Weight loss is the goal of almost every overweight or obese person out there. Not only do they want to look good and feel good, but they also want to stay healthy. People go to great lengths to achieve their goals, from diets to exercise. But have you ever heard of hypnosis that leads to weight loss?
Hypnosis, or hypnotherapy, is something that therapists use to relax their patients. According to Healthline, hypnosis practitioners believe that the unconscious and conscious mind can concentrate on mental imagery and verbal repetition. This leads to the mind becoming open to suggestions and changes with respect to emotions, habits, and behaviour.
Hypnosis has been in practice for around 300 years, and it has helped people who have had addictions like nail-biting, smoking, etcetera. Research suggests that hypnotherapy can help greatly with weight loss. The explanation behind this is that hypnosis can help change habits such as overeating and help us stick to a routine. The claims, however, are yet to be confirmed.
A 1998 article about a controlled trial talks about the assistance of hypnotherapy in weight loss. The trial was carried out by J Stradling, D Roberts, A Wilson, and F Lovelock at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford. The trial examined 60 people who were suffering from obstructive sleep apnea.
The trial showed that all 60 participants lost about 2 to 3 percent of body weight in three months, and the 18-month follow-up showed that the hypnotherapy group lost about 3.6 kilograms. While the results were significant and in favour of hypnotherapy, the clinical significance wasn’t good enough to say with certainty that hypnotherapy can help with weight loss.
Two kinds of hypnosis are used to treat patients – suggestive therapy and analysis hypnotherapy. While the second approach is used to find the root cause of a disorder or symptom, suggestive therapy is used to change a person’s behaviour in certain situations, and this is most applicable when it comes to hypnosis for weight loss. Suggestive therapy can help change a person’s habits, such as nail-biting, smoking, and eating disorders.
Suggestive hypnotherapy can help you lose weight by changing the way you eat and keeping you from overeating or binge eating. This makes it easier for you to stick to a healthy diet plan.
