Stress, anxiety and emotional issues at both conscious and sub conscious levels may cause weight gain because stress makes the body to create a chemical called cortisol. High levels of cortisol is linked to abdominal fat. Dieting may actually cause stress. Repeated yo-yo dieting over many years can actually make us fatter because the cortisol produced by the stress of dieting may make us more likely to develop fat in our bellies.

This is why once pear-shaped types may become more apple-shaped. Apple shaped body types are more at risk for life threatening conditions such as diabetes, stroke, cancer, and heart disease than their pear-shaped counterparts. So stress and weight gain need to be looked at very closely because it is not just a cosmetic problem.

Whilst your weight problems may be simply down to motivational issues as indicated above, it may surprise you to learn that stress, anxiety, emotional factors such as guilt, jealousy etc which may be at a conscious or subconscious level is often the cause behind clients being unable to lose weight. This can manifest itself in “comfort eating”, excessive snacking, a general lack of motivation, confidence and low esteem.

Poor Sleep
A recent study has also indicated that poor sleep patterns may also fuel your appetite due to the release of appetite regulating hormones, with the subjects being tested showing a 24 percent increase in their “hunger ratings”. The foods they craved most were sweets, salty foods like chips and nuts and starchy fare like bread and pasta.

Stress and Cortisol
Another theory is that those with excess belly fat produce more cortisol when under stress and this causes additional weight gain. Those that produce more cortisol, when under stress, had more weight gain because these people tended to eat more.
Stress and anxiety etc often causes us to reach for familiar comfort foods such as high fat, high sugar, and high carbohydrate foods like biscuits, cake and chocolate. The chewing and the good feelings that we get (temporarily) from eating these foods may make us feel less stressed out for a while, but eating to relieve stress causes weight gain. Why do we reach for these foods when we are stressed or depressed ? The reason is because we were created with a fight or flight response system that helps us when in danger. The body cannot distinguish the stress from a deadline, bills piling up, the loss of a job, or your kids acting up from the stress of a wild animal chasing you. In caveman days, when a wild animal was chasing a person, that person would feel stress, the body would produce cortisol which makes your muscles tense and ready to fight or run, and adrenaline, which makes you feel more alert and ready to fight or run. The body expects you to fight or to run when these chemicals are produced which would burn excess calories. So the body responds by causing us to eat more carbohydrates as soon as possible to replenish the body from what was lost. Most people are not running or fighting anymore, however, but we still produce these hormones when under stress. Therefore, stress and emotional issues can cause weight gain.

The level of the stress hormone, cortisol, in the bloodstream differs with each individual. Some people secrete more stress hormone than others. Some people just react to stress by secreting more cortisol than others. Studies have shown that the people that tended to eat more when under stress were the ones secreting more of the stress hormone, cortisol, showing that stress and weight gain are related. Another study showed that those who reported more stress in their lives and had high cortisol levels tended to pack on the pound around the belly while those that reported less stressful lives and had lower stress hormone levels tended to gain weight in the hips. Some groups of people tend to have higher levels of stress hormone than others. For example, pregnant women in the last trimester of pregnancy, athletes, those with depression, anxiety, malnutrition, panic disorder and alcoholics tend to have higher levels of the stress hormone than other groups of people
Because of the role that stress / emotion plays in weight gain and in the difficulty in losing weight as well as the fact that the stress hormone causes people to gain weight around the middle, people should make stress relief a regular part of their weight loss of weight maintenance routine.

Also one of the best stress relievers and promoters of weight loss, muscle gain and feelings of well-being is exercise. If the benefits derived from exercise could be put into a bottle, it would be a best-seller. Exercise makes us feel better because the body releases chemicals called endorphins, which not only relieve stress but also cause a reduction in cortisol levels and this is something I can also help to motivate you with.

Analytical Hypnotherapy
Unfortunately, many Hypnotherapists are well intentioned, but they lack the in-depth training on how to remove the root cause of the problem using weight loss hypnosis, in the case of weight loss, the cause of overeating or lack of exercise. Imagine the metaphor of when tending a garden, if you pull a weed without pulling its roots out, as well, then the weed will grow right back within time. So even though weight loss hypnosis is the best way to lose weight, the wrong Hypnotherapist will provide average results. Most Hypnotherapists will give a client suggestions for eating less, or for exercising more, but without removing the root cause of the problem, then "weeds" grow right back again, and the client is left feeling frustrated. To this end therefore I would recommend a course of Analytical Hypnotherapy. This will use Hypnosis to reach the root cause, removing the stress and emotional issues from your subconscious and enable you to move on with your life.

This will normally take some 6 – 8 weekly, 1-hour sessions and will also include the one off motivational session at the end. Cost £60.00 per session.