Why Diets and dieting and slimming regimes DON’T work long term

Why Diets don’t work long term

There was a very interesting series on BBC TV in the UK which explored the Diet and Dieting / Slimming industry called “The Men who made us thin.” The programme confirmed my own experience in helping people using hypnosis to lose weight. Most of my clients came to me as a last resort. They had been convinced that dieting / slimming regimes were the answer to losing weight and had found themselves yo yo dieting or worse progressively putting on even MORE weight when they went back to so called “normal” eating. Statistics show that dieting and slimming regimes DO NOT work long term. It is the short term results that you hear quoted – and a weight loss expert on the BBC programme pointed out that ANY intervention short term will produce short term weight loss – which is why so many seemingly contradictory new wonder diets or slimming programmes can claim success. So if I told you to substitute Lunch with eating fresh pineapple for 4 weeks – you would lose weight! Does that mean that you want to do that for the rest of your Life? Do you want to feel appallingly guilty for the odd indulgence? Do you find yourself going to the slimming club having starved a few days before to show you have lost a pound in weight? That can just get obsessive when really isn’t it more important that you feel comfortable in your own skin and you can get into those trousers you wore when you were at a satisfactory weight and size? It doesn’t help that newspapers and book publishers want to sell you the latest fad so we are bombarded with propaganda about the latest diet which will be totally discredited in another few years!

The History of Diets and Dieting

Historically the whole industry came into being when an Insurance Actuary in New York studied Death rates from people who were overweight. He came to the correct conclusion that being overweight can give you significant difficulties such as obesity, osteoarthritis or type 2 diabetes – in some cases even leading to heart attacks or, if eating a poor diet, cancer. Many people were dying of being overweight. Big and scary!

However he based his ideal weights on the fairly random ideal weights of a person in their twenties – at their peak. However this is a false value as it is extremely unlikely that you will EVER be what you were in your twenties for a variety of complicated reasons. He was convinced that everyone should be an ideal weight and size and overnight people who were a little overweight or comfortable were typified as being overweight. The Medical Profession adopted this and the diet and slimming industry was born! I am not saying you shouldn’t lose weight if you are significantly overweight – but it should be a weight and size that is healthy but also comfortable to you.

The shocking thing is that many people are perfectly healthy being the weight where they feel comfortable and not necessarily what the charts tell you. One client told me that she had once reached her ideal BMI and looked incredibly scrawny and “not like her”.

A dieting industry was born in the sixties which was eagerly seized on by Businesses – because you were likely to have a customer for Life. The client would blame themselves when they fell off the wagon and come back for more weight loss sessions or would try some other product. Great! The inventor of slim fast shakes went so far as to say that if people stopped using his product then yes they would gain weight and it was their fault!

However who wants to be on diet or slimming or drinking shakes every day for their whole Life when there is an easier alternative.

Diets broadly fall into two categories:

Starvation:

Count those calories, reduce your intake significantly and lose weight… so far so sensible – but this means you always have to be on a regime and people get bored, self sabotage, and go back to “normal eating” and put on weight. The body has an idea of what it thinks your weight and size should be based on years of experience and it also possibly even activates cravings to get you back to where it thinks you should be – the unconscious part of you that automates your blinking and heart beat and breathing also governs your appetite. So if your appetite is trained by years of parents saying “clear your plate” or you think REstaurant meals are correct portion sizes you are in trouble – you are the one putting food in your mouth and too much food equals too much weight – which is then like me strapping every stone or pound or kilogram you are overweight in a rucksack of lard on your back and front and asking you to run! Imagine that!

Restriction:

Avoid certain Food combinations, only eat meat on a Tuesday, cut out bread and potatoes, replace meals with shakes etc etc. The body needs a combination of foods and restricting some foodstuffs can create harm long term – the first shake replacement on the market lead to severe illness as there were little in the way of  vitamins or minerals in it and with only one significant meal a day – yes, you lost weight, but many people got very ill and in some cases died! The shake industry improved their product and made it more balanced but do you want to live that way for the rest of your Life? The same is true for whatever the latest fad is for restricting certain foodstuffs – often short term you will lose weight but longer term it could make you ill. Anybody can make up a diet with the help of a competent nutritionist as I have illustrated with the simple idea of a Pineapple Diet – remember the Grapefruit Diet or Cabbage Diet anyone? I know someone who remembers the F Plan Diet  because he got very good at sprinting .. to the nearest toilet!

So what is a sensible way forward to lose weight AND keep it off ? Here is my experience:

Lose weight with Hypnosis

We know the answer – target your normal eating! Cut out Junk food (junkie food according to the American Health Authority) which can be genuinely harmful if it is your main food intake – an occasional junk food product won’t kill you but if it is at the centre of your diet then you are asking for trouble! The AHA thinks that the 60 per cent who are close to or already obese is because of fat sugar and salt in many  junk foods to an alarming extent.

