WHEN IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE: WEIGHT-LOSS THROUGH THERAPY

Susie Orbach is author of the bestselling Fat Is A Feminist Issue ,an advocate of the ‘Diets Don’t Work’ philosophy and a psychotherapist whose clients have included Princess Diana.

Orbach is outspoken. “Dieting can ruin your metabolism. When you diet, your metabolism slows down and so dieting can make you fat.” She is also uncompromising about what she sees as the vicious confidence trick of the weight-loss industry.

“When I first started, not every woman had an eating issue; not everybody had a body dysmorphic problem. Now everybody does, but they don’t bother to talk about it. It’s beyond depressing. It’s hateful, really, what the culture has done.”

Marc David, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating and author of the best-selling The Slow Down Diet, tells us to: “Forget what you know about weight-loss because it hasn’t worked,” and that “our weight challenges are here to teach us... Extra weight is not the enemy, it’s the wisdom of life speaking through the body.”

Marisa Peer, author, therapist and motivational speaker who works with Olympic athletes, celebrities and royalty, bases much of her work around hypnotherapy and the idea of reprogramming the brain to change patterns and associations around food, with the aim of sustainable weight-loss.

Her bestselling book You Can Be Thin promises: “You are going to change your attitude, your language, your thinking, your whole mindset to reach your ideal weight and stay that way for good.”