Research presented recently at the American Diabetes Association Conference found that research volunteers who ate two large meals a day lost more weight than those that ate several smaller meals with the same number of calories.
Hana Kahleova of the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, asked 27 volunteers to reduce their calorie intake to 500 cal per day while eating only breakfast and lunch. She asked a similar group to do the same but to eat several smaller meals throughout the day while maintaining the same 500 cal intake. Both groups lost weight but those eating a big breakfast and lunch lost more weight than those that spread their meals over the day.
The BHRTS believes that the practicalities of eating only two meals a day may be difficult for some people and maintaining the commitment and self discipline to eat just twice a day may be difficult for others. Luckily hypnotherapy is the best therapeutic tool for helping patients maintain motivation and commitment to therapeutic outcomes, so hypnotherapists may benefit over other forms of therapy by applying hypnosis to maintaining patient motivation in weight loss therapy.
Although this research was presented at a prestigious conference it has not yet been peer-reviewed and the small number of research participants suggests that more research is required. For practising therapists however, the research indicates that we should look carefully at the daily routines of our patients and consider the implications of this research when prescribing therapy for weight loss.
Stephen Brooks
