Well, at least it's good for something!

All I can say is dont knock it until you've tried it. Here in the UK PMcK is very well known

I lost 7lbs very easily just by listening to his basic I can make you thin CD and feel much more relaxed around food - plus its a good excuse for a nap!! Haven't tried the tapping but some of his visualisation techniques are interesting

I'm not saying its a miracle solution, otherwise I wouldn't also be on here lol but it has helped me slow down a bit while eating. Every little helps and it certainly doesn't do any harm.

Like all things though you have to keep it up , I haven't done his CD for a while (got lost in boxes when we moved - have only recently found it again) but am going to start doing it again this week. A friend of mine on another website has lost 17.5 lbs in about a month and has been using his techniques to help keep the cravings at bay...

Eeek sorry for multiple posts just having serious techie issues! Maybe Paul McKenna can hypnotise me and help me learn not be such a luddite!!!

While I agree with most of the other post about this guys method (info-mercial style) I agree with you that this may be a first step for a lot of people. Although it did take me several times of trying, to finally be able to watch his show. I like his message if not delivery. Take the time to be aware of your actions. Put some thought into how and what you feed your body for fuel. I am not so good at the visual techniques he approves, and the tapping doesn't work for me. But I agree with the message that it doesn't have to be a special diet (lc isn't so special as it is unprocessed food). I can't eat anything now without reading the label, only to find out they aren't reliable!
I think he's trying to put the power to control your eating back into your own hands, into your own mind. Whatever it takes to help some people is worth all of the silliness it seems to the rest of us! It's not like it hurts anyone right?
So if one person loses weight listening and following the program, while another person may lose weight by ROFL after listening to the program...it's all good! Let 'em laugh, I'm sure PMcK is laughing too...all the way to the bank!

yeah a lot of people don't like his delivery style - he used to be a radio dj and then moved into stage hypnosis. I have to say though when I listen to his CD i quite like his voice and bizarrely find it very relaxing. However i too found the actual TV programme a bit OTT..plus being a low-moderate carber I still find it hard to eat literally WHATEVER I want.

As you say, whatever works, I just try to keep an open mind, after all it was an open mind that led me to first try Atkins years ago when it was still very new over here (in UK) despite everyone ridiculing me at the time!

Sometimes the obvious needs to be stated, yes, it shoudln't need PMcK to tell us we have the subconscious ability to control what we eat but at the end of the day it was that lack of control (or forgetting how to apply that control) that got many of us into trouble in the first place. So a refresher course in self control and learning a few tools to help beat cravings - how can that be a bad thing?

Plus he doesn't even ask you to buy his book or CD, you can get all the info you need from the TV which is (mostly) free if you want. And even if you do buy the basic book /CD it is not nearly as expensive as some out there and he's not trying to peddle supplements or magic diet pills or special foods.......maybe it is the way the show has been edited stateside but it didn't feel like an infommercial to me when I watched it the first time over here in the UK when it first aired a few years ago.

As I said before, not a miracle cure...but helpful for many...

I've only seen one of his shows. I think the tapping and etc is useful for pruposes of distracting people when they are beset with the urge to eat (the wrong foods or at the wrong times). Tapping sounds silly to me but if it works for some people, then so be it!

The idea of eating whatever you want whenever you want is essentially what "normally" slim people do automatically---without guilt and self-flaggelation (usually.)
My issue with that is---you may be craving something that has dubious nutritional value. I guess the idea of re-educating oneself to do intuitive eating is that eventually---you will be so well attuned to your body that it will tell you to eat grilled salmon and broccoli with lemon-butter instead of twinkies or Krispy Kremes.

Some people can successsfully tap, learn to eat intuitively, etc. Others do best by adhering to stricter regimens that work for them. Bottom line---it's up to the individual...you have to find whatever works for YOU.

Funny, tapping or EFT is used for other things as well... If nothing else they can learn to relax, and as someone else said rethink their food selections.

Classic example of slim poeple who eat what they want - my mum has never been overweight at all and she eats what she wants, when she wants but she does indeed eat slower and leaves food when she is full. I aspire to be like that!

I am getting there...baby steps and all that...but when it comes to relaly eating absolutely whatever I want, I am still nerrvous that if i eat high carb stuff my blood sugar peaks and crashes will overide any intuitive eating whilst I am trying to lose weight. So the spin I have put on PMc (which I have started doing again this week) is to keep my kitchen well stocked with a selection of low-moderate carb foods (I'm not doing full on low carb, see my other posts) and eat whatever i want within these. So far I haven't had any cravings for chocolate, krispy kremes or anythign high carb anyway...

By the way althoguh I agree it is daft, I tried the tapping once and it really does work as a distraction! Plus it made my laugh at myself doign it, which made me relax and suddenly my cravings evaporated. Maybe I should start using this technique more often. Although i don't think I have the guts to do it in a public place!!

I haven't watched this show, but have seen the ads. Can't bring myself to watch it. It really irks me that food cravings are thought of as being primarily emotionally-driven. IMO, they have physical/biological causes, which may then morph over time into emotional/psychological drives as well.

I just think of myself before LCing and gluten-free...I'd have watched this religiously, bc I was convinced that my insane starch urges were some sort of mental problem. Really, they were bc I was intolerant of gluten. And listening to my hunger wouldn't work either, bc at the time my hunger signals were totally screwed up. I dunno - I just think that when cravings are a problem, remove the foods you're craving and see what happens. Kinda like smoking - it's the cigarettes that CAUSE the craving - it wasn't there before you were a smoker. People who don;t smoke don;t crave cigarettes.

BTW, the tapping (EFT) looks totally whacked but can be quite effective. My BIL is an addiction counsellor, and the rehab centre he works at uses it. Seen it work well with PTSD patients too, and ppl with phobias.

I completely agree with you - on LC w/no gluten, casein, soy or sugar, food doesn't cause me to get "emotional" or turn into a psycho-binging-zombie & my hunger signals now work properly so his "rules" actually come naturally and I don't need diversions.

When a "healthy diet" is defined as high carb/low fat then it is necessary to ascribe eating issues to psychology.

I actually agree with both sides here in that I know if I eat high carb then this triggers further cravings and binge eating.

However (and this is where PmcK has been useful for me) I also know that even when I am eating good stuff - protein, good fats, no sugar, no high GI , only very small amounts low GI carbs etc, then in times of stress my shoulders still go up and I start eating more urgently and look to the fridge for comfort.

For example (and i am not looking for sympathy here just giving you some background) amongst other things my father has been fighting bile duct cancer for 6 years and has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, I run my own business and have a highly stressful sales job, my brother is causing lots of issues and worry within the family, all of this has caused me to be very on edge particulary since the new year and even before that there were lots of things that happened as well that, no matter how positive i tried to be at the time, still affected me negatively and made me look to food for comfort.

As a result, now I am LCing most of time, although I am not having the full on binges that carbs seemed to trigger , even when I am eating my low - moderate carb meals as per my plan, I still find myself feeling anxious and wolfing food down.

Listening to PmcK and practising the slow fork movements is helping to calm me down and eat slower.

So I am looking at my overating from 2 angles - the biological/physiological (by opting for LC) and also the psychological. The 2 pronged approach definitely seems to be having a gradually calming effect on my previously out of control eating.

That and also following some of the advice in the Leptin diet (cutting out MSG, not snacking, not eating late at night etc) has well to help moderate hormones and encourage good sleep etc.

Sometimes there isn't just one answer.......