senses what it feels like when they are strong, fit and in control. It empowers people to overcome their mental barriers to achieving those goals. Hypnosis can specifically help people resolve the underlying psychological problems that are causing them to hate exercise, experience intense cravings, binge at night, or eat mindlessly. It helps them identify those triggers and eliminate them.
It works because it changes your way of thinking about food and eating, and it allows you to learn to be more calm and relaxed in your life. So instead of food and eating being an emotional solution, it becomes an appropriate solution to hunger, and new patterns of behavior are developed that enable you to deal with emotions and life differently. Hypnosis works for weight loss because it enables you to separate food and eating from their emotional life.
There is a surprising amount of scientific research looking at the effectiveness of hypnosis for weight loss and much of it is positive. One of the original studies, done in 1986, found that overweight women who used a hypnosis program lost 17 pounds, compared to 0.5 pounds for women who were just told to watch what they ate. In the 90's a meta-analysis of hypnosis weight loss research found that subjects who used hypnosis lost more than twice as much weight as those who didn't. And a 2014 study found that women who used hypnosis improved their weight, BMI, eating behavior, and even some aspects of body image.
Our client mentioned above is definitely one of the success stories. She says it not only helped her lose the extra pounds but also helped her keep them off. Six years later she has happily maintained her weight loss, occasionally checking back in when she needs a refresher.∎
Karen Gray is a Certified Hypnotist, a Registered Nurse, and the owner of Green Mountain Hypnosis in Lebanon, New Hampshire. For more information on how you can use hypnosis to change your life, you can visit www.greenmountainhypnosis.com, contact Karen at karengray@greenmountainhypnosis.com, or call (802) 566-0464.