Have Weighty Issues? Watch “I Can Make You Thin.”

By Elaine Bergstrom

Imagine shedding weight without having to follow an annoying diet or give up the foods you love. Sure, you’ve heard that line plenty of times before and, in spite of all the effort, if you’re like most dieters, the love handles keep growing.

British self-help guru Dr. Paul McKenna offers a better idea in his series I Can Make You Thin, airing Sundays on TLC. Watch it, and he promises that you will get thinner as he helps you to reprogram your mind and transform your relationship with food. After watching the first episode, I’m hooked. And with weighty issues of my own to deal with, I’ll be blogging my thoughts and experiments with the guru’s methods. Be sure to check back here if you’re interested in reading them — and sharing your own observations.

I also got a chance to interview McKenna before his show premiered. Here are his comments on it:

Channel Guide: Explain a bit about neuro-linguistic programming and how you use it in the series.

McKenna: The ethos of this program is simple; watch this show and you lose weight!

Through the TV screen I will use powerful psychological techniques to help viewers knock out cravings, stop emotional eating and get motivated to take exercise. There is no belief required, no willpower necessary — you simply have to follow a few instructions and remember to follow them.

All of our decisions about what we eat, when we eat and how much we eat take place in the mind. Your mind is like a computer; it has its own software which helps you to organize your thinking and behavior. All of your behaviors are learned. For example, as a child when you learned to tie your shoelaces in the beginning, you had to consciously apply each step. Then, it begins to get easier and easier, and before you know it, you can just do it without even having to think about it.

It’s the same with eating — all our behaviors around food are learned, so they can be re-learned.

My system is completely different than a diet; it’s a psychological conditioning system.

Is this a show where people should put the kids to bed, turn down the lights and get into a relaxed position, or is it a bit less “on the couch” than that?

It’s not an “on the couch show.” It’s an uplifting entertainment program, with a life-changing message. There is no hypnosis, just simple thought experiments that have a powerful effect. Every week we tackle a different subject — emotional eating, breaking cravings, etc. We will follow different people using the system and see how it changes their lives for the better. But we won’t just be watching other people succeed; I will do the techniques through the screen to millions of Americans watching at home so that they can get the benefits themselves. In addition we will make the techniques available on the show’s website so people can get more help during the week.

What is the biggest false message about food that must change before people can begin to lose weight?

It’s that weight loss is difficult. It’s only difficult if you use a diet where you have to starve yourself, which always leads to binging. Diets which ban certain foods make you feel like you are missing out and make cravings for that forbidden food overwhelming.

With my system you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight. However, if you eat in the way I suggest and use the psychological techniques we will be doing on the show, you will find it easy to stop and leave food on your plate and get motivated to take exercise. You will transform your relationship with food.

Is it more complex to use hypnotism for weight loss than other things? To clarify, you can’t NOT eat the way you can NOT smoke or NOT drink, and it would seem that moderation would be harder to achieve than outright prohibition.

We won’t be using hypnosis on the program, but simple psychological techniques and changes in the behaviors around food. Yes, we don’t need to smoke or drink alcohol to survive, but we do need to eat. Eating is a natural act; if someone is overweight they have overridden their body’s natural programming. All we are going to do is reset that.

What kind of success can people who watch the show expect to receive?

About 70 percent of viewers will have success in losing weight. This is very good when you consider that diets have a success rate of around 9 percent. My system has a success rate of 71 percent, through two independent studies. But the show is about more than just losing weight. I don’t want to create more miserable thin people. The program will also stop the fixation with food and significantly increase self-esteem.