Hello guys!
As promised, I’m back to share with you some of the amazing new research on what we’re learning about tapping for weight management. I know I’m a research geek, but I can’t tell you HOW EXCITED I am about the latest findings – research is how we tell what works, and for me I need to bring you not the latest craze, or what a celebrity endorses, but what science tells us will actually help you in a permanent way. Two of these studies are so new they are in publication right now, so I’ll share with you what I can!
Tapping for Weight Clinical Trial 2: EFT VS CBT.
This study compared EFT to CBT, the current “gold standard” treatment for weight management, and shows that it works at least as well as, if not favourably to CBT (as well as in a shorter time period). This study of people who were overweight or obese BMI categories showed that tapping improved food cravings, power over food choices and dieting mentality to become the same as people of a normal weight – tapping “normalizes” your relationship with food – how cool is that?
Tapping for Weight Clinical Trial 3: Online Tapping for Weight Management
This study assessed on our online program, and is being published right now. While I can’t share the exact numbers, the overall results were incredible (even to us who created the program!). Tapping improved ALL variables measured, including:
- Food cravings
- Subjective power of food (willpower)
- Dietary restraint (diet mindset)
- Anxiety and depression symptoms
- Weight
Further, results improved a year following treatment, showing online tapping gives the same benefits as face-to-face tapping, and making our program the only clinically proven online tapping for weight management program in the world.* Also, while other tapping programs cite Peta’s research in their promotions, this is also the only tapping for weight management program featuring Peta, who is widely regarded at the world leading expert on tapping for food and weight issues.
Clinical Trial 4: Effects of tapping on the brain
This study, presented at the Mind Heart Connect Conference, (and in publication), measured the actual effects of tapping for food cravings on the brain using Functional MRIs. Here’s a couple of pictures of the trial:
While I can’t show you the pictures of the brains yet (arrgghhhhh they are so cool!) when looking at pictures of high calorie foods the emotion centres of participants’ brains lit up (completely understandable – desires for food are very emotional, as you know). After 4 sessions of tapping, they were put back in the FMRIs. This time, their brains showed little to no emotional activity while looking at the same images! This proves tapping switches off the part of your brain that makes you want to eat high calorie foods!
Here’s an animation we did up on on how tapping effects the brain:
Ok, that’s enough research for today! There’s lots to digest, I know, but I love sharing the latest on what we are finding about the benefits of tapping (and why they are happening!).
Peta and our tapping team are never ones to rest on our laurels though. We’re going to continue researching and developing what we do in order to bring you bigger and better tapping into the future.
In fact, I’ll be back soon to let you know about the improvements we’ve been making to our program for our next online group tapping program, which is coming up soon!
I created this blog for people just like you.
If you found it valuable, please help me share it with them!
*For people who are interested, here is a sneak peek at the abstract for the journal article, currently in publication.
Online Group Delivery of Psychological Treatment for Food Cravings and Weight Management: Treatment versus Waitlist
“Obesity is rapidly increasing worldwide, with an estimated 13 percent of adults (i.e., above the age of 18) being clinically obese and 39 percent being overweight (World Health Organisation, 2014). Existing weight loss interventions recommend a combination of dietary restraint and physical exercise, which have been found to be unsuccessful in the long-term as they do not target the psychological determinants linked with overeating (Anderson et al., 2009; Sojcher, Perlman, & Fogerite, 2012). The current research sought to investigate if a new type of therapy, emotional freedom techniques (EFT), could successfully reduce food cravings and aid weight loss in an online format (Church, 2013a; Stapleton, Sheldon & Porter, 2012). EFT utilises evidence-based cognitive and behavioural techniques as well as acupressure stimulation, or ‘tapping’, which has been found to have anxiety-reducing effects (Church, 2013b; Fang et al., 2009). Participants completed an 8-week online EFT intervention targeting food cravings, dietary restraint, subjective power of food, weight, somatic symptom severity, anxiety, and depression symptoms, or a waitlist control condition. Post-intervention analyses revealed significant reductions on all measures for participants in the EFT condition, with no significant differences for participants in the waitlist control group. Six- and 12-month follow-up analyses revealed significant reductions from pre-intervention on all measures. Analyses also revealed that as individuals’ food cravings improved, their symptoms of anxiety and depression improved. The current study presents the first clinically researched trial of online delivery of EFT for weight management, and provides preliminary findings of the utility of online EFT as an adjunct tool in the fight against obesity worldwide.”
