You really can lose weight without endless yo yo diets and if you are clinically obese - BMI over 30 - there is hope with a virtual gastric band fitted under hypnosis - yes Hypnotherapy may be the best all round option for losing weight.

I have been running two successful weight loss programs in tandem and so have had great experience of helping many people with their weight problems - both programs have at their core the same philosophies. Most people on a diet crave the things they should not be eating or after dieting and losing weight they go back to their old habits. Some of their diets may exclude certain foods - leaving an unbalanced diet that puts strain on their liver and kidneys - potentially quite dangerous.

I believe it is important to get people in touch with the pleasure of eating great food and persuade them of the cost effectiveness of eating less of great quality food instead of cheaper fat sugar and salt saturated food - good nutrition really offers better bang for buck in value terms and after all you would not put paraffin in your petrol tank would you? To take that metaphor further for comfort eaters you wouldn't put fuel in the car if the oil light comes on would you? Yet the oil light is a warning something is amiss and to put chocolate in your mouth does not resolve the problems. Comfort eating resolves nothing but causes obesity.

Many of these problems are associated with anxiety stress or lack of self confidence or past habits embedded by poor nutritional practices when they were growing up: "you must clear your plate" - for instance. I say better pounds in the waste bin than pounds on the waist!

These problems can be addressed with Hypnotherapy - giving strategies for dealing with anxiety and stress and lack of confidence and using such techniques as regression to deal with psychological issues that may have lead to an abusive relationship with food. One lady of 21 stones came to me and once we had dealt with her bullying issues and given her nutritional advice she began to lose weight rapidly - something she had never been able to do!

In addition the American Health Authority now blames much obesity on junk food - which you may as well call "junkie" food - the food has added fat sugar and salt and the taste buds become literally addicted to this stuff - if you have ever seen "Supersize me" you know how dangerous it can be especially if the balance of eating is skewed towards junk food.

Another important weapon is the food diary - noting all that you eat but also when and why you eat certain foods?

If obesity gets to the level of a BMI of over 30 then for some the choice is stark: they will have terrible health problems if they don't lose weight - they will have tried all the diets and pills and found them to fail because they haven't addressed all the underlying issues for overeating. They are sometimes left with the only choice of a Gastric Band - the operation can cost between £3,000 - £7,000 - in some cases the operation can be dangerous - I recently had a client who had had multiple strokes and two of them serious - for her the risks are too high.

Combining good nutritional advice with learning to enjoy food properly and dealing with underlying psychological issues can lead to permanent weight loss. In addition fitting the Virtual Gastric band under hypnosis, using something like the HypnoGastricBand system, makes weight loss much more likely. The system works for most people and clients have reported that they can not only see and experience the operation without pain but that they can feel it when it is fitted. The discomfort passes rapidly and people find that they do start to eat smaller portions and, like my other weight loss clients, they eat less and exercise more and begin to enjoy food again.

The gastric band operation is talked through under hypnosis and as it is keyhole surgery it is relatively simple - tying a band around the higher part of the stomach - the band can be made tighter or loosened and the golf ball sized part of the stomach made by the band means that the hypothalmus, the governor of appetite, tells you that you are full - the food then passes through normally. The hypnotic gastric band fitted under hypnosis acts the same way as a real gastric band. If you have a BMI under 30 there are also weight loss programs which do the same but omit fitting the gastric band.

So consider hypnotherapy if you have tried the rest and it has failed. My experience is that for most people it is a realistic alternative.