Weight Loss

The key idea in weight control is that ultimately it couldn’t be simpler — we take in calories and we use up calories. If we consistently take in more than we use up then we gain weight; conversely, if we consistently use more calories than we take in then we lose weight. Of course, there can be many explanations as to why this has happened — hormones, emotions, the effects of advertising, and so on — but ultimately it is a simple matter of mathematics. Therefore if you can reduce your calorie intake and make it less than your usage, you will lose weight.

There are, of course, possible complications, such as your metabolic rate, but most people a hundred years ago had probably never heard the term, and yet very few were overweight. The real issues are about what we consume and how many of the calories we use up.

As an aside, we would point out here that by the word “overweight” we mean someone having excess body-fat. There are people who are relatively heavy because they suffer from fluid retention, and others because they are muscular, but obviously in these cases they would not be considered overweight.

If you are genuinely overweight then the challenge is to reduce your calorie consumption or to use more calories through exercise — or to do both. The wonderful thing is that if you achieve this change — providing the changes you make are adequate, then you will lose weight. And if you can maintain this change then you can maintain your new weight.

Hypnosis is a highly suggestible state of mind that allows you to become more open to newer, better ideas. Although contrary to what some people think, hypnosis cannot magically remove excess weight away! In fact, the state of hypnosis has very few therapeutic benefits on its own — other than those achieved by deep relaxation. It is the therapy, administered under hypnosis, that really does the work. This is known as hypnotherapy — and with the right techniques it works because it helps to address the psychological issues of weight control.

On the surface, weight issues seem to be physical problems — surely, we are just putting too much food in our mouths and not exercising enough? But this is to look at the matter superficially. We need to ask, why we would be doing this? The answer is that our actions are controlled by our thoughts and feelings, at a subconscious level.

Our approach to hypnotherapy is to help you develop far more effective ways of thinking, so you can get more reward from eating in healthy ways and from exercising, thereby giving you a great chance of controlling your weight. We also use advanced hypnotherapy techniques to address the emotional issues that contribute to your weight issues and make the lifestyle changes that weight loss requires feel more natural and comfortable.

Put simply, with the help of self hypnosis and hypnotherapy you can “program” your subconscious mind to get it fully on-board with your conscious goals. Best of all, self hypnosis is a safe, natural and deeply relaxing experience. Our professionally produced self hypnosis CDs and MP3 downloads for weight loss present you with a wonderful opportunity to make extraordinary changes in your life.

Yes and no. Many people have issues from the past that affect their weight. By using Sunday's session (“Removing Barriers”) in our Super-7 Series course “7 Steps to Successful Weight Loss” we can help you to address any past issues that may affect your weight. This is done in a calm, gently and easy way, to help you let go of the past and overcome any potential barriers to successful weight loss.

Some hypnotherapists believe that everyone with a weight problem needs to have some kind of regression therapy and delve into thoughts and feelings from the past. Although our weight loss course does help you address possible past issues, it is only one small part of the overall approach. We believe that whilst the past certainly can have an influence on your current weight problems, its influence is not always significant enough and it is therefore better for us to spend most of the time dealing with your current problems.

This is an impossible question to answer, because everyone is different. Please also remember that hypnosis is not a miracle solution to your weight problems. However, if you commit to using our self hypnosis CDs and MP3 downloads and follow them as instructed, then you have every chance of reaching your weight loss goals in whatever time frame is natural and right for you.

Ideally, you will lose weight gradually. It is important that control your weight loss so that you avoid the “Rebound Effect”. Recognize that the approach that we use is to focus less on goals and more on the processes that lead to goals, so please concern yourself little with the actual amount of weight loss and more with what you need to do in order to achieve that weight loss.

Weighing yourself need only be done occasionally — perhaps every two weeks or so. The risk otherwise is that, say, having just drunk a lot of fluid your weight may be greater than on your previous weighing, this discovery leading to your feeling discouraged. With less frequent weighing there is less chance of this happening.

To repeat, everyone is different and we cannot make any claims about how much weight you may or may not lose.

There is no doubt that much can be gained from working one to one with a hypnotherapist who has experience with weight control issues. Doing so is especially useful if you require help and support for specific emotional issues. In which case, choosing someone with the good counselling skills would be beneficial. However, please do not underestimate the value of our self hypnosis recordings.

Our pre-recorded hypnotherapy sessions really can help you achieve your weight loss goals by making profound shifts to your thoughts and feelings. Also, bear in mind that it takes time for the brain to develop new habits, so being able to use CDs or MP3 downloads on a daily-basis can be very effective, not to mention far more cost effective. Each time you listen you help to “program” your mind to think in ways that enable you achieve your weight loss goals.

To learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches we recommend you read our article “Self Hypnosis Recordings vs. Live Hypnotherapy”.

If you are on a special diet or following a certain weight loss plan (or exercise regime), then that is absolutely fine. Our self hypnosis recordings for weight loss encourage healthy eating, but we don’t advocate specific diets. However, we would discourage you from using certain types of diets. This is because some of them, if followed rigorously, will virtually guarantee weight loss, but they require such unnatural ways of eating that you will probably be unable to stick to them permanently.

Another problem is that while a diet may be a healthy one, it may be so low in calories that after a while the dieter can experience what is known as the “Rebound Effect” whereby the body feels so deprived that it creates strong urges to eat, leading to the person to end up heavier than before.

We would therefore recommend that you consider diets that you can imagine remaining on for the rest of your life. The word “diet” is perhaps better replaced here with the term “healthy eating”, as this implies a way of eating that is sustainable. Healthy eating will tend to result in a more moderate weight loss per week than dieting will, but this is far more desirable and, in the long run, is likely to have a greater chance of success.

We highly recommend 7 Steps to Successful Weight Loss. It uses a wider range of techniques and is extremely comprehensive. It is particularly good if you have tried other approaches to weight loss (perhaps even using self hypnosis or hypnotherapy unsuccessfully in the past) without achieving real, long-term success, or you believe that there are underlying issues that may be driving your weight issue.

Even though 7 Steps to Successful Weight Loss represents great value for money, we do appreciate that it is more expensive that our single sessions. Therefore the next best option would be to use “Slim & Trim”, which contains an excellent hypnotherapy session designed to help you to lose weight. We know many people have benefit from its use. If you choose this option then we recommend supplementing this with one or two other single sessions, such as “Boost Your Self Esteem” or “Boost Your Ego”.

There are many reasons why it may not have worked for you in the past, so please do not let this put you off. It is important to remember that when it comes to hypnotherapy, it is the actual therapy part of the equation that does the change work. If the therapy is poor, then the results will tend to be poor too.

Unfortunately, there are many widely available self hypnosis audio programs for weight control by inexperienced, poorly trained, and in some cases, incompetent “therapists”, who lack the necessary knowledge and expertise. In many cases, at best all you are really getting is deep relaxation, which is fine, but a waste of time if you are hoping to lose weight. So even if you decide not to use our self hypnosis audio programs for weight loss, please choose wisely.