We are rapidly approaching that time of year when most people's minds turn to, among other things, their stomachs. Christmas is a time for over-eating - and inevitably a time, shortly afterwards, when many people turn to hypnotherapy for help with weight loss.

Weight loss is simple, right? You just have to eat less and exercise more. Easier said than done sometimes, but now scientists have come up with an interesting new theory that could make it easier for all of us. And, as so often, they seem to think it's all in the mind.

Their studies found that people who repeatedly IMAGINED the consumption of an item of food subsequently consumed less of that food than people who imagined consuming the food just a few times or performed a different task.

The result, from a study of more than 300 volunteers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, seems to fly in the face of intuition that imagining a meal will make your mouth water even more.

Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor there, said: "Trying to suppress one's thoughts of desired foods in order to curb cravings for those foods is a fundamentally flawed strategy. We have two components in our desire for food: liking and wanting. You may very much like ice cream but not want it for breakfast. We also have a more motivational aspect called wanting, and that's more of a desire to consume this thing right now or to obtain more of it."

Morewedge and his team saw a reduction of around 50% in the amount of food consumed by participants who had been told to imagine eating before being given the bowl of food.

So there you have it: think hard enough about that extra chocolate and you might find yourself eating only half of it. And if you decide you need to train your mind further in your approach to food, you might find that cognitive hypnotherapy is the route for you. You can find out more about this at www.nickjenkinshypnotherapy.co.uk.