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Research at Tufts-New England Medical Center has proven that all popular diets work when dieters can stick to them. Atkins - low carb; The Zone - low glycemic index; Ornish - low fat; Weight Watchers - low calorie.

But medical researchers have also proven that only a very small percentage of people can stick to any diet because of their appetite.

So to be successful with a diet, hypnosis for weight loss can be quite helpful.

The 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 energy, that's when you feel authentic hunger. By that definition, it is almost 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 an infant and you got restless, your mother would put a bottle into your mouth to distract you from that upset. You would get distracted, become peaceful, and often go to asleep. That sequence of events 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 a grownup, if you feel upset, you crave something in your mouth for relaxation and pleasure - food!

People Also Get Cravings and Urges Because Of Conditioning.

When you pair eating with any other behavior, the other behavior will trigger cravings for food and a feeling of urgency to eat. This is called a conditioned response. For example: If you eat when you drive your car, you will automatically get an urge to eat each time you drive your car.

What About Compulsive Overeaters Who Eat Because Of Emotional Reasons?

A compulsion is defined as an "irresistible impulse." One of the presuppositions of NLP is: There is a positive intention behind all behaviors. In other words, our unconscious mind only motivates behaviors that benefit or protect us in some way. In NLP terms, we say that being fat is a behavior when it provides a positive outcome or intention.

You may be wondering what the possible positive outcomes of being fat could possibly be. The list of possibilities is as long as the list of people who are overweight. 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 become overweight to keep the self out of relationships and prevent another broken heart.

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

In a Neuro-Linguistic Programming six-step reframe, we negotiate with our unconscious mind. In the case of eating for relaxation and pleasure, we ask our unconscious to assume the responsibility for making us substitute alternate behaviors. The alternate 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 unconscious 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 overeater, we do an additional reframe. We ask your unconscious to accept responsibility for making us substitute 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 substitutions that are more consciously acceptable to you. When your unconscious is motivating you into alternate behaviors that provide the same protections that you require, you lose the compulsion to overeat.

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

When your appetite has been eliminated, and any compulsion to overeat has been overcome, you can stick to any diet of your choosing indefinitely so that it becomes a permanent lifestyle change.

Alan B. Densky, CH is certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists. He has been in practice since 1978. You can learn more by going to his Neuro-VISION Appetite & Smoking Control website. On the site he maintains a hypnosis article library. And he offers free hypnosis newsletters and MP3's.