When it comes to trying to lose a few pounds, everyone always thinks of the usual professionals; doctors, dieticians, nutritionists, personal trainers and even life coaches. However, there is one you might be forgetting about – hypnotists.
People are more often turning towards online hypnosis to help aid their weight loss journey, but does this really work? Being in the hypnotic state makes your mind more susceptible to change, so it really could be effective.
Does hypnosis really work for weight loss?
The research available suggests that zoom hypnosis for weight loss could be plausible. In the ’90s there was a study which found that people undergoing hypnotherapy classes lost twice the amount of weight compared to the ones which didn’t.
In 2014, a study was carried out with 60 obese women. The results from this showed that those who took part in hypno behavioural therapy not only lost weight but also improved their eating habits and outlook on body image.
In addition to this, a small study in 2017 monitored eight obese adults and three children. These all successfully lost weight with hypnotherapy sessions, and one even avoided having surgery due to his success with weight loss – however none of this is conclusive.
Hypnosis isn’t currently covered by most medical insurance in the USA, so there isn’t a huge push for studies on this in comparison to pharmaceutical ones. But with the increasing costs of prescriptions and long lists of potential side effects they cause, people are more often looking into alternative methods. Hypnosis will hopefully soon grab more attention and therefore research as an approach for weight loss.
Who will weight loss hypnosis work for?
The perfect candidate to try this is anyone who struggles to stick with a healthy diet and lifestyle due to being unable to shake their bad habits. Doing things such as eating a whole big bag of crisps even though you felt full part of the way through is a sign of a subconscious problem.
Your self conscious is where your habits and addictions reside, somewhere you have no control over. Hypnotherapy works to address your subconscious rather than just your conscious mind, so can therefore potentially be a lot more effective.
In 1970, a study found hypnosis to have a 93% success rate with a fewer number of sessions required than both behavioural and psychotherapy sessions. This led researchers to understand that hypnotherapy was most effective for changing habits and thought patterns.
