Hypnosis and overeating??

[active999]

I started training for marathon a few months ago and developed an overwhelming increase in appetite as a result. Of course, I understand that it natural to want to eat more to provide your body with enough energy it needs to sustain the requirements for exercise but at times I am unable to control my appetite and tend to overeat. Can hypnosis be used to control my hunger pangs??

[Don]

Hi, Active.

You asked if hypnosis can be used to control your hunger pangs. Well, the answer is yes...but I don't know of any qualified hypnotherapist who would do that.

Hunger pangs are necessary and normal. What you're asking for is for someone to help you become abnormal. A freak. I don't think that would be good at all.

You see, the real problem here is that you have self-diagnosed your problem and come up with a prescription. I hate to be blunt, but it's all hogwash.

Initially, exercise may slightly increase the appetite, but very quickly that normalizes and, in fact, decreases. That's right, exercise decreases the appetite. But don't take my word for it. Do a web search or try the following:

http://www.annecollins.com/dieting/appetite-control.htm
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/reporter/409/section8.htm
http://www.chameleonfitness.net/info.php?T=Top&F=top10fitness

The key to what you posted is that "you understand that it [is] natural to want to eat more...to sustain the requirements for exercise..."

It's not that you must eat more or have to eat more, but rather that you have come to an understanding that you should eat more. Your unconscious has adopted this understanding and encourages you to eat more.

You say you are "unable to control" your appetite. Really? Do you mean you wake up several times during the night with the intention of eating? Do you pop donuts while exercising? It would seem to me that you control your eating very well, but at times your unconscious, because of your "understanding," directs you to eat more, and you (i.e., your conscious) chooses to go along with the unconscious.

So this has nothing to do with your exercising. It has nothing to do with controlling your hunger pangs. It has to do with changing your behavior and convincing your unconscious that eating too much or too much of the wrong foods is not good for you.

IMO we should all learn how to communicate with our unconscious minds in school, but it's usually not part of the curricula. Luckily, hypnotherapists are trained in how to do this communication.

Therefore, I would respectfully suggest that you go to an experienced hypnotherapist in your area, especially one who specializes in weight control. Chances are--especially since this behavior developed only a "few months ago"--that this should not take too many sessions to put you back in control.

Good luck, and let us know what happens.

[skip]

Check out some of the research of Durk Pearson and Sandy shaw.

[active999]

is controlling my hunger pangs for certain types (the bad stuff) food. I can manage to eat well throughout most of the day. I even figured how much calories my body needs to eat in order to function properly based on the level of exercise and all the other things I do throughout the day. For the last few months, however, I developed a sweet tooth for pizza and donuts. I craze these things to no end and usually am unable to control myself when passing the Krispy Kreme on my way from work. I thought that I would eventually lose my cravings for these things after time but it doesn't seem to be so. It would be nice if hypnotism can be used to make me curb my cravings for these things....

[Don]

You see, Active, you have now changed your self-diagnosis of I exercise and so I must eat more and your self-prescription of wanting to use hypnosis to "control hunger pangs" to a self-diagnosis of I have hunger pangs for bad foods and a self-diagnosis of wanting to use hypnosis to curb these cravings.

Look. When you go to a doctor it is unlikely that you will give a diagnosis and prescription. Instead, you described your symptoms. The doctor is trained to examine you--including your description of your symptoms--and come up with a correct diagnosis and treatment.

Respectfully, you are not an expert and your self-diagnosis, at best, is incomplete. So let me repeat what I wrote before, "...I would respectfully suggest that you go to an experienced hypnotherapist in your area, especially one who specializes in weight control. Chances are--especially since this behavior developed only a "few months ago"--that this should not take too many sessions to put you back in control."

[Terry (existing)]

Active, you tell us you are a marathon runner, correct?. I imagine that you have a trainer whom you listen to and who's instructions you respect? Now you contact this board, and receive advice from an expert, who would be charging a very high fee if he so wished, since he is indeed skilled enough to command such a fee, just as is your trainer. However, when you get that reply to your question, instead of reading and absorbing it, so as to throughly understand it, you act as if it were of no consequence, and come back with an inaine reply that refutes much of what was said. I must tell you that such an attitude will negate your ability to ever succeed as a marathon runner, simply because your attitude is to find the easy road, while the true runner sucks it up and puts up with discomfort in order to be successful. Nobody demands that you accept advice, since only you will be affected by it, so feel free not to take it, and not to bother us any more if what we tell you is not to your satifaction. It is you who will get fat. It is you who will possibly suffer from diabetes, heart disease, etc while we will chug along unaffected by your attitude. The alternative is to accept, absorb, and act on advice from an expert regarless of the fact that it is free. That of course applies to all areas of life as you will learn with time.

[Connie]

...accept, absorb, and act.

The three A's. I like that! Thanks, Terry. :)