When it comes to reaching and maintaining your ideal weight, everyone’s journey is unique. Whether you’re aiming to lose a few pounds or several stone, or if you’re managing more complex issues like Bulimia or binge eating, your needs will differ.
Research suggests that hypnotherapy can be an effective tool for losing weight and keeping it off. By addressing your mindset, hypnotherapy helps you change your approach to food—particularly sugary, fatty foods that are often the root cause of weight gain. While there’s no quick fix for lasting weight loss, hypnotherapy offers a long-term solution by reshaping your habits and thought patterns around food.
One thing is clear: fad diets often provide only short-term results and can even be counterproductive. To achieve sustainable weight loss, it’s essential to change the way you think about food and your relationship with it.
There are lots of reasons why your weight can become harder to manage. It’s likely your lifestyle is contributing to your weight gain. If you lead a very busy life, it can be so tempting to pick up a takeaway, ready-made meal or snack. These types of processed foods can contain lots of fats, sugars and salts, all of which contribute to weight gain. You may comfort eat when you’re stressed or anxious and choose less healthy foods that make you feel better, but unbalance your otherwise healthy diet. Maybe you do eat a healthy diet, but your portion sizes have gotten out of control.
Perhaps food isn’t the issue for you, but alcohol or fizzy drinks. Your hectic life might mean you feel you have no time to exercise anymore. Alternatively, you might be taking medication that makes you prone to weight gain. If you’re postmenopausal, weight can be harder to shift than it used to be.
Increased body fat, particularly around your middle, can increase your risk of various illnesses, including heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. The good news is that as we lose weight our risks also decline, and in some cases the conditions disappear. If you know you need to lose weight but are struggling to find motivation, hypnotherapy can give you that little extra push to help you get going
The medical profession uses Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference as a guide to help you recognise when you need to lose weight. It can be helpful to be aware of your own measurements.
If you know your weight and height, you can use an online BMI calculator. If your BMI is between 18.5 and 25, you are classed as ‘normal’ weight. However, if your BMI is 25 plus, you are at higher risk of developing serious health issues such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Weight around your middle can also be an indicator of increased health risks. If you have a high waist measurement in relation to your weight, your GP might move you up a level in the BMI range to take account of this.
It’s worth noting that BMI is not always accurate for children or people who have a lot of muscle mass, such as rugby players and body builders. BMI cannot tell the difference between muscle and fat, and when we talk about weight loss we really mean fat loss.
However, if you’ve developed some ‘love handles’ or your clothing is starting to feel a little tight, it could be time to lose weight. You may have worn the same size of clothes for years but suddenly you feel uncomfortable in them. Whatever your reasons, if you would like to lose weight but seem to be lacking motivation to get started, then hypnotherapy might be the answer.
Weight gain can occur for a variety of reasons, and understanding the underlying causes is an essential step in managing it effectively. For many, it’s not just a simple matter of eating too much or exercising too little—weight gain can be influenced by a combination of factors including lifestyle, health conditions, and emotional triggers.
Below is a list of common causes that may contribute to weight gain, helping you identify areas to address on your journey to a healthier lifestyle.
Carrying excess weight can significantly impact your health and wellbeing, increasing the risk of a range of medical conditions. While the effects may vary from person to person, being overweight or obese is linked to both physical and mental health challenges.
Here is a list of potential health risks associated with being overweight, highlighting the importance of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight for long-term health.
There are no quick fixes to lose weight and some willpower will always be required. However, research (including two meta-analyses), shows that hypnotherapy is very effective in producing weight loss in a relatively short time period. There are a few different approaches when it comes to dealing with food using hypnotherapy.
The gastric band hypnosis technique will get you to imagine that you are actually having the gastric band operation while in a trance state. You will normally have a few sessions during which the hypnotherapist will take you through the preparation for the operation, the operation itself and aftercare. This is all in an attempt to ‘trick’ your mind into believing that you really have had gastric band surgery.
The more conventional approach to weight loss with hypnotherapy will help you to recognise your triggers for overeating. The ‘talky’ bit of the hypnotherapy session will help you to understand the areas in your life that are contributing to your weight gain. The trance part will help you to relax and see things from a different perspective.
Hypnotherapy is a very relaxing therapy and once you relax, your body no longer feels in danger. This causes a drop in your levels of cortisol, which is a stress hormone. Cortisol uses lots of energy and will encourage you to eat sweet, fatty foods to create more energy. If this energy is not used, it will then be laid down as fat, usually around the middle of the body.
Research has shown that short sleep can also contribute to weight gain by increasing the hunger hormone, Ghrelin. Hypnotherapy can also be effective in helping you to sleep better.
