A great deal has been written about the effectiveness of hypnosis in getting rid of bad habits such as smoking, or neuroses that contribute to abnormal or antisocial behavior.

During hypnosis, the hypnotist ‘suggests’ that the subject experiences a change or changes in sensations, perceptions, behavior or thought processes. In the application of hypnosis to weight loss, there are several different approaches, but at the Elite Clinic in Marbella, Spain, a new angle has been offered.

Marion Corns, a 35-yaer-old British mother of three, is firmly convinced, after five sessions with a special hypnotist, that her stomach has been surgically shrunk, with a gastric band, to the size of a golf ball. No surgeon’s knife ever touched her, and she is fully aware of the whole hypnotic procedure, but her subconscious has been deceived!

In Marion’s case, the ‘operation’ was described step by step, with computer-generated special effects right down to the sounds and odors of an operating theatre.

The patient says that she can remember everything, even the clink of a scalpel and the anesthetic smell. Although Marion is fully aware of this deception of her subconscious mind, she lost about 56 pounds in the four months following her final treatment because she can eat only small portions and feels “too full” if she tries to eat more.

Martin, the owner of the Elite Clinic says that he began working seriously on his ‘Gastric Mind Band’ hypnotic procedure when a client suggested the idea after hypnosis had helped him stop smoking. In Martin’s opinion, and certainly in Marion’s, the imaginary surgery offers great benefits, since it involves none of the risks of a real operation, while producing the same or superior results.

Other hypnotic techniques for encouraging weight loss may focus on the causes of overeating. Some concentrate on reprogramming the subconscious to believe, for instance, that chocolate will cause nausea, or that healthy foods really do taste better.

Effective reprogramming can also boost self-esteem and will power for a multitude of positive results.

The human mind, as we are beginning to understand, is a very powerful organ indeed.

With the combination of Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), hypnotherapy and guided imagery, Marion Corns is one of the first to reap the benefits of ‘hypno-surgery’, but she is surely not the last.

The idea of literally changing the way we think about and react to different stimuli and circumstances is certainly not a new one, but the field of what might be called “corrective hypnosis” is still in the experimental stages.

The small clinic in Spain where Marion’s ‘cure’ was developed is beginning to make a reputation for itself, and specialists in other areas will undoubtedly be expanding and fine tuning this fascinating aspect of medicine for the mind and body.

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It would be a good idea to come up with a plan to help you stay motivated and focused (this is very important but often overlooked) and one that includes what foods you will eat and those that you won’t. Write out your meals and snacks for the next 7 days. By doing this, you will make sure that the foods you eat are healthy and not too high in calories. Last, come up with an exercise schedule. Determine how many days you want to work out and what you want to do, then do it.

Address The Mental:  You will have to address the mental aspects of weight loss. Figure out why you are overweight. Are you stressed, overextended, lazy, have no discipline or simply like good food? Taking time and answering these questions will let you know where you need to “attack” and what you need deal with so that you can lose weight. Also work on keeping yourself motivated. Find great quotes, read stories about other people who have lost weight or accomplished something big in their life.

Plan Your Meals: One of the easiest ways to get off course when you are trying to lose weight is to attempt to eat on the fly. When you get hungry, you will likely reach for whatever foods are within reach. This often means fast food, sweets and snacks, all foods that will cause you to gain weight.

Plan Your Workouts: Find some type of exercise that you enjoy and then fit it into your schedule. If you try to work out only when you feel like it or when you get a chance, you may never do it or at least not enough to enable you to lose weight.

If you are serious about losing weight, it is important to plan to do so. It is not enough to simply try to eat right or try to exercise. This approach will likely fail. It is often necessary to be more proactive. You need to plan. Plans allow you to better focus on the end goal and will give you some idea of what to do next. Without one, it is very easy to be led by your feelings. For example, if you have not planned to exercise, it would be really easy not to because it wasn’t on your “to do” list anyway. It would be much easier to find something much more fun to do. The same is true for the food that we eat. If we fail to plan what we eat, it is likely that we will consume foods that are unhealthy simply because they are convenient and tasty.

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When most people think of vitamin D they think of building strong bones and this is correct. Vitamin is important in building strong bones.  What many individuals do not know is that it is also effective in helping people control what they eat and subsequently, lose weight.  

Many people do not get an adequate amount of vitamin D, especially during the winter months when the sun comes out less (unless you live in a place where it is sunny all year).  Persons that are over weight tend to be at greater risk for having deficiencies in vitamin D then those that are not. This is because fat absorbs the vitamin D that a person does have and prevents the body from using it.

When a person does not get enough of this vitamin, leptin ( a hormone) does not work as it should. Leptin “tells” the brain that you have eaten enough and no longer need to eat.  When you don’t have enough, it is easy to overeat, long after your body has had enough food.

It is good to know that getting enough vitamin D can reverse this effect on Leptin. To accomplish this, individuals need to get about 800-1100 International Units (IUs) a day. This amount can be difficult to get from food alone. Often times, supplementation is required. Taking a multi-vitamin everyday will give you some of what you need.  Hanging out in the sun will provide you with plenty of vitamin D as well. In fact, it is the best source available.  Sitting out in the sun for 10 minutes without sunscreen a few times a week is enough to give you a good dose of this vitamin.

