Gastric Mind Band

If someone told us we could lose weight, and keep it off permanently, without actually dieting, or getting surgery we'd probably hit them and call them liars for cruelly getting our hopes up and then run out and get a box of cookies. If they then told us this magical process had a 75% success rate, we might just put down the cookies and listen.

You might be familiar with gastric band surgery, y'know 'el ring' as we Egyptians fondly refer to it, where they insert a ring-like device at the top of your stomach to treat obesity. You might not however, be familiar with its non-surgical counterpart, the Gastric Mind Band. Basically, it's a psychological approach to weight loss instead of dieting or surgery, and for the first time, it's officially in Egypt.

"What we advocate with this therapy is a healthy lifestyle and not just losing weight," Rania Sabry, one of the founders of the new-age weight loss approach in Egypt, along with Mohamed El Ghandour, tells us. The technique was developed and perfected by Martin and Marion Shirran, over a six year period, at their Elite Clinic in Spain, and their approach has received considerable positive attention from both academics and the world’s media.

The way the whole process works involves a lot of super-psych elements – cognitive behavioral therapy, time proscriptive therapy, guided imagery and a lot of other psychiatric jargon that we assume that you, like us, won't really understand. But essentially, the process breaks down to 4 sessions, a total of twelve hours, where they reprogramme your mind to alter the way you think about food. "Normally, people diet to lose weight, and 8 out of 10 times people who actually reach their target gain back the weight," Sabry tells us, "This is because they diet with their conscious mind – their subconscious mind is suppressed." What the Gastric Mind Band does is "train the conscious and subconscious mind together to have the same goal."

Over various sessions, which include filling out lengthy questionnaires from which they decipher answers about your attitude towards food, therapy sessions,  blood tests, and hypnosis, you eventually become geared towards a whole new outlook and mentality which lasts throughout the rest of your life. Now we tend to think hypnosis is a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but this Gastric Mind Band technique has been functional in the UK for over 8 years, and is exploding all over the world right now, largely due to its 75% success rate, which is pretty damn high. "You still have to have a very strong will to lose weight, you need to be serious about it," Sabry says. "It can't just be a matter of 'oh hmmm I think I might like to drop a few pounds'."

If you're interested in finding out more about this therapy, they'll be hosting a free seminar at Le Lido Clubhouse in City View on October 14. From what we've heard and read, it's a way to finally get your weight under control without obsessively counting calories, or desperately taking diet pills, or starving yourself all day and then binge eating… you get the picture. And it's meant to be a permanent solution. The seminar will take you into a more detailed explanation of the process so you can decide for yourself. And if you decide it's not for you, you can always leave the lecture and head over to the Starbucks in the clubhouse, grab a mocha latte with extra whipped cream and brownie.

You can check out Le Lido Clubhouse's Facebook page here or follow them on Instagram @LeLidoClubhouse. Or check out Gastric Mind Band's page here.