Losing weight isn’t easy. It is not uncommon to see differences or even declines between diet-induced changes in lifestyle, daily activities, and food. While complementary medicines can’t replace a basic prescription, did you know they can still help you reach your goals? Focus on 4 complementary medicines that can boost weight loss.
Homeopathy as a Weight Loss Aid
It is important to detoxify your body before starting a diet. Things like pollution, cigarettes, alcohol or coffee consumption tend to clog the body, reducing the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies. Detoxifying your body also speeds up your metabolism, which burns fat faster. Homeopathic solution prepared by a pharmacist to stimulate the organs responsible for the detoxification of the body, such as the liver, kidneys, thyroid, lungs, venous circulation, skin and intestines: Carduus marianus 4 DH, Celandine 4 DH, Dandelion 4 DH, Solidago 4 DH, Berberis 4 DH, Lappa Major 4 DH and Viola Tricolor 4 DH. The treatment lasts a week at the start of the diet with 20 to 30 drops 3 times a day.
Different homeopathic remedies can influence our behavior and inclination towards food, thus helping us to better resist different temptations. For example, Ignatia Amara is effective in appetite regulation and anti-bite: 2 capsules of Ignatia Amara 7 CH 3 times a day are enough to enjoy its benefits. If the desire to eat is permanent, preferably take 2 capsules of Antimonium Crudum 9 CH 3 times a day.
Easier Weight Loss With Herbal Remedies
When it comes to herbal remedies for weight loss, it is agar which is the most popular. And for good reason, this vegetable and natural gelling agent derived from seaweed is very low in calories, made up of 80 percent fiber, forms a gel in the stomach, and has appetite suppressant properties. Agar also absorbs some of the sugar and fat you eat with your meals. It turns into jelly below 40°C, but it must be warmed beforehand. That’s why it should only be used in the kitchen for hot preparations or when it needs to be warmed before serving. For example, 1 gram of agar can be added to a hot drink and consumed 15 minutes before meals before cooling. The agar will then turn into jelly inside the body. Too high a dose of agar has a laxative effect:
Other natural products have an “appetite suppressant” effect. This is especially true of pectin-rich apples and konjac, a perennial plant that contains dietary fiber (glucomannan) with a very high water-absorbing capacity. One gram of these fibers can absorb up to 200ml of water! Eating it then increases the viscosity of the bolus while increasing satiety. That is why it is recommended to take the tablet (1 gram) one hour before meals.
There are also plants with “fat-burning” properties, that is, the ability to increase calorie consumption and thus break down more fat. These are usually caffeinated plants, such as green tea or guarana, which are both used in some weight loss diets. Green tea is mostly consumed as a brew (up to 3 to 4 cups per day, preferably with food), while guarana is more commonly taken in tablet form (up to 1 to 3 grams per day with a meal). But be careful, most caffeine-rich plants are not recommended for children, people with high blood pressure, and pregnant women.
Acupuncture as a Weight Loss Aid
In cases of weight loss, auricular acupuncture is often mentioned. This type of acupuncture uses the ear as a representation of the body (it has an inverted fetal shape) to treat various ailments. Stimulation of certain parts of the ear can, among other things, regulate appetite and cravings for snacks. According to a study in Korea1 of 91 Koreans (16 men and 75 women) with a BMI of 23 or greater, auricular acupuncture reduced patients’ BMI by 5.7% to 6.1%.
Ear acupuncture can also be very effective in people with more severe obesity, but especially if the obesity is related to excess food and less so to other factors such as genetics2.
Finally, other studies3 have shown that acupuncture (without specifying the type of acupuncture) can significantly reduce BMI in severely obese patients (BMI greater than or equal to 35) after a few months of treatment. Consequently, after 12 months of treatment, the mean BMI of the study population dropped from 40.22 to 31.1. The therapy also came with a diet prescription, but this group lost more weight than a control group, which followed a stricter diet and more exercise and didn’t receive acupuncture. Acupuncture has appetite-suppressing, metabolism-regulating, and anti-stress properties, making it an interesting alternative to dieting to accelerate weight loss.
Facilitate Weight Loss Through Hypnosis
Hypnosis involves putting a patient in a trance in order to suggest ideas to him that will change his behavior or bodily sensations. Therefore, hypnosis can help a patient seeking to lose weight to achieve his goals, especially by leading him to abhor fatty foods, or conversely by reinforcing his idea of ​​a balanced diet, reducing snacks, etc.
It is recognized that stress and emotional problems can lead to overeating, which can lead to weight gain1. Therefore, hypnosis may also have an indirect effect on weight, as several studies have shown2: Reducing stress through hypnotherapy resulted in significant weight loss in patients compared to a group of witnesses.
Nonetheless, hypnosis must be viewed as an adjunct therapy that can facilitate more traditional therapies. For people who are overweight, it is often accompanied by cognitive therapy or other psychotherapy.
