Overweight people are becoming more common and, just recently, a report by the Health Select Committee says health workers should use every opportunity to deal with the problem.
According to the BBC, the committee’s MPs say it is ‘inexplicable’ that the National Health Service in England spends more on bariatric surgery than well-established measures to prevent obesity.
The MPs also call for urgent steps so people understand the wider health benefits of physical activity.
Dr John Middleton, vice-president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: “Bariatric surgery generates huge costs to patients, families and the NHS.
“We need public health policies that can save money by helping prevent people becoming obese in the first place.”
The MPs argue that national and local government and the NHS must do more to prevent people becoming unwell.
That could include regulation of what goes into food, a ban on marketing sugary drinks to children, and much more support for people at risk of obesity and diabetes, so they do not need bariatric surgery.
“The committee regards it as inexplicable and unacceptable that the NHS is now spending more on bariatric surgery for obesity than on a national roll-out of intensive lifestyle intervention programmes that were first shown to cut obesity and prevent diabetes over a decade ago,” MPs said.
The NHS says obesity is generally caused by people consuming more calories – particularly those in fatty and sugary foods – than they burn off through physical activity. The excess energy is then stored by the body as fat.
Obesity is an increasingly common problem, says the NHS, because many modern lifestyles often promote eating excessive amounts of cheap, high-calorie food and spending a lot of time sitting at desks, on sofas or in cars.
Instead of drastic measures like bariatric surgery, hypnotherapy can be an effective and non-invasive way to control weight and encourage exercise.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) says managing weight loss is one of the most effective results of hypnotherapy.
Instead of only reducing calories in the diet, hypnosis lets the client ‘get in touch’ with the reasons for ‘unconsciously’ eating. The hypnotherapist can help someone understand why and help them create new healthy self-management techniques.
Importantly, as well as stopping compulsive eating, hypnosis can increase the motivation for exercise. It can also help someone reduce portion sizes so they lose weight healthily, steadily and for the long term.
Quite simply, losing weight is easy and the difficult part is changing the behaviours that created the weight gain in the beginning and carry on to sabotage any future attempts to lose weight.
Hypnotherapy creates that behavioural change that diets and fancy eating regimes do not.
So, if you want to feel good about yourself, whatever size you are, and focus on making healthy changes to your diet and lifestyle that will remain with you for the rest of your life, contact a hypnotherapist near you by using the NCH directory.
It will be worth it!