Food is also a good source of vitamin D. Following is a quick list of foods that contain it. Catfish, salmon, fortified orange juice, sardines (with oil) and tuna fish are all good choices.

Vitamin D affects the hormone Leptin, which signals to your brain that you have eaten enough. This can be pretty helpful when you are attempting to lose weight. Laying out in the sun, taking a multi-vitamin and eating vitamin D rich foods, can help you get the proper amount of this vitamin. Combined with a low fat diet that is rich in good fats, fruits, vegetables and lean proteins can help you lose weight. Take it step further and adhere to a challenging (but not too difficult) exercise and strength training program and you should be on your way to getting the body that you want.

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Many people are unaware that the amount of weight that they have to lose should influence what type of diet plan they should adhere to and which methods will enable them to lose weight most effectively.  Research has shown that individuals with fewer then 60 pounds to lose should not attempt to lose weight through significant calorie restriction (eating 1200 calories or fewer each day). When persons eat too few calories they often reach weight loss plateaus very quickly. This means that they will lose weight initially and then their results will level off. This can be quite frustrating and makes it very difficult for individuals to reach their goal weight. A better alternative is to eat more.

I know at first glance this probably sounds crazy and definitely counter-intuitive but hear me out. Persons may need to eat more and not less if they have fewer then 60 pounds to lose.      Now the foods that consume need to be the “right” foods. Fatty and sugary foods are out. Fruit, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins are in.

Eating more helps to get the metabolism moving faster because it has more calories to burn. A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that by eating more, dieters could get their metabolism working nearly 70% harder. This is because it has to burn the extra calories that are being eaten.

For this to work, dieters can not overeat all of the time. Instead, they should eat light some days and then heavier on others. By alternating the number of calories that a person takes in every couple of days, the body is kept off track and the metabolism is constantly stoked.  This approach of eating more can help individuals lose weight easier with less effort. Starving oneself is not necessary for weight loss. In fact, the likelihood that a person will be able to keep off the weight lost from this type of diet (starvation) is nil.

For persons interested in attempting the “eat more, lose more” dieting approach, try eating one larger meal every few days. It should be eaten in the morning so that the body has more time to burn the calories. Also, make sure that it includes complex carbs, lean protein, fruit and/or vegetables. Drinking plenty of water is a good idea as well.

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Others are hopeful that certain drugs might be able to help them lose weight. There are a lot of rumors floating around about certain antidepressant medications being able to help individuals lose weight. In this post we are going to discuss commonly prescribed antidepressant medications and discuss whether or not they will cause weight gain or weight loss.

Now it is important to note that people’s bodies may react differently to even the same medications. While a particular antidepressant drug may cause some individuals to gain weight, in a different person it may cause them to actually lose weight you or may not cause any changes in their weight at all. 

The information included in this post includes researched generalizations about various anti-depressant medications and how they might affect your weight.  I am not a doctor. To get a better grasp on how your body may react with a particular medication, it is best to speak with your physician. It is also important to speak with your doctor about your depression and also about your feelings regarding weight and whether or you are trying to lose, maintain or even gain weight. This information may have some bearing on what type of medication your doctor prescribes for you.

It is believed that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Lexapro, Luvox, Prozac, Celexa, Paxil and Zoloft generally will not have an impact on one’s weight either way. However, in some people Prozac may lead to weight lose and Paxil may cause some people to gain it. If you are looking to lose weight you may want to discuss this with your doctor and ask him to describe you an antidepressant medication besides Paxil.

Wellbutrin is another commonly prescribed weight loss medication. It affects persons differently. Some individuals gain weight while others lose it. However, for the most part it should not or does not affect weight in either direction.  Effexor, Serzone, Cymbalta and Desyrel (other anti-depressant meds) also are not believed to cause weight gain or loss.

If you are depressed or fear that you might be, it’s important to consult your doctor. He or she should be able to work with you and help you come up with a plan of attack. If you are in the process of losing weight or are hoping to, you should also discuss this with your physician.  They may be able to prescribe you a particular medication that will treat your symptoms and support your weight loss efforts.

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Many of us figure that if cutting back on a few calories is good, cutting back on them drastically is even more beneficial. This couldn’t be further from the truth, at least not in the long run.   Now, it might be effective for a while. However, over time, your body will start to hang on to the fat and won’t burn calories as effectively.  It does this to protect you and prevent you from starving.

When your body senses that you have cut back drastically on the number of calories that you consume, instead of allowing you to drop weight, it will begin to try to conserve those calories, lest you die. The body’s natural protective safeguards will attempt to keep you alive and healthy by insuring that you keep on enough weight to function. Now, of course over time, this can be overridden. Most of us have seen or know people that are so thin that they are unhealthy. Many of these people will become sickly (their immune system will suffer) and even risk death if they lose too much weight.

