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Research at Tufts-New England Medical Center has proven that all popular diets work if you can stick to them. Atkins - low carb; The Zone - low glycemic index; Ornish - low fat; Weight Watchers - low calorie.

But researchers have provided convincing evidence that almost no one can stick to any diet because of their appetite.

So to be successful with a diet, weight loss requires appetite suppression.

Webster's Dictionary defines "Appetite" as: "The desire for gratification of some want, craving, or passion." So "appetite" is eating and drinking for relaxation and pleasure.

It's a mistake to confuse hunger with appetite. Hunger is defined as "The body's call for nourishment." In other words, when the body needs food, that's when you feel true hunger. By that definition, it is impossible for a person who is overweight to "be hungry."

However, it is possible for you to have feelings that you interpret as "hunger." And the stomach contracting in expectation of being fed causes those feelings.

When you were an infant and you started crying, your mother would put a bottle into your mouth to pacify you. You would get distracted, become mellow, and often go to asleep. That sequence of events was repeated hundreds of times so that your unconscious mind was programmed: When something goes into your mouth, you get relaxation and pleasure from it.

Now that you are mature, if you feel tense or nervous, you crave something in your mouth for relaxation and pleasure - food!

People Also Get Cravings and Urges Because Of Conditioning.

When you pair eating with any other activity, the other activity will trigger cravings for food and a feeling of urgency to eat. This is called a conditioned response. For example: If you eat when you see someone else eating, you will automatically get an urge to eat each time you see someone else eating.

What About Compulsive Overeaters Who Eat Because Of Emotional Reasons?

A compulsion is defined as an "irresistible impulse." One of the presuppositions of NLP is: There is a positive intention behind all behaviors. In other words, our unconscious mind only motivates behaviors that benefit or protect us in some way. In NLP terms, we say that being fat is a behavior when it provides a positive outcome or intention.

You may be wondering what the possible positive outcomes of being fat could possibly be. The list of probabilities is as long as the list of people who are fat. But I'll give you a classic example: A person gets their heart broken in a relationship. So to protect the self from getting the heart broken again, the unconscious motivates the self to gain weight to keep the self out of relationships and prevent another broken heart.

A big secret to getting rid of your appetite is called reframing. With an NLP Reframe, we respect the fact that the unconscious is compelling us to consume extra food for relaxation and pleasure. And if we are eating compulsively because being fat is protecting us, we respect that also.

In an NLP Reframe, we compromise with our unconscious mind. In the case of eating for relaxation and pleasure, we ask our unconscious to assume the responsibility for making us automatically substitute alternate behaviors. The new behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the same relaxation and pleasure. But they must also be more consciously acceptable to us. When the unconscious is motivating us into alternate behaviors that provide the relaxation and pleasure that we require - we lose our appetite on this score.

If you are an emotional eater, we do an additional reframe. We ask your unconscious to accept responsibility for finding new behaviors in place of being fat. These new behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the same positive outcomes. But they must be substitutions that are more consciously acceptable to you. When your unconscious is motivating you into alternate behaviors that provide the same protections that you require, you lose the urge to overeat.

As far as feeling cravings because of conditioning (conditioned responses), we utilize various NLP and hypnotic techniques that erase or "extinguish" those conditioned responses. That breaks the connection between the behaviors, and obliterates the cravings and urges.

As soon as your appetite has been eliminated, and all of your compulsions to overeat have been dealt with, you can easily stick to any type of healthful diet indefinitely so that it becomes a permanent lifestyle change.

Alan B. Densky, CH is certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists. He has been in practice since 1978. You can learn more by going to his Neuro-VISION audio and video hypnosis website. On the site he maintains a hypnosis article library. And he offers free hypnosis newsletters and MP3's.