Medical science research at Tufts-New England Medical Center has provided irrefutable evidence that all popular diets work when you stick to them. Atkins - low carb; The Zone - low glycemic index; Ornish - low fat; Weight Watchers - low calorie.

But medical research has provided convincing evidence that very few people can stick to their diet because their appetite is out of control. So to be successful with a diet, weight loss hypnosis can be very effective.

The Webster's Dictionary defines "Appetite" as: "The desire for gratification of some want, craving, or passion." So "appetite" is eating and drinking for relaxation and pleasure.

Don't confuse hunger with appetite. Hunger is defined as "The body's call for nourishment." In other words, when the body needs fuel, that's when you feel true hunger. By that determination, it is practically impossible for anyone to "be hungry" if they are overweight.

However, it is possible for you to have feelings that you interpret as "hunger." And the stomach contracting in expectation of being fed causes those feelings.

When you were a baby and you got upset, your mother would put a nipple into your mouth to pacify you. You would get distracted, become calmer and often go to sleep. That sequence was repeated hundreds of times so that your unconscious mind was programmed: When something goes into your mouth, you get relaxation and pleasure from it.

Now that you are an adult, if you feel anxious or tense, you crave something in your mouth for relaxation and pleasure - food!

People Also Get Cravings and Urges Because Of Conditioning.

When you connect eating with any other action, the other action will trigger cravings for food and a strong compulsion to eat. This is called a conditioned response. For example: If you eat when you watch a movie, you will automatically get an urge to eat each time you go to the movies.

What About Compulsive Overeaters Who Eat Because Of Emotional Reasons?

We define a compulsion as an "irresistible impulse." NLP (neuro-linguistic programming has a presupposition: All behaviors are driven by a positive intention. In other words, our mind only motivates behaviors that benefit or protect us in some way. So in NLP terms, being fat is a behavior when it provides a positive outcome for us.

I'm willing to bet that you are wondering what the positive outcomes of being fat could possibly be. The list of possibilities is as long as the list of people who have an appetite that is out of control. But I'll give you a classic example: A person gets their heart broken in a relationship. So to protect the self from getting the heart broken again, the unconscious motivates the self to gain weight to keep the self out of relationships and prevent another broken heart.

A big secret to eliminating your appetite is reframing. With reframing, we respect the fact that the unconscious is pushing us to eat for relaxation and pleasure. And if we are eating compulsively because being fat is protecting us, we respect that also.

In an NLP reframe we negotiate with our subconscious. In the scenario of eating for relaxation and pleasure, we ask our unconscious mind to assume the responsibility for substituting some alternate behaviors. The substituted behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the same relaxation and pleasure. But they must also be more consciously acceptable to us. When the subconscious mind is motivating us into alternate behaviors that provide the relaxation and pleasure that we require - we lose our appetite on this score.

If you are a compulsive eater we do an additional reframe. We ask your subconscious to assume responsibility for finding and substituting new behaviors in place of being fat. These new behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the same benefits and protections. But they must be activities that are more consciously acceptable to you as an individual. When your unconscious mind is motivating you into alternate behaviors that provide the same benefits that you require, you lose the urges to overeat.

As far as feeling cravings because of conditioning (conditioned responses), we utilize various hypnotic and NLP techniques that erase or "extinguish" those conditioned responses. That breaks the connection between the behaviors, and eliminates the urges and cravings.

Once your appetite has been eliminated and all compulsions to overeat have been overcome, you can easily stick to any diet that you chose on an indefinite basis so that it becomes a permanent lifestyle change.

Weight control and compulsive eating is a very complex topic. I can only touch on the surface of it in this article. You can locate several additional articles on this topic on my website.

http://www.neuro-vision.us/Hypnosis-Article-Index.html

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Alan B. Densky, CH started his practice since 1978. He specializes in the use of Ericksonian hypnosis for losing weight, and Video weight loss hypnosis. He also provides a broad range of NLP & hypnosis CD's & DVD's for a broad range of other topics and can be reached through his Neuro-VISION Video Hypnosis website.