By Dr. Isabelle Meurgey
An interactive and long-lasting approach
Long-lasting weight loss can only be achieved if we adopt a global and etiological approach for tackling excess weight. We do not all gain weight for the same reasons. Treatments must be personalised and must focus on both the metabolic and the psychological causes.
The cornerstone of treatment
A large number of patients who come to see me can no longer deal with dieting and failure. They already know everything there is to know about dieting; there is very little I can teach them in this respect. Which is why, in my experience, the first appointment is vital; the foundations are laid, through an interrogation which highlights the real reasons for their overweight. There is often a trigger that goes back to their childhood or an ordeal they have gone through in their life. And let’s not forget the considerable damage caused by protein-rich diets, which deregulate the neuromodulators over time and, as a consequence, have an adverse effect on the patient’s eating habits. The interrogation helps the patient to understand why they are overweight and, as a result, things click into place, psychologically-speaking.
Neuroscience to support slimming
The way in which I approach weight loss has changed greatly over the last 20 years, because I was unhappy to see some of my patients regain the weight they had lost. I found a number of effective tools based on neuroscience. They allow us to deprogramme any deep-set beliefs from our childhood or life, such as “finishing everything on your plate”.
Willpower alone is no match for the impulse to snack generated by our subconscious. What are you hungry for? Love, serenity, tenderness? The aim of my method is to let the patient rediscover the sensation of real hunger (the physiological one), which does not make one gain weight.
The protocol must act on mind and body
It involves a blood sample that enables to detect any deficiencies, food intolerances, insulin resistance, etc.
The patient then has a humanist hypnosis session, which is conscious hypnosis where the patient participates in their own inner journey: for example, the symbolic treatment of their inner child, if the problem is very ancient, allows us to heal any life wounds or sever any painful ties with toxic former partners, employers or friends. After the session, the patients feel liberated, lightened and their body soon follows…
Tensions are soothed and emunctories are drained with almost immediate results. The patients are taught to manage stress on a daily basis with 5 minutes of cardiac coherence three times a day (free apps available on smartphone) and/or short meditation for 5 to 10 minutes per day.
The word diet makes you fat!
Focusing on what you should eat instead of what you shouldn’t is the main principle that will get the patient’s brain on board with the weight-loss programme. I recommend a healthy diet with a low glycaemic index (Mediterranean-style diet), but without any drastic restrictions: forbidding certain foods only makes you want them more! A micro nutritional supplement may be prescribed depending on the analyses carried out and the patient’s psycho-metabolic profile (omega 3, probiotics, iodine, etc.).
I see my patients three times on average, the goal being to teach them how to be autonomous and learn to manage their weight by themselves.
Doctor Isabelle Meurgey
Doctor of anti-aging and cosmetic medicine. Graduate from the Rouen medical faculty. Has specialised in preventative and performance medicine since 1997. Permanent member of the French Society of Aesthetic Medicine. Diplomas in Micronutrition, Auriculotherapy, Hypnosis.
