"Overweight people who used a new motivational intervention called Functional Imagery Training FIT lost an average of five times more weight than those using talking therapy alone shows new research published today by the University of Plymouth and Queensland University.  In addition users of FIT lost .cm more around their waist circumference in six months  and continued to lose weight after the intervention had finished. Led by Dr Linda Solbrig from the School of Psychology the research involved  participants who were allocated either to FIT or Motivational Interviewing MI  a technique that sees a counsellor support someone to develop highlight and verbalise their need or motivation for change and their reasons for wanting to change.  FIT goes one step further than MI as it makes use of multisensory imagery to explore these changes by teaching clients how to elicit and practice motivational imagery themselves. Everyday behaviours and optional app support are used to cue imagery practice until it becomes a cognitive habit.  Maximum contact time was four hours of individual consultation and neither group received any additional dietary advice or information.  Dr Solbrig who completed the work as part of a PhD funded by The National Institute for Health Research NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care CLAHRC South West Peninsula said Its fantastic that people lost significantly more weight on this intervention as unlike most studies it provided no dietphysical activity advice or education. People were completely free in their choices and supported in what they wanted to do not what a regimen prescribed. The study showed how after six months people who used the FIT intervention lost an average of .kg compared with an average of .kg among the MI group. After  months  six months after the intervention had finished  the FIT group continued to lose weight with an average of .kg lost compared with .kg in the MI group.  Dr Solbrig continued Most people agree that in order to lose weight you need to eat less and exercise more but in many cases people simply arent motivated enough to heed this advice  however much they might agree with it. So FIT comes in with the key aim of encouraging someone to come up with their own imagery of what change might look and feel like to them how it might be achieved and kept up even when challenges arise.  We started with taking people through an exercise about a lemon. We asked them to imagine seeing it touching it juicing it drinking the juice and juice accidently squirting in their eye to emphasise how emotional and tight to our physical sensations imagery is. From there we are able to encourage them to fully imagine and embrace their own goals. Not just imagine how good it would be to lose weight but for example what would losing weight enable you to do that you cant do now What would that look  sound  smell like and encourage them to use all of their senses. As well as being delighted by the success of the study in the short term there are very few studies that document weight loss past the end of treatment so to see that people continued to lose weight despite not having any support shows the sustainability and effectiveness of this intervention.  Trisha Bradbury was one of the participants allocated to the FIT study and she explains I lost my mum at  and being  myself with a variety of health problems my motivation was to be there for my daughter. I kept thinking about wearing the dress Id bought for my daughters graduation and on days I really didnt feel like exercising kept picturing how Id feel. Ive gone from  stone to  stone  and have managed to lower the dosage I need for my blood pressure tablets. Id still like to lose a touch more but Im so delighted with the mindset shift.  Professor Jackie Andrade Professor in Psychology at the University of Plymouth is one of the cocreators of FIT and she explains FIT is based on two decades of research showing that mental imagery is more strongly emotionally charged than other types of thought. It uses imagery to strengthen peoples motivation and confidence to achieve their goals and teaches people how to do this for themselves so they can stay motivated even when faced with challenges. We were very excited to see that our intervention achieved exactly what we had hoped for and that it helped our participants achieve their goals and most importantly to maintain them. The full study entitled Functional Imagery Training versus Motivational Interviewing for Weight Loss A randomised controlled trial of brief individual interventions for overweight and obesity is available to view in the International Journal of Obesity doi .s."