When you are in a trance state, you will be in a state of focused attention. Different brain waves become more prevalent, and you will be able to see things from a different perspective, altering your perception of food. The change in brain waves will also make it easier for you to take on new ideas and new ways of thinking. Most hypnotherapists use an element of talking therapy and this supports the trance session, helping you to evaluate your current behaviour and the way you think.
It is always important to contact your GP about weight loss before seeing a hypnotherapist. This is because sometimes overweight and obesity can indicate other medical conditions.
The number of sessions you will need for weight loss will vary from person to person. The questions that your hypnotherapist will ask to help them calculate the number of sessions you might need might include: “How much weight would you like to lose?” or “What other approaches have you tried?” Another factor to consider might be the level of your commitment. You might be expected to listen to an MP3 download every night or to perform some other task between sessions. You will see results much more quickly if you do the things your hypnotherapist suggests.
The cost of hypnotherapy for weight loss can vary from one therapist to another. This will depend on your location and the qualifications and experience your hypnotherapist has. To give you a rough guide prices can vary from £40- £150 per hour.
Hypnotherapy is a gentle treatment that can help children to lose weight. In fact children often find it much easier to go into a trance state than their adult counterparts. This is thought to be because children are more open about trying new things than many adults. The only caveat would be to be aware that children can put on weight before a growth spurt. So it is very important that you take your child to see their GP before considering any form of weight loss.
Even before lockdown many hypnotherapists were running online hypnotherapy sessions for weight loss. The good news is that there is now evidence to support the effectiveness of online hypnotherapy sessions for a range of conditions. All you need to take part in an online hypnotherapy session is a laptop, tablet or smartphone, access to the internet and somewhere quiet where you can relax.
Hypnotherapy works in two ways. Most hypnotherapy approaches use a blend of talking therapy plus trance. The talking element of the session will help you to look at your eating pattern from a different perspective. You might explore your current behaviours or thought patterns that are getting in the way of your weight loss goals.
The talking element might be some form of counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or a Solution Focused (SF) approach. The aim is to help give you a better understanding of how to overcome your individual challenges for losing weight.
This will then be followed by a trance session where the therapist will use hypnosis to relax you into a trance state. While in this state, which is a natural state of focused attention, you will be able to let go of any tension and relax fully. When you are in a trance state, the predominant brain waves change from Beta to Alpha and Theta, these allow you to change the way you think and to problem solve more effectively.
Hypnotherapy will increase your motivation to eat more healthily, to exercise more, and will also help to improve your sleep.
Healthy weight loss usually starts with a slightly higher loss and then drops to 2-3 pounds per week. With hypnotherapy you should be aiming for a similar amount. You can expect to see some slight improvement in your general wellbeing after the first hypnotherapy session. However, everyone is different and much will depend on what other symptoms you display along with your commitment to the hypnotherapy process.
You might feel more relaxed and have extra energy. Your sleep pattern might improve a little, particularly if listening to an MP3 download every night. However, you’ll probably need a few sessions before your friends and family start to notice any changes. After around 8 sessions, you should feel consistently more motivated, be sleeping better, eating more healthily, and starting to experience the weight loss that comes from these changes.
As hypnotherapy is considered to be a complementary therapy in the UK, we are not allowed to publish success rates for weight loss. Your commitment to the hypnotherapy process is also very important. If you engage with your hypnotherapist and follow their advice, such as listening to an MP3 download every night, then your treatment will be more effective than if you don’t. However, all that said, a number of research studies have shown hypnotherapy to be effective for weight loss.
Unfortunately, you will probably be unable to access hypnotherapy for weight loss through the NHS. This is despite the British Medical Association’s assertion, in their submission of evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on science and technology in the year 2000, that ‘Hypnotherapy and Counselling may be considered as orthodox treatments’. However, your GP might suggest hypnotherapy as an option for weight loss, but it will be up to you to source and fund your treatment.
Self-hypnosis can help with weight loss, as all hypnosis is technically self-hypnosis. This is because it is your brain doing the work, with the hypnotherapist as the facilitator. However, it can be difficult to achieve on your own and therefore finding a qualified hypnotherapist to help you initially can be the best solution. Once you have experienced going into a trance state a few times with their help, you will find it much easier to go into that same state on your own. It is worth pointing out that the counselling or psychotherapy element of the hypnotherapy session would be missing from any self-help approach and research has suggested that hypnosis is more effective alongside it.
Start out with the basics, Search for “hypnotherapy to lose weight” in Google or Bing. The results will contain a map with local hypnotherapy businesses. Start looking through their reviews either in the search engine or on their social (Facebook) pages.
The best hypnotherapists will be registered with a professional association and with organisations that are accredited by the professional standards authority. There are only two in the UK and they are the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) and the National Hypnotherapy Society.
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