When people want to lose weight or stop overeating, they almost always focus on the same things: diet, calories, discipline, and willpower. But here lies one of the biggest mistakes that about 90% of people make.
The biggest mistake when losing weight is it is not a wrong diet, not the number of calories and it is not a lack of will. The biggest mistake people make is trying to fight their own bodies – instead of working with them.
Why fighting the body leads to a vicious cycle
The idea that we need to overcome, control, or »break« our bodies from hunger is the very thing that often keeps us trapped in a repetitive cycle of failure.
When we start to restrict food on a conscious level, the body experiences it as stress. And when the body is under stress, they are automatically activated. old, unconscious patterns.
These patterns did not arise by chance. In the past, they have often helped us survive emotionally, psychologically, or even physically demanding situations. One such pattern may be the belief that Food helps calm the body and nervous system.
There may be a simple but powerful connection in this notation:
more food means more security and more peace.
How the vicious cycle of restriction and overeating occurs
When we forbid ourselves from something, when we impose strict limits or restrictions, it naturally begins to accumulate in the body. tension.
In a state of tension, however, the body does not react rationally or with long-term thought, but relies on old, automatic mechanisms. This is when impulsive responses occur.
This impulse can be expressed as:
- overeating,
- a strong desire for a certain food,
- loss of control over quantity.
This kind of response is very often followed by guilt. Thoughts like:
- »"Why did I do this to myself again?"«
- »"How could this happen again?"«
And this is where the circle becomes even more solidified. This circle cannot be broken by more discipline, more control, or even stricter restrictions, because the restriction is often part of the problem itself.
The key question: what is really happening in the body?
Instead of additional control, we need understanding. Understanding what is really happening in the body and in the nervous system.
The important question is not:
»"How can I eat less?"«
Moreover:
»"Why does my body even need food as a way of regulating itself?"«
Where did this pattern come from? When was it useful? And why does the body still maintain it?
Why classic approaches often don't work
In the approach I use, we do not do classical hypnosis in the sense of additional rules, motivational phrases, or even more information about it:
- how to count calories,
- what is "real" nutrition,
- how we need to try harder and have more control.
Such approaches often address just a symptom, not the cause. Restriction itself creates tension, and tension triggers impulsive behavior.
Finding the root cause of overeating
We focus on the core cause:
- Why does the subconscious use food as a form of regulation?
- When was this mechanism meaningful or even necessary?
- What is the unconscious »pay-off« that food offers?
- What does the body actually get when it gets enough food?
- What is the subconscious trying to protect with this?
Often, food unconsciously protects certain areas of life, emotions, or internal states. The body may believe that in this way it is preventing further stress, pain, or internal overload.
When the relationship between stress and food changes
When we begin to understand the connection between stress and food on a deeper level, something important can happen:
overeating begins to subside without a fight, without constant conscious effort and without additional restrictions.
Not because we are trying harder, but because the body finally no longer needs the same regulatory mechanism.
And this is precisely the goal of the therapeutic and hypnotherapeutic process:
not to control the body, but to create conditions in which it can balance itself.