Hunger is the most powerful driver, because without it, we might forget to eat, and eating is essential. But these days most of us rarely get really hungry but the fear of hunger is powerful too.

My cat is a stray and I found her when she was scavenging in my friend’s kitchen. She was skinny and scared. After coming to stay with me she became as fat as fat because food, all of a sudden, was freely available, but starvation had been a daily risk. These are the rules my cat was following, to deal with the serious risk of lack of food and starvation:

• Always eat when food is available
• Always eat as fast as possible
• Always eat as much as possible
• Always eat anything put in front of you

We are animals too, so we can end up following these same rules, even though food is easily accessible and starvation is unlikely. Hypnotherapy can help you by embedding suggestions in your mind to help you overcome these hard-wired behaviours to avoid putting on too much weight.

We usually talk about losing weight, and I think that is a bit too abstract or most of us. We might think about a goal weight and express a desire to reach it. Again, for me, a bit too abstract. And we know that the goal is in the future, and things get a bit less urgent and a bit vaguer. To manage our weight we need to manage our eating and we can make those changes one or two at a time. Hypnosis helps by bedding those changes in, so they become automatic and sustained.

So, if you know that you just eat too much of everything, start eating half of any plate of food in front of you. Some of us were taught to eat everything on the plate, so this new behaviour might need some practice.

Before you eat anything, consult your hunger quotient. How hungry are you at the moment on a scale of 0-10? If it is less than 5, you don’t need to eat. There is always food available later. For some of us, a better question is when did you last eat anything at all? If it was less than 3 hours ago, you wil not be hungry. You might have the desire to eat and your appetite might be strong, but this is not hunger. Most of us have forgotten the difference.

When you eat, eat slowly. Completely finish one mouthful before preparing the next one. Research has shown that if you train yourself to eat slowly, and indeed, if you reduce your eating speed during the meal, you will eat less.

And that is another tip. Eat meals rather than snacks. Snacking is a new habit and since we started doing it, the average weight has increased by over 10 pounds.

People often think about hunger and appetite in the same way, as
though the words were interchangeable. But the drivers
within the body are quite different.
• Hunger is the body’s way of telling you of a physiological need for food. It occurs when blood glucose levels decline and hormones, such as ghrelin, rise. The body’s response to these fluctuations is symptoms of hunger which might include a rumbling belly. Other symptoms can include frowning, headaches, tiredness, rattiness. For me, I feel strain around my eyes when I am hungry. Hunger drives us to eat in order to restore our body’s homeostatic levels. And the drive is very powerful indeed. When we are overhungry we will eat anything, ideally something full of fat and sugar. Once homestasis is achieved, satisfaction — hunger’s opposite — is reached.
• Appetite on the other hand is a psychological desire to eat, based more upon eating experiences, such as memories of good food, or other sensory cues such as taste, smell or texture of food. While hunger occurs only when the body needs food, appetite can occur at any time, irrespective of the body’s need for energy. Appetite is why many still reach for pudding after a large meal. Appetite can be correlated with the hedonic (fun-loving) centres of the brain. In such cases, the physiological cues of satisfaction, such a full stomach, higher glucose levels and changes in hormone levels and mix — are overridden. You know you are full, you know you are not hungry, but you eat the cake anyway. Not hunger, but appetite.

A study by University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Barry Braun compared a group of volunteers who sat all day (they even used wheelchairs to visit the bathroom) to a group that didn't sit down at all. The difference in energy expenditure, he told The New York Times, was hundreds of calories – but the level of appetite hormones and hunger in the two groups remained identical. This is significant, because after a very hard workout, you feel hungry. And hundreds of calories a day - let's say 200 - means half a pound weight loss each week.

So how can we use this insight. Sit less. Stand rather than sit at work if you can. Fidget, get up and down if you are watching the telly. Even unvigorous movement uses up those calories.