FOR most of her adult life Lynne Seymour yo-yoed from being a size 22 down to a 12 and back up again.

But now she has now lost almost half her body weight – and kept it off.

Today she is a svelte size eight and her weight has been stable for a year-and-a-half, having lost almost eight stone.

And she says it’s all down to hypnosis.

Before Lynne was constantly trying the latest diet and would lose up to seven stone at a time but after reaching her target weight she would return to her old eating habits and the pounds swiftly piled back on.

Her diet consisted largely of junk food. The 45- year-old mental health nurse from Harefield never ate fruit and seldom cooked.

In her busy job as a ward sister, she survived on convenience food.

“When I was dieting I felt so deprived that I could never maintain the weight loss,” she says.

“I felt really fed up at times. It caused me physical problems. I got out of breath and tired and had problems with my joints – both kneecaps had to be replaced due to osteoarthritis.”

Lynne was so desperate that she was considering gastric band surgery – but then she heard about weight loss hypnotherapy.

In August 2011 she went to the Hampshire Hypnotherapy Centre in Whiteley.

She had four sessions with hypnotherapist Sue Peckham, that lasted an hour each – and after just one session she started noticing changes.

“I had a bag of sweets in the car when I went to my first session.

When I came out I just didn’t want them.

It’s trained my mind to eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m not and if there’s a healthy choice, that’s what I’ll go for.

“I started losing weight after the first week and it kept dropping off. It was no effort at all. I don’t feel deprived. If someone brings cakes into work and I want one, I’ll have it, but mostly I don’t want them.”

Since then her weight has dropped to 8st 9lb and stayed there.

“I’m not battling with myself anymore”

she says.

“I still have things like take-aways but I stop when I’m full.”

Lynne was absolutely delighted when she bought her first size eight clothes and is finally getting rid of her old, larger clothing.

“I never sold my larger clothes before,” she says.

“When I lost weight I used to put them in the loft in case I needed them again. Now I’m selling them all off. It’s weird how well the hypnotherapy has worked. I don’t even think about food now – if I’m hungry, I eat.

“I enjoy food now and I don’t feel guilty all the time.”

Lynne remembers shortly before she went for hypnotherapy she and her mother, who is in her late 60s, took her dog for a walk up a hill. Lynne could only get about a quarter of the way up before she was out of breath, while her mother happily climbed to the top. It brought home to her just how unfit she was.

“Now I’m very active,” she says.

“I can walk for miles. I’m always on the go.”

Now she eats lots of fruit and enjoys cooking – she no longer lives off frozen meals.

“I’d definitely encourage anyone who wants to lose weight to go for hypnotherapy,” she says.

“The results are just so good.”