Now that more than a third of Americans fall into the category of "obese" or "overweight," it is vital that every reasonable approach to weight control be examined. Hypnosis can be helpful to many, and offers the added benefit of avoiding the use of potentially harmful weight-loss drugs. Rather than being ridiculed as in the past, it has by now become considered a mainstream approach to both pain control and behavioral modification.

As with any health care issue, take caution if you plan to pursue weight loss hypnosis because even the most legitimate of appearances in programs can be covering poor research or out and out fictitious claims. Hypnosis can be most effective when pursuing a comprehensive program of diet, exercise, and behavior modification.

To give you a better understanding of how weight loss hypnosis can work, here is a little background. Using hypnosis for weight control is a fairly new development, but hypnosis itself has actually been documented back to the 1700s. And it is quite likely that it was used for hundreds of years before then as well. Hypnosis may actually be involved with other treatments such as sleep healing, magnetic healing, chanting, and other rituals. Instead of these treatments working due to the special tools or methods, they may actually just simply be tools that use hypnotic suggestion or hypnotic trances.

The "trance state" was originally called the "mesmeric trance" after Mesmer which means "animal magnetism". The trance state is the middle ground between being awake and sleeping in a state of suggestibility. It was not until 1843 that Scottish surgeon, Dr. James Braid gave it the name of hypnotism. He used objects to induce hypnosis in his patients, including shiny objects and things that require the patients' attention to be focused. Often times a pocket watch was used to induce hypnosis. In 1958, the AMA certified the clinical benefit of hypnosis in several applications.

The use of hypnosis in weight loss is focused on the reinforcement of the desire that already exists in the patient to lose weight and be healthy, while actively suppressing appetite and focusing on success. For some patients there is a need to have a negative association attached to foods that a patient has a particular weakness for. As with any weight loss program that is successful, weight loss hypnosis must also include both a diet and exercise plan. Hypnosis, by increasing compliance with these plans, can actually increase the likelihood of successfully shedding and keeping off those pounds.

The hypnotist who promises magical weight loss and a permanent fix in one session is a scam, and should be avoided. Certified and trained hypnotherapist agree that recurring treatments and support are required for actual success. Another shady method of hypnosis is the numerous videos and downloads that say you can hypnotize yourself. Read non-biased reviews before choosing, and discuss hypnosis with your doctor before starting it.