Does Hypnosis Work for Weight Loss?

Losing weight requires more than just a physical change.  To be successful it requires that you focus on the emotional, physical, and spiritual side of weight loss.  Adding hypnosis to your current weight loss routine may allow you to reach out to your spiritual and emotional sides to make permanent changes.

Permanent weight loss results from making small changes to your daily routine that last forever.  When you are not committed emotionally to the task of losing weight, the results are likely to last only in the short term.

One way that you can become permanently committed to weight loss results is by understanding the importance of losing weight.  If you are overweight, losing just 10% of your body weight can produce some significant changes.  These may include lowered cholesterol and blood pressure, decreased risk of type II diabetes, decreased risk of heart disease, and increased energy levels.  Committing to maintaining your health is key for successful weight loss.

Some people have a difficult time understanding this or making the commitment.  When that is the case, hypnosis may be helpful.  Hypnosis is essentially an altered state of the mind or state of consciousness.  This is achieved when a hypnotherapist uses repeated verbal and mental images.

During hypnosis the therapist can suggest weight loss ideas and motivators.  It may be able to help reduce the amount of cravings you feel for certain foods.  Some people report that using hypnosis for weight loss can prevent them from making excuses to skip their workout.

Does hypnosis work for weight loss?  There seems to be some debate as to the effectiveness of hypnosis for weight loss.  Several studies indicate that it can be helpful but the quality of those studies may be questionable.

The general consensus seems to be that if you have not been able to stick to a diet or if you are having difficulty losing weight even when you have done everything right you could experience some benefits.  But the benefits from hypnosis will still be dependent upon your ability to stick to your weight loss program by including exercise and reducing your caloric intake.

People who have used hypnosis have reported an average of about 6 pounds of weight loss.  The benefit of using hypnosis may be that you have greater success in experiencing long-term results.

The American Medical Association has reported that hypnosis can be an effective weight loss treatment.  The reason it is can be beneficial for long-term weight loss is because it gives you a deeper meaning for losing weight instead of something superficial like going to the beach in a bikini.

One study from the Journal of Clinical Psychology showed that people who used hypnosis with their weight loss program lost more weight.  They were also able to keep the weight off for a longer period of time than those who attempted to lose weight without the help of hypnosis.

Another study was published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, which showed they hypnosis group losing 17 pounds and the control group losing only .5 pounds.

For permanent weight loss, it is important that you burn fat and do not just lose water weight.  That is the reason that diet and exercise are both important for permanent weight loss.  In addition, the help from hypnosis could encourage you to make small changes to your current lifestyle so that you can keep the weight off.

Ever since we are young we are conditioned to feel certain ways about food.  These ideas and behaviors can be difficult to change.  That is where hypnosis can come in.  It may be able to help you overcome the feelings that you need to clean your plate.

Eating everything on your plate is not going to help the starving children in Africa or India.  But after listening to our parents tell us that, it is hard to stop eating when your body is full because we have become conditioned to overeating.

When using hypnosis, you might overcome the feelings that you need to finish everything on your plate so it can be easier for you to cut back on the food that you eat.

Not everyone experiences results with hypnosis.  It has been shown to be beneficial when you are trying to overcome some behaviors or thoughts that are preventing you from seeing success.  But that does not mean that you can avoid dieting and exercising as each are used to give you complete and thorough results.