Statistics show that one in five children in the UK leaving primary school is obese and many parents are unable to tell when their own child is overweight.
It appears that as a society we have adjusted to being overweight as the norm, says the BBC.
Consultant paediatrician Professor Mary Rudolf, who advises the government on obesity, said many parents would not know that ‘a healthy 10-year-old’s ribs should be clearly visible. Many parents would consider that such a child was quite underweight’.
And experts believe one of the most powerful ways to encourage a child to eat well and be active is to do so as a parent, as children learn by example.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) – which has over 1,800 qualified therapists across the UK on its register – points out that clinical hypnotherapy can be used to increase the motivation for exercise as well as reducing compulsive or over-eating.
Overweight children do not need to do more exercise than slimmer children, as their extra body weight means they will naturally burn more calories for the same activity.
NHS Choices advises that any change made to a child’s diet and lifestyle is much more likely to be accepted if the change involves the whole family.
The BBC also reported that researchers have found that the risk of a girl being obese at the age of eight was significantly raised – a ten-fold increase in fact – if her mother was obese and the risk for a boy was increased six-fold if his father was obese.
Experts advise avoiding adult-size plates for younger children as it encourages them to eat more than they need while starting meals with small servings and letting the child ask for more if they are still hungry is also advisable.
Here, says the NCH, hypnotherapy can help reduce portion sizes so that weight loss is achieved healthily, steadily and for the long term.
Sleep too, says the BBC report, is important for children as it has been shown that those who do not have the recommended amount of sleep are more likely to be overweight. Research showed that those children who had less sleep in their earlier years were at greater risk of having a higher Body Mass Index at age seven.
Sleep patterns can be improved through hypnotherapy and the NCH says that after sessions with a hypnotherapist a person may feel more confident, more relaxed and find that they are sleeping much better and as a result are able to work more effectively.
Using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), poor sleep has been shown to affect the brain areas responsible for complex decision-making, reports the BBC, and the result is that this alters our response to rewards, causing us to favour unhealthy foods.
This can be described as a ‘problem behaviour’ and the NCH says habits such as overeating can be a behaviour that affect people’s lives; make them unhappy or cause a risk to their health and the health of those around them.
Depending on the person’s circumstances, a hypnotherapist will compile a programme of treatment that will motivate them to exercise more and eat less.
“Hypnotherapy for weight loss is about changing your habit with food for the rest of your life, so unlike crash diets it changes the root of your compulsive eating or lack of interest in exercise so you are free to enjoy the rest of your life – eating and exercising sensibly without having to think about it,” concludes the NCH.