Evans' mom convinced her to test hypnosis and, although skeptical, she went to a seminar featuring hypnotherapist Rena Greenberg. "We have a lot of old patterns which are bombarding the mind and just what we're doing is sort of rewriting the script," Greenberg said of her tactics. Greenberg says she has her clients visualize cleansed herbal slim tea pushing home plate away because you're no longer hungry or visiting the gym instead of binging on cookies. After only one session, Evans says it changed the way in which she ate. "I would pause and think about what I'm putting within me," she recalled.

Still, critics express it won't work for everybody. "It's unproven," Rebecca Solomon, a dietician and nutritionist, explained. "It fails for those and the studies do demonstrate need to believe it's going to work for results." For Evans however, she is going to a fitness center for the first time in her life and listens to her hypnosis CDs when she gets like she's moving away from track. She's successfully kept the weight off for seven many tells the skeptics to not judge until they've used it. "It helped me," she said. "But I do think you have to have a balanced view and be willing to listen."

Study finds obese weight-loss counselors aren't competitive with their slimmer colleagues
Some research is more surprising than the others. Falling in to the not-too-surprising category is the finding by researchers in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that finds overweight counselors aren't as effective as their slimmer counterparts are becoming obese patients to shed weight.

Quite simply, patients may be more receptive to people who "practice what they preach."

Study leader Sara Bleich, PhD, an affiliate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management, place it a little more academically:

"Our studies have shown that the personal weight of health tibetan baicao tea professionals matters when assessing their perceived degree of success in helping obese patients to lose weight," she said. "Health experts who maintain a healthy weight feel more empowered to help their obese patients achieve how much they weigh loss goals and reported being more productive at helping obese patients lose weight."