Eat great food – it doesn’t have to be any more expensive and you will be eating less anyway. I went, at the time of writing, to a Nature reserve where many families were having fun gathering blackberries and I came home loaded with Elderberries, Blackberries and Rose Hips – I made Elderberry Cordial which an Israeli Virologist thinks helps with all kinds of flu, I will also make elderberry ice cream with cloves and honey, Rose Hip syrup for the Cold season (4 times the Vitamin C of Oranges) and Blackberry Sorbet and Blackberry and Apple Dessert. All for free!

I also shop from roadside smallholdings and proper Butchers and Farm shops often MUCH cheaper than Supermarkets and the produce is ripe and, if meat, properly hung and humanely treated. Most importantly it is FRESH – it hasn’t been transported for days to a warehouse and distributed to supermarkets often unripe or with many food miles attached. Of course it is your choice!

And Ready meals are usually high in some cost reducing additive fat sugar or salt – if it is low in fat it may be higher in sugar or contain a chemical additive like aspartame which has question marks over it with regard to cancer and it’s apparent role as an appetite STIMULANT. “Diet” drinks have it for instance and consumers have actually been shown to EAT MORE when they drink it. Some Weight reducing ready meals contain the equivalent of wll paper paste instead of fat and ground feathers as a bulking agent … fresh food is not full of additives either!

Cut down your portion size and eat it slowly / get a smaller plate to fool the eye. This alone will lose you weight but needs to be hand in glove, in my view, with re-educating the unconscious part of you to expect less. The hypothalamus which governs your appetite will also give you the feeling of feeling full if you eat more slowly. You can help yourself by keeping yourself hydrated and drinking a cool glass of water 15 – 20 minutes before a meal with a squeeze of lemon juice makes you feel fuller and reduces the temperature in your stomach making it work harder to burn calories – result: burning calories for little effort. There are many tips and tricks for weight loss nutritionally that I teach clients to help lose weight and actually learn to enjoy food more and appreciate it instead of just gobbling it down too fast and then wanting more!

Get appropriate exercise –

This doesn’t need to be hard – find something you enjoy – Zumba or Wii Fit or Power walk where you used to amble, park the car further away, walk more, take up yoga. You will burn more calories this way and as exercise creates endorphins which are pleasure chemicals it is a great way to combat depression or boredom.

Target why you overeat and put strategies in place to deal with it

Do you worry, get anxious or stressed, bored and comfort or binge eat to feel better? Do you get emotional and do the same? You need alternative strategies in place instead of the habit of comfort or binge eating (or drinking!) You can learn various ways to address the boredom anxiety and stress and take away the drivers to overeat or drink too much.

This is where Hypnosis can help!

Hypnotic Trance is something we can all do naturally – whenever we become “lost” in a great book or film or sports event and we are unaware of distractions, when we go into the zone to perform better as an actor, dancer or sports person or even just focussing on texting or doing an important Business task – we are using trance. Personally speaking I think that everyone can learn HOW to use trance to tremendous advantage. If you can learn to drive a car and then automate the driving then you can learn how to use trance productively! So, for me, Hypnosis isn’t just about losing weight but also addressing WHY you have the problem of bingeing comfort eating or picking and nibbling or drinking to excess. One client used trance to have an eye operation – one thing that would normally have filled them full of terror! The uses extend way beyond weight loss. We can also re-educate the unconscious to “see’ a slimmer you which is a way of reprogramming it to not try to take you back to your more usual plumper self by stimulating craving.

Weight Loss Hypnosis is personal and individual and I tailor my approach to each individual – therefore the success rate is high because we are working together to use simple means to end calorie counting and learn intelligent eating as a way of life – which is easy to do – and empower choice. You will no longer beat yourself up if you have chocolate – you will eat less of it – if you do and it will be a genuine treat or you may just cut back the following day or you may chose to eat fruit instead – it is your powerful choice! You are in the driving seat and you feel less helpless and hopeless because you understand HOW to address uncomfortable feelings to your advantage – which leads to greater happiness.

Hypnosis works for Obesity too – the Hypno Gastric Band Hypnotherapy

The same drivers are present to a greater extent with obesity and the same retraining to become an intelligent eater has worked with scores of clients. I think I have seen just about every combination of issues! With those classified obese I also help them by “fitting” under hypnosis a Hypno Gastric Band – by the fourth session clients understand that if you use trance you can reprogram yourself to believe a gastric band is in place and you then are more likely to feel fuller sooner. This is a cost effective and tried and tested alternative to gastric band surgery.

Here is a testimonial received on the day of writing via Facebook:

“Would recommend this to anyone, I’ve lost nearly three stone and still losing!” RR

If you want more information call me for a a FREE consultation on the phone

Call: 07875720623

Email: grahamahowes@me.com

– I also work by Skype around the world. grahamhowes1

There is more on the three part weight loss course on this link hypnosis to lose weight and the four part Hypno Gastric Band Hypnotherapy course here hypnosis for weight loss with a virtual hypno gastric band

Graham Howes ASHPH GHR registered GHSC regulated Weight Loss Specialist

Call: 07875720623

Email: grahamahowes@me.com

One to one weight loss hypnosis and hypno gastric band sessions are available in Colchester Essex and Ipswich and Hadleigh Suffolk. Lose weight with Hypnosis and the Hypno Gastric Band Hypnotherapy in Suffolk and Essex and by Skype.