Joyce, 51, a former executive assistant from Milton Keynes, has lost two stone in four months. She used to crave junk food but now finds sugar too sweet and craves a salad over chips. She has overhauled her diet — but hasn’t followed a fasting regime like Rishi Sunak and isn’t on Wegovy. She has been hypnotised to believe she’s had a gastric band fitted.
“Afterwards I could feel tightness in my stomach when I had dinner,” she says, adding she now eats half what she used to.
It sounds far too easy a fix to be true — could it really work? Regular bariatric surgery entails placing an adjustable band around the top of the stomach, restricting the amount of food that can enter. It’s available on the NHS only for those with a very high BMI or obesity-related health conditions. Gastric-band hypnosis works by tricking the brain into thinking your body has undergone the surgery.
The risks are lower — instead of going under the knife, you enter a meditative calm. “In hypnotherapy, you’re getting your client into a very relaxed state,” says Rachel McConachie, a hypnotherapist based near Dundee. “When your body is this relaxed, your conscious mind relaxes too. This is where hypnotherapy can gain access to your subconscious mind.”
Some clinical research has shown that inducing a deep state of relaxation through hypnotherapy can relieve pain and anxiety, and aid smoking cessation, weight loss and sleep. But there isn’t enough evidence to justify it being offered on the NHS. Dr Andrew Jenkinson, a Harley Street bariatric surgeon and the author of How to Eat (And Still Lose Weight), says there is a reason why you probably have heard of weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy but not gastric-band hypnosis. “Things that are popular tend to work,” he says. “If gastric-band hypnotherapy worked, it would be mainstream.”
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McConachie’s process entails showing her client a picture of a surgical gastric-band implant. “We describe the band going around part of the stomach, making a smaller pouch for food, and this encourages the client to believe they have the band fitted. They can set it at whatever tightness they want, and then I can change it at later appointments or show them how to do it with self-hypnosis.”
They know on a rational level it’s a fantasy. In Joyce’s sessions she underwent “virtual” surgery. “I was imagining walking down a corridor, doctors in scrubs around me.” Some therapists will play sounds such as clattering surgical instruments to set the scene for the client.
Other hypnotherapists pair virtual surgery with aversion therapy, in which hypnosis rewires your reaction to unhealthy food. Patients are asked to imagine the taste of their favourite biscuit, then mix that with the taste of dog poo.
Claire Hegarty, a Chester-based hypnotherapist, says she has seen a 40 per cent increase in clients seeking hypnotherapy for weight loss since Covid, as people realised poor diet affects levels of depression, anxiety and stress. “When someone has physical surgery it might be a success, but it doesn’t change their mindset,” she says. Hegarty charges £9,000 per programme, which can take more than a year, though most therapists offer four sessions for about £300.
Sian, 43, is a mother of four who has been receiving chemotherapy and has a colostomy bag, so cannot have gastric-band surgery. “I’ve always been bigger,” she says, adding that she often found herself reaching for sweet snacks such as fruit loaf when stressed. After nearly a year of hypnotherapy and regular exercise she has reduced her calorie intake to 1,000 per day and gone down four dress sizes.
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Sian adjusts the mental band every time she eats: “I have my hand flat on my tummy and place my other hand on top, making a fist. I’m asking my unconscious mind to tighten the band I used to just have a normal plate of food but now I use a smaller soup bowl for meals, and more often than not I can’t finish as I’m feeling full.”
For Jenkinson, the jury is out: “I’m sure it works for some people. But if it worked for everyone, we wouldn’t have gastric bands.”
