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

But research has provided convincing evidence that very few people can stick to any diet because of their appetite. 

So to be successful with a diet, you must suppress your appetite.

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. 

It's a mistake to confuse appetite with hunger. Hunger is defined as "The body's call for nourishment." In other words, when the body needs food, that's when you feel bona fide hunger. By that definition, it is not possible to "be hungry" if you 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 little baby and you got cranky, your mother would put a nipple into your mouth to calm you down. You would get distracted, become mellow, and often go to asleep. That scenario 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 tense or anxious, you crave something in your mouth for relaxation and pleasure - food!

People Also Get Cravings and Urges Because Of Conditioning.

When you associate consuming food with any other action, the other action will trigger cravings for food and a 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?

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 are. The list of probabilities 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 get fat to keep the self out of relationships and prevent another broken heart. 

A big secret to eliminating your appetite and losing your weight is called reframing. With reframing, we respect the fact that the mind is motivating us to consume food 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 bargain 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 some new behaviors. The alternate behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the same relaxation and pleasure. But they must also be more acceptable to us on a conscious level. 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 an emotional eater, we do an additional reframe. We ask your unconscious to accept responsibility for finding and substituting new behaviors in place of being overweight. These new behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the same positive outcomes. But they must be actions 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 urges to overeat.

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

As soon as your appetite has been eliminated, and any compulsion to overeat has been overcome, you can easily stick to any type of healthful diet 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 Hypnosis downloads website. On the site he maintains a hypnosis library. And he offers free hypnosis newsletters and MP3's.

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