Well, as everyone knows, it is because we eat more than we use up.

This may be due to habits which need to be changed just because we are getting older. It could be that we feel unhappy and comfort eating makes us feel better. It could be that we don't allow enough time to eat properly, and we become so hungry that we eat whatever is nearest or easiest. Or we spend the weekend at a club, and get home with just enough energy to order a takeaway.

Whatever is maintaining these habits or feelings can be successfully treated with hypnotherapy.

So, once you can deal with the underlying issue, you will be able to get back in control of your weight.

When we go on a diet, we tend to revolutionise our eating habits. We buy special food, we eat at set times, we avoid certain foods. Lots of rules to follow. Whatever the diet, it is usually very different from your usual style of eating. And probably different from what everyone else in the house eats too.

As a result, once you have lost the desired weight, this revolutionary style of eating stops too. And all the weight gets back on.

Rather than making a huge change in your eating pattern, why not make just a few, small changes and stick to them till they become automatic. Small but significant.

For example, give up eating in front of the telly. Simple and effective.

Hypnotherapy can help you to find out the change that will make the biggest impact for you.

For some of us, we eat because the food is there. So, in the evening, after you've eaten your meal, you raid the cupboards. This might be triggered by a telly advert. (Look at the things that are advertised. Sometimes it is a healthy margarine or yoghurt, but usually it is fun food. The latest Pringle ads are all about the fun you can have by eating them. These are food-like materials, food toys perhaps.)

So a good way to deal with this is to have nothing tempting in the cupboards. Simple and effective. Hypnosis can help to make that decision and stick to it.

Some of us eat when we feel a bit low. This is "emotional" or "comfort" eating. We eat when we are going through the low mood, when we can foresee a low mood coming, or when we relive a low mood. Identify what you eat when you feel miserable, and don't buy it. Hypnosis can help you avoid the aisles in the supermarket which are full of the chocolate muffins or whatever is your particular foible.

Some of us don't know when we are full and keep eating and keep eating. Since we eat with our eyes, you can use a smaller plate and eat very slowly. Research has shown that a full smaller plate is just as satisfying as a full large plate. It is the fullness that matters. And eating slowly has been proved to help avoid obesity.

Some of eat because we are hungry, but in these times of accessible and cheap food, this is not most of us most of the time.

In part, of all these strategies are about changing habits in a way that fits in with your particular issues. Hypnosis can help you here. Fast, effective and safe.

Most of us put weight on very slowly, just a few calories too much every day. So if you eat a bag of crisps (130cal) and a Flake (170cal) or their equivalent every day you can expect to put on a pound in under a fortnight. To use up 300 cals, you need half an hour of high impact aerobics so walking to the shop won't burn it off.

So it means that if you want to lose weight, exercise is the second thing to do. The first is to eat less, and the indulgent foods are easier to give up than meals.

Ravussin has found that a sustained 10% excess caloric intake results in a 7% weight gain. His calculations clearly imply (and are consistent with the observational evidence from population studies) that the obesity epidemic is primarily driven by increased food intake and not by decreased physical activity.

Exercise is important for general health reasons. It doesn't work as the prime weight reducer for most of us, not least, because after jogging for half an hour, we might reward ourselves with a bar of chocolate. Instant weight gain.

Peter Katzmarzyk and colleagues at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center examined the links between time spent sitting (at school, work, and at home) and mortality (death) in a representative sample of more than 17,000 Canadians. They report that time spent sitting was associated with increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality (there was no association between sitting and cancer death). Individuals who sat the most were about 50% more likely to die during the follow-up period than individuals who sat the least, even after controlling for age, smoking, and physical activity levels.

The researchers also examined the association between sitting and mortality after control for body weight. They report that sitting remains a significant predictor of mortality. This suggests that all things being equal (body weight, physical activity levels, smoking, alcohol intake, age and gender) the person who sits more is at a higher risk of death than the person who sits less. (Fidgetting has been shown to be an effective strategy.)

Most of us sit for most of the work day and so most of us are at risk. And at home too, we spend little time working in the kitchen, cooking, laying the table, washing up. Even in front of the telly we don’t get up to change the channel. Our whole environment seems to be geared to minimising effort.

What to do? Throughout the day move about and fidget as much as possible. Seek out opportunities to make more effort. Walk whenever possible. Be inefficient. Make two runs up the stairs instead of one.

Advances in technology and in particular the rise of the mass media has caused normal concerns about how we look to become obsessions. How? 3 reasons:

1. Thanks to the media, we have become accustomed to extremely rigid and uniform standards of beauty.
2. TV, posters, magazines etc mean that we see 'beautiful people' all the time, sometimes more often than members of our own family, making exceptional good looks seem real, normal and attainable. (Although those beautiful people are not as beautiful as their pictures, thanks to airbrushing.)
3. Standards of beauty have become harder and harder to attain, particularly for women. The current media ideal of thinness for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population. Most women are trying to achieve the impossible: standards of female beauty have in fact become progressively more unrealistic during the 20th century. In 1917, the physically perfect woman was about 5ft 4in tall and weighed nearly 10 stone. Even 25 years ago, top models and beauty queens weighed only 8% less than the average woman, now they weigh 23% less. The current media ideal for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population – and that's just in terms of weight and size. If you want the ideal shape, face etc., it's probably more like 1%.
   

Even very attractive people may not be looking in the mirror out of 'vanity', but out of insecurity.

So the question is are you normal? Are you seeking to achieve unachievable standards of perfection? And why does your body need to be perfect when you can accept so much imperfection in the rest of your life?

Hypnosis can help with making you feel better about your looks, getting things into perspective, and if necessary, helping you lose weight.

I looked at the label on a cheesecake in the supermarket today. Over 1400 calories per 100g. That is all right then, I will only eat a slice. But then it read Normal 70g slice (1/6 of the cheesecake) over 1,000 calories.

Half a day's calories in one slice. And if it were me, one slice would not be enough. Truly shocking. It is these indulgent treats, on the whole, that make us fat. Hypnotherapy can help you give up the need for a treat every day.

Treating ourselves once in a while is nice. Having a food treat every day heaps on the weight. Check the label and prepare to be shocked.

I am wearing a pair this week. They are expensive! But do they work?

Well, this is what I have noticed. They make every step a bit more effortful, and in mine, I feel that I am pushing my heel up noticeably, with each step. As a result, I am aware of the muscles in the lower part of my bum being worked more.

They are not advisable for pregnant women or those with instability. I think they are worth a try, along with your pedometer. 6,000 steps a day as a baseline!

Another aid, like hypnosis, to making healthy decisions!

Age-old advice encouraging expectant mothers to eat for two during pregnancy could condemn women to a life of obesity and illness, according to the University of Queensland researchers who are presenting their work at the International Conference on Obesity in Stockholm.

The focus of attention in the past has been on the health of the baby, rather than the health of the mother. In the Olden Days, people didn't have easy access to food and there was a risk of low birth weight babies. So that advice might have been fine then. Not now.

Overeating during pregnancy can quadruple the risk of long term overweight, obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The researchers found that being relaxed about your eating during pregnancy resulted in being 3 stone overweight 21 years later. The research demonstrated that it is hard to shift excess weight gained during pregnancy.

Their recommendation is to lose weight before pregnancy and to eat a normal healthy diet during pregnancy. About 10 to 12kg is a healthy weight gain.

To help you get back to healthy eating, try hypnotherapy before pregnancy. It will help you with the birth too!