If you visit any online forum for weight loss, most will tell you that the number of calories you bring in should be less than the number of calories you burn out. That’s the only way to lose weight. I don’t know if that frustrates you, but it frustrates me immensely. I’ve tried to follow this whole “caloric deficit” concept. The only thing it led to was my metabolism slowing down because I stopped taking in enough calories. What it ignores is the basic concept that different calories interact differently. Jonathan Bailor talks about this in his ground-breaking book “The Calorie Myth”. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that 100 kilocalories of sugar will definitely interact differently in your body differently than 100 kilocalories of protein. Furthermore, you can’t reduce yourself into non-existence. It’s like asking someone to keep folding a sheet of paper until it disappears.

That being said, I’m sure you’ve heard of all the diet fads and strategies that are created to help you lose weight. I’m sure you’ve tried at least one or two of them yourself. However, if I’m not mistaken, you wouldn’t be here, if it worked well for you. Kirby Sainsbury and his research team found and published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being that simply encouraging individuals to try new or more strategies for weight loss isn’t going to be effective if one does not also learn emotional regulation. What does this mean? If you can’t stop yourself from eating during times of stress, sadness, grief, anger, heartbreak, etc., no weight loss strategy will work for you. The truth is that food has become a coping mechanism for us all the while also being a source of emotional distress for those of us who are already overweight. 

You didn’t come here to read these cliché lines though, did you? I stated that you’re holding on to your weight because you want to keep it and now you want to know why. Before I get into some exact reasons why you hold on to that weight, let’s first explore a completely fictional but very meaningful story related to this idea. 

[Warning: Content can be triggering to some.] 

Martha was a preteen girl who just started to experience changes in her body. Puberty finally reached her doorstep and her body was changing in a more feminine way in response to it. As her body changed, more and more boys from school started to take notice. Although she liked the attention initially, sometimes, the boys would go a little too far and made it feel uncomfortable. The cat calls and objectification, even if from a distance, became more than just a burden of her new body.

One night, while her parents were having dinner with her uncle and aunt, her drunk uncle cornered her beyond her parents’ eyes. He proceeded to grope her. Though she made every attempt to flee the situation in a peaceful manner, he would do everything in his power to prevent her from getting away. As he ran his dirty hands all over her body and pressed himself into her, she had no choice but to turn her head and close her eyes. Luckily, her mother called for her shortly thereafter and he stopped long enough for her to escape. 

Despite it being nothing more than a few minutes, the impression stayed with Martha for the rest of her life. Martha swore to herself that she would never put herself in that position again. Even though she consciously knew that she wanted to feel beautiful like every other girl, her subconscious mind thought differently. Her subconscious mind added up all the factors that led her to this very moment where her drunk uncle took advantage of her. It deduced that the primary factor was her slender attractive body that put her in this position to begin with. “If I wasn’t so attractive, he wouldn’t have tried to assault me.” it thought. As a defense mechanism to deter others from doing the same thing, she started to put on weight. Martha knew that an overweight, unattractive woman would not garner the attention of men and thus, keep her safe from men like her drunk uncle. She started to let her looks go; slowly at first. Then, she neglected her looks completely. What was once a beautiful, joyful young girl became an unrecognizable, overweight, frumpy young woman. 

In this manner, this young woman subconsciously asked the weight to stay on so that she could protect herself. There are many other cases similar to this one. The goal is not to see how many are helped by hypnosis, but which ones are most beneficial through hypnosis.