The subconscious part of the mind sometimes confuses being healthy with being fat. This causes a drive to be fat in order to remain healthy.

There are many icons and cultural myths in Western culture that equate fatwith good health and slenderwith ill health.

You have probably never heard anyone say, "My, what a healthy, skinnybaby!"

On the other hand, here is something that is all too frequently heard by people attempting to shed some extra pounds: "You look like you've lost some weight. Are you sick?"

Most people know that being slender is much healthier than being overweight. But we all know that losing weight, while almost an American national mania, is all too seldom achieved. So when we do notice that a person has lost some weight, our first thought is that there is something wrong with him.

Hence the question: "Are you all right?"

This is so common that it often results in a person's subconscious mind associating being overweight with being healthy. This does not make good conscious sense, but it is perfectly logical to the subconscious because it functions only with deductive logic. If inductive reasoning were available to the subconscious we would not have nearly so many dysfunctions.

To achieve significant and sustained weight loss, it is necessary to deal with one's own subconscious fixations about health and fat. First, use ideomotor questioning to determine your subconscious beliefs, attitudes and values (BAVs) as they relate to fat and health.

Second, formulate suggestions that will work toward changing any dysfunctional subconscious BAVs.

Then, when the weight loss program begins to show results, it will be necessary to formulate and apply suggestions to block any negative suggestions people might happen to make. For example, being asked if you are sick can be a potent suggestion that, if unanswered within your own mind and suggestion program, can undo a lot of good work.

Use ideomotor questioning to determine your own subconscious ideas about weight and health, and use inoculation suggestions to prevent other people's comments from robbing your weight loss program of its effectiveness.