Another reason why starvation diets fail those who try them, is because a great deal of muscle is depleted. Muscle helps the metabolism burn efficiently. The more muscle you have, the better your metabolism will burn. If you lose a large percentage of your lean muscle, once you start eating normally again, you will gain back all of the weight that you have lost, plus some.

Some individuals, in a deperate attempt to lose weight will try to do so by severly limiting the amount of calories that they consume. Theis can help them achieve results for a while. However, it will work against them in the long term. First, the body will attempt to protect itself by holding on to the extra weight and fat. Eventually, it will give in and persons may lose weight. But the body will fight this at first as it tries to prevent the weight loss. However, if an individual continues to starve him or herself, they will do so at great detriment to their body. Invidividuals on these types of diet will lose muscle mass and end up wrecking their metabolism,  making it more difficult to lose weight in the future. Binging is also a concern. Eventually people will binge to make up for all of the time that they starved themselves.  

Rather then significantly cut back on calories, a much beter approach to dieting is to learn what foods are beneficial for losing weight. It is much healthier and much easier to lose weight through eating the correct foods then it is by starving. Eating lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables along with finding a good exercise and strength training plan (and sticking to it) will help you lose weight and give you the body that you want.

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1. Keep a Journal: A well kept journal will let individuals know exactly what they are putting in their mouths. Often times, persons underestimate how much they are actually eating.  Individuals may even forget what foods they have consumed. When the number of the scale starts to climb, many people are often surprised. Keeping track of what food one eats in a journal can help persons know exactly what and how much they have eaten.

2. Control Portion Sizes: Often times it is not necessary to cut out particular foods and certainly not entire food groups. Instead, simply cutting back on how much an individual eats can be effective. Doing so will make sticking to a diet much easier. A person is less likely to binge if they are able to eat the things that they enjoy on a regular basis. Many people end up “going crazy” and “eating out of their mind” when they have deprived themselves of a special food or cut out an entire food group. When a person does the latter, they are dieting harder not smarter.

3. Picture One Self Thin: One of the best ways to give oneself a real chance at losing the weight that they set out to, is to picture them self at their ideal weight and size. To make this ideal come “alive” create a picture board. These have become extremely popular lately. They are the subject of a related book and they were mentioned on a recent Oprah Winfrey Show.

To create their own picture board, individuals need to begin by cutting out pictures from magazines of healthy foods, bathing suits, figure fitting dresses, smiling faces and anything else that will get and keep them motivated. Place it somewhere that is easily accessible and where it can be viewed often.

4. One Can’t Go Wrong With Veggies: One of the hardest parts of dieting is dealing with those pesky hunger pangs. Dealing with them takes a real commitment to losing the weight. One good way to satisfy one’s hunger is to snack on fresh veggies. Cucumbers, carrots, lettuce and grape tomatoes make for good snacks that won’t pack on the pounds. They are also healthy and full of nutrients. When the body has what it needs to function properly, weight loss becomes much easier.

Losing weight is tough. Everyone understands this. This is why most individuals abhor dieting. However, sometimes it is necessary. To make things easier it is important that persons picture themselves thin, snack on veggies to avoid higher calorie foods, control portion sizes and keep a journal to track what food is eaten.  

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Lap band surgery is considered to be the least invasive form of the two surgeries. This type of surgery is an effective way to reduce the size of the stomach pouch by using a band which is placed around the upper portion of the stomach. The band is adjusted by using a solution which is injected into the band from a pouch that is located just under the skin in the abdomen. Adjusting the lap band is simple and can take as little as a few minutes during a visit to the bariatric surgeon that completed the procedure. There is little pain which is associated with adjusting the lap band and most often an adjustment occurs at least once per month until the “sweet spot” is found which can enable the patient to lose the most amount of weight through the entire procedure. 

Gastric bypass surgery involves actually removing the portion of the stomach and stapling the tissue to make a smaller food pouch. This will enable the dieter to lose an optimal amount of weight through the entire process and bypasses a portion of the large intestine. This invasive method comes with a higher risk factor for the patient, before and after the surgery. There are also increased risks of potential side effects that can occur through gastric bypass surgery but yet this remains the procedure of choice when it comes to weight loss surgeries in the United States. 

Gastric bypass surgery comes with some side effects that are concerning, as the lap band procedure can assist in reducing the chances of these side effects occurring. Dumping syndrome refers to a condition in which food that has yet to have been fully digested entering into the intestine. There are many effects of this, including sweats and cold chills and other symptoms which can be compared to being in shock. There is an immediate feeling of needing to go to the bathroom and cramps, as well as abdominal bloating that can occur when one experiences dumping syndrome. Dumping syndrome is rarely associated with patients that have underdone the lap band procedure.

The lap band procedure creates a weight loss tool which can be easily removed if the patient does not fare well during the treatment. The lap band surgery also allows the patient to remove the band or deflate the band in the case that further nutrition is required in the case of malnutrition or if the patient chooses to become pregnant, or is diagnosed with a condition that requires as much nutrition as possible.
 
The safer and just as effective treatment is the lap band surgery, although there can be an increased cost. It is important to determine all aspects of each procedure before making the decision of which weight loss surgery to undergo.

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