Hypnosis for Weight Loss. Does It Work?

We all know about eating healthy and doing exercise can do wonders for our weight loss. Yet, after an intense three or five days of munching on veggies and sweating hard, we go back to square one. Why?

Habits are hard to build and even though we know what we should be doing to lose weight, it is just too hard for our brain to actually make us act on it. Enter hypnotists. When you're under hypnosis, your attention is highly focused, and you're more responsive to suggestions, including behavior changes that can help you lose weight.

A hypnotist does not swing a watch from a chain and tells you that you're feeling sleepy. That is just how the entertainment industry portrays hypnotists. When you actually experience hypnosis, you’re not unconscious. It’s more like a deep state of relaxation.

“It’s simply the natural, floaty feeling you get before you drift off to sleep, or that dreamy sensation you feel as you wake up in the morning, before you’re fully aware of where you are and what is surrounding you,” explains hypnotherapist Kimberly Friedmutter.

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Hypnosis addresses the cause and other contributing factors directly at the subconscious level in the person’s mind, where their memories, habits, fears, food associations, negative self-talk, and self-esteem germinate, says Capri Cruz, psychotherapist and hypnotherapist. No other weight loss method addresses the core issues at the root like hypnosis does.

For changing habits, thought patterns, and behavior, hypnosis is one of the most effective methods. Getting stuck in harmful habits—like eating the entire bag of potato chips instead of stopping when you’re full—is a sign of a subconscious problem, says Greg Gurniak, a certified clinical and medical hypnotist.

Early studies from the 90s found that people who used hypnosis lost more than twice as much weight as those who dieted without the cognitive therapy. A 2014 study worked with 60 obese women, and found that those who practiced hypnobehavioral therapy lost weight and improved their eating habits and body image. And a small 2017 study worked with eight obese adults and three children, all of whom successfully lost weight.

A recent study, which only showed modest weight loss results, did find that patients receiving hypnosis had lower rates of inflammation, better satiety and better quality of life. These might be mechanisms whereby hypnosis could influence weight. The way to reduce weight is to reprogram the subconscious mind with all the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, and the prospect of a long life.

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Sandy Robson, a weight loss hypnotherapist told Express.co.uk that she uses a certain style of hypnosis to help with weight loss, known as the "Virtual Gastric Band".

She said: "The virtual gastric band is a program or a way of communicating and convincing the subconscious mind that you are satisfied with three healthy meals a day. The subconscious mind loves metaphors, the VGB is a metaphor as it communicates that your stomach has shrunk and that you can only eat small portions of food."