A mum helped her overweight daughter shift an amazing six stone by tricking her into believing she'd had a gastric band fitted.
Danielle Davies, 26, piled on the pounds after splitting with her boyfriend. Despite trying various diet plans, including calorie counting and fasting, nothing worked long term, and at 14-stone she turned to her hypnotherapist mum for help.
Beverley, 48, put Danielle into a hypnotic trance and convinced her that her stomach was smaller and that she had to eat vastly reduced portion sizes.
After just one 25-minute session, Danielle said she immediately cut down on her calorie intake. Within six months, she had shed an amazing six stone, shrinking from a size 18 to an eight.
"When mum suggested it, I had visions of bursting into laughter as she tried to put me under," slim-line Danielle told the Daily Mail. "When she said she could hypnotise me into thinking I had a gastric band fitted, it sounded mad. But at 14 stone I was desperate."
Danielle's weight gain began when she was a teenager studying away from home. Her student diet of pizza, burgers and curries soon put paid to her usually trim nine-stone frame, sending her weight spiralling. After a relationship break up, she ate even more, turning to fatty food for comfort.
"I could easily polish off a packet of crisps, biscuits and a bar of chocolate in front of the TV, all washed down with teas laden with sugars," she admits.
Mum Beverley says that despite a twenty-year-career as a hypnotherapist, hypnotising her daughter was totally different to treating her regular clients.
"Hypnotising patients is one thing but putting your own daughter under is another," she said. "But I