Last night’s Horizon on exercise and weight loss was pretty good, as one might expect.  So it looks like HIT immediately lowers the fat being transported in the bloodstream.  No bad thing.  But, does it tackle fat stored elsewhere in the body?  I don’t think it can have any marked effect on this.

It’s undoubtedly true that we should all be more active.  I do see more and more people walking to improve their health. We should all do more of it.  It strengthens our muscles and bones and burns fat, but only if you walk fast enough to get your heart rate up.

Talking of heart rate, HIT definitely gets that up for a period of some minutes. If you really want to burn fat your heart rate has to be up at a sustained level for 20 or more minutes.  In the average Spin class (45 mins) you can expect to burn 400 calories plus.  That’s a lot of effort for not much gain, but I’m hopelessly hooked!

So the right exercise will help you to lose weight, but not much weight.  What it will do, is build muscle mass and those muscles will burn fat when you use them properly.  It will also improve your metabolic rate, which means that your body will burn fat more quickly.

All good stuff, but the very best method of losing weight is to control what you eat and how much you eat.  This is where the Hypno-band program really helps.  You will be discouraged from eating too many carbohydrates and you will eat small portions of nutritious food.  You will cut back your alcohol consumption and take regular exercise.  If you do this you will start to lose weight in week one.

Many Hypno-band weight loss clients are having difficulty with bread and carbohydrates in general.  Carbs are addictive.  There is plenty of evidence to support this.  We know that eating carbohydrates raises insulin, which then lowers blood sugar. This causes a desire (or craving) for more food and, in many people, carbohydrates.

So if you are trying to lose weight watch out for the carbs!  Eating too much bread, pasta, yes pasta and potatoes has probably been responsible for your weight gain.

On the Hypno-band programme we won’t ask you to stop eating bread, pasta, and potatoes, but we will advise you to cut down. We will ask you to eat only one carbohydrate in any meal.  You will be eating smaller portions anyway, doing more exercise and drinking more water.  This will deliver sustained weight loss.

Clive is literally “walking the walk” on the Hypno-band weight loss program.  He is walking every day and losing 3 pounds a week.  Potatoes and bread have disappeared from his diet.  He hardly drinks any alcohol at all.

Clive has taken control of his eating and drinking habits.  The hypno-band program has helped him to replace bad eating and lifestyle habits with good ones.  The chances that he will achieve sustained weight loss are very good indeed.

The Mail, Independent, Guardian and  FT report a problem with sustained weight loss, which Hypno-band clients encounter and overcome.  They point out that scientists at the US National Institutes of Health in Maryland realised standard weight loss advice – including its own – failed to account for changes in metabolism as people lost weight. This results in a “plateau” preventing the dieter from progressing further.  It often leads to them giving up on their diet.

There is no disputing the science.   So whats the answer then?  Well, as you lose weight your metabolism slows down and as a consequence the body burns less fat.  So you need to get your metabolism going again.  There are three simple ways to do this:

1. Vary your eating habits.  If you have been eating three small meals a day, stay with the same total amount, but change to five smaller meals, for a couple of days (take care not to eat more than you were before).

2. Change your exercise routine, do something different for a few days and try to do just a bit more.

3. Drink more water!  This can increase your metabolic rate by 30%, which should do the trick.  While you are at it, cut down on coffee and tea, or drink some water each time you have a cup of tea or coffee.

Hypno-band practitioners encounter this difficulty with clients from time to time and it’s easily overcome if they take the three steps detailed above

Of course, those following the Hypno-band program don’t really diet.  They have changed their behaviour.  They don’t snack.  They eat small portions and drink less alcohol.

In a very good item on Woman’s Hour today, three experts explain why Diets don’t work!

Dr Susan Jebb made the point that it’s a long term job.  Mindset and habits must change to achieve sustained weight loss.  She stressed the need for support over an extended period

Dr John Briffa made very good points regarding eating too many carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, pasta) and recommended meat, nuts, eggs, veg and fruit  He pointed out that it takes a lot of exercise to burn fat.

Sue Thomason, a life coach, said that weight was often bit of a distraction masking other issues.  She pointed out that diets fail as they trigger a survival instinct which prompts us all to eat.

None of them mentioned hypnotherapy, but there was a thread throughout around changing attitude to food, changing behaviour and dealing with bad habits.  The Hypno-band program deals with all of these.  And with the Hypno-band you’re not on a diet.  All the experts on the programme seemed to agree that Diets don’t work!