I'm on the hypno-diet: Wife loses four stone after therapist convinces her she's got a gastric band.

Dieting can often depend on an element of mind over matter.  For Marion Corns, it involved nothing else. The mother of three has lost four stone after allowing herself to be hypnotised - and told she had been fitted with a gastric band.

Believing her stomach has shrunk to the size of a golf ball under a surgeon's knife, the 35-year-old is now able to eat only tiny portions of food.

Mind over matter: Marion Corns weighed 15st 6lbs (left) before she had Gastric Mind Band hypnotherapy which made her think her stomach was the size of a golf ball and now weighs 11st 7lbs (right).

And in the four months following the treatment, her weight has dropped to just over 11st 7lb, while her dress size has gone down from 22 to a 14.

Over five sessions of hypnotherapy, says Mrs Corns, her therapist talked her through every detailed step of the medical procedure as if she were actually inside an operating theatre.

Specialist equipment then filled the hypnotist's room with aromas designed to smell like a hospital, until eventually Mrs Corns began to feel a tightening sensation in her stomach.

Delighted Marion said: 'I have tried every other diet and exercise plan the world has to offer.

'I've tried tablets, WeightWatchers, Atkins, Slimfast, milkshakes and even a personal trainer, but none of them helped me.

'Now I am able to shed up to three pounds a week because I believe I have had a band fitted into my stomach.

'Bizarrely, I can remember every part of the 'procedure' - including being wheeled into theatre, the clink of the surgeon's knife and even the smell of the anaesthetic.'

A real gastric band operation usually costs £7,000 and has the same level of risk related to any major operation including infection and DVT.

After revealing how the birth of her three children left her with no time to exercise and admitting gorging on mid-morning bacon sandwiches, big lunches and giant-sized dinner portions, she booked herself in for four sessions with her therapist.

Mind over matter: After four sessions Marion felt her stomach tightening and can now only eat small portions of food

Using a combination of hypnotherapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, she was taken on a 'virtual tour' through the 'operation'.

After five sessions of the treatment - which is 100 per cent safe because it eliminates the risks of general anaesthetic, DVT and MRSA - Marion began to feel a tightening sensation in her stomach.

Marion added: 'Now if I try and eat a large portion I feel a pulling sensation in my tummy as if my stomach is stretching.

'I simply cannot eat large portions of food any more. I did manage to force down a KFC burger once but I felt really sick, as if it was stuck in my throat, and I had to lie down for three hours afterwards.

'I am thinner now than I ever have been and if I can lose another stone I will be exactly the weight I want to be.

'I feel like I fit in now. People don't stare at me anymore.'

Jacqui Lowdon, dietician and spokeswoman for the British Dietary Association, said she could see why the treatment would be attractive to a lot of people.

And she added: 'This is quite a novel idea and I've certainly never come across it before.

'Gastric bands are available on the NHS to those who have problems with their weight, but there are a lot of side effects.'

For more information contact Andy Garland on Free Phone 0800 612 2878 or
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