Subconscious Mind’s Role in Weight Loss

Hypnotherapy can help with weight loss by changing subconscious beliefs about food and self-image.

One of the biggest problems that I hear about losing weight is “the yo-yo” of weight loss and gain that many people get stuck in. In the beginning, it is possible to lose weight but what happens after the diet or the short-term high motivation ends? We get back to our old ways of being.

When dieting, often people find themselves stuck on this emotional roller coaster between resisting their temptations to eat “regular” foods and worrying about the scale. This is why hypnotherapy tends to be a successful therapeutic approach for weight loss because hypnosis focuses on changing the subconscious mind and beliefs rather than forcing behaviors and eating patterns.

If you just set a short amount of time to do a challenging diet to lose weight, most likely you will lose weight in the beginning but eventually, you will regain it all because as soon as the diet ends, your habits will kick back in. Remember, those old habits and subconscious beliefs are the ones that led to weight gain in the beginning.

Instead of being fixated on short-term solutions, if you focused on changing your subconscious mind, not only you would lose weight but also you would be able to maintain your weight loss with healthy habits that support your body.

If you are not reprogramming your subconscious mind during your weight loss journey, here is what you are missing out on:

·      Subconscious self-image

The subconscious mind is filled with beliefs, patterns, and habits that we mostly learned until the age of 8 by observing family, friends, and culture. One of the most important subconscious beliefs is our unconscious self-image.

Our subconscious self-image is what we believe about ourselves. It’s that voice we may hear at times of stress or it’s the true self we see when we are all alone. We build this image based on mostly what we see and hear from our parents.

For example, a person who was always put down by parents as a child may subconsciously believe that they are not good enough or they are not capable. On the other hand, a person who was usually encouraged to take challenges and take an action as a child may find it easier to say “You’ve got this!” to themselves.

Just like the examples, our subconscious self-image can make a significant difference during the weight loss journey as well. If you were teased by your friends because of your weight or if you were criticized by your parents often, you may subconsciously believe that you are overweight. Without changing that subconscious belief, it will be hard for you to change your reality regardless of the amount of diet or exercise.

·      Brain’s reward system

Within our brains, we have a tiny area called Habenula that controls dopamine levels and is also known as the decision-maker. According to an article from Psychology Today, the Habenula switch may be responsible for the brain’s response to reward, anxiety, stress, or motivation.

It works like this; Imagine that you set a weight loss goal and you started investing your time, efforts, and motivation in this goal. You start to change your eating patterns, you wake up early and work out, and you do everything in alignment with this goal. The results are promising; week by week, you see that your efforts are paying off. 

As you lose weight, you feel better about yourself and more and more excited about reaching your goal. One of these days, you jump on the scale again, and you see that you actually didn’t lose any weight that week even though you spent just as much effort and energy eating less and healthy. This is when the habenula switch goes into play and blocks the dopamine release. You start to believe that after all, this weight loss goal is not very achievable and slowly you get back to your old habits.

The article summarizes this as “Setting a specific goal or outcome for weight can be tricky because, if you do not achieve this, your habenula triggers you to stop trying, even if things are going well.”

·      Subconscious habits and beliefs

Another important aspect of the subconscious mind is suppressed beliefs and habits about food and eating. If you grew up in a family that usually cooks carb-heavy foods or consumes highly processed foods, most likely you will lean towards consuming similar food types as well. Without recognizing and changing this pattern, after every diet you may find yourself indulging in unhealthy options. 

Another example is being rewarded with food. How many times were you given a piece of candy as a child “if you were behaving well”? Or how many times did you sneak in ice cream thanks to your grandparents and that felt so warm and comforting? Unconsciously you were associating food with reward. 

Unless you change these subconscious limiting beliefs, you will always circle back to eating uncontrollably when you want to feel rewarded, comforted, or acknowledged.

·      Emotional eating

Emotional eating is a significant problem for many of us. There is even a saying for this: “Eating emotions”. Eating away can be a distraction from uncomfortable emotions and for a while, it can help with shifting attention.

Often times people who are going through grief, a significant change in life, or anxiety may also be eating uncontrollably. Think about it, it’s easier to eat more and worry about how to lose weight than to face guilt, shame, loss, loneliness, or fear.

All these emotions are suppressed subconsciously. By working through the situations that led to these emotions and releasing them subconsciously with therapeutic methods like hypnotherapy, you can release the urge to overeat as well.