Hypnosis for Weight Loss: How it Works, Examples, & Effectiveness

Hypnosis for Weight Loss: How it Works, Examples, & Effectiveness

What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy has been linked to many positive results – it is a clinically proven treatment with records of helping people overcome trauma, manage pain and work through memories. Hypnotherapy also helps people reach their long-term goals and become more discerning when it comes to life choices. Plus, there are a number of ways to benefit from its use.

The conscious mind is the part of the mind that is aware of specific thoughts, recent experiences, objects or emotions.

The conscious mind can only process a limited level of information. The subconscious mind is more realistic and handles things like your breathing.

For example, the biological processes such as respiratory, cardiovascular, and digestive systems run without any conscious involvement. Similarly, behaviours such as overeating or smoking seem to be automatic and out of control of the conscious mind.

Hypnotherapy is an opportunity to address personal issues and goals in a safe space. It can be used for personal growth or as a form of treatment for trauma. While you're in the hypnotic trance, you can work on these things without distractions or judgment

Who Is Hypnotherapy Right For?

Hypnotherapy has helped most people who are able to make a change in their lives. That's because it allows you to build up your self-efficacy and belief in your abilities, which has a direct effect on the success of whatever program you choose to pursue.

A hypnotherapist will always take the client's level of self-confidence into account and work with them to reframe any problems that might interfere with the effectiveness of therapy.

Once you've built an appropriate level of self-efficacy, hypnotherapy can help people work through issues such as

Obesity

Achieving and maintaining an ideal weight

Body image

Making changes in diet and exercise routines

Eating disorders*

*It is important to recognise the seriousness of eating disorders. A hypnotherapist can help as part of a larger treatment plan, but shouldn't be used by itself. Medical treatment is necessary and shouldn't be delayed in any circumstances.

The person’s level of suggestibility can be determined by basic tests, and this will affect whether or not they are responsive to hypnotherapy.

How Can Hypnotherapy Help Someone Lose Weight?

There are many people looking to lose some pounds, and it's more common than not that they've tried a number of approaches. This can lead to feelings of disappointment and even hopelessness

Hypnotherapy has been scientifically proven to increase success rates by tackling issues around body image and self esteem, as well as providing solutions to the conscious & subconscious mind.

Self Esteem & Body Image

People with low self-esteem often struggle to form healthy body images. Sometimes this is aggravated by teasing from family and friends and by messages they receive from mainstream media. Research shows that 50% of American 13-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies.

There is a big difference in the body image happiness levels between adolescent females and males. Nearly 80% of adolescents girls aged 11-16 years are unhappy with their body image, while this number goes down to 25% in males.

The food-related compulsion is often accompanied by feelings of shame and guilt which contribute to low self-esteem.

Improving your body image is one of the many things that hypnotherapy can do for you. Doing this might include hypnotic suggestions, journaling, etc.

Conscious and Subconscious Motivations

Sometimes people are aware of their motivations while they're making decisions, other times they become conscious by realising the consequences of the decision later on. For instance, someone who decides to lose weight may still make choices that undermine that goal without realising it because what is important to them may differ on a subconscious level.

This is because there may be subconscious motivations that the person doesn't know about.

Subconscious motivations can often be related to the desire for basic needs - such as comfort, pleasure, and safety. A conflict comes into play when an attempt is made to change behaviours that previously met those needs.

A Hypnotherapist can help a person identify the underlying causes of their unhealthy relationships & replace them with healthy ones.

Example of Hypnosis for Weight Loss

A typical course of weight-loss hypnotherapy will typically involve an initial assessment, a few sessions, and some kind of follow-up or support

During the initial assessment, a person may be asked about their past and current habits regarding food and exercise including what triggers compulsive eating. When, where, and why do they eat?

Eating disorders are mental illnesses that involve a person's relationship with food. These disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder, and the highest relapse rate. Eating disorders can be difficult to diagnose, as they are characterised by the conscious use of various coping mechanisms to deal with emotional states or feelings of ineffectiveness, helplessness, and self-hatred.

What physical activities do you enjoy or not enjoy? Our therapist will work with you to set achievable weight loss goals, and then create hypnotic suggestions that will help you develop healthy diet and exercise patterns.

After that, you will go through a series of hypnosis sessions. The number of sessions will depend on how you respond. Some people might experience great results after two or three days but others might need to do it for longer.

During the first session, the therapist will induce a trance (state of deep relaxation) in which you'll feel highly focused. This is when a number of techniques can be applied, such as applying hypnotic suggestions or working on future issues.

Examples of hypnotic suggestion are:

“I enjoy eating sensible amounts of healthy food”

“When I feel stressed or anxious, I do some kind of physical activity until I feel calm and relaxed”

“When my body tells me that I’ve eaten the correct amount of food I am able to leave any extra food on my plate”

There have been lots of positive suggestions about AI in the workplace, which are often framed in the present tense.

Future pacing is a technique where the person imagines succeeding in all future situations where problems around diet and exercise may come up.

The future pacing technique is all about envisioning success in the future. What if you give in to temptation and what would happen? You could always come back from it.

We are aware that food and weight issues often have their root in earlier traumatic experiences, so we are capable of providing a state where memories can be re-experienced with more resources.

They are able to reassure themselves that they have survived the experience and can now let go of the intense emotions that led to their unhealthy relationship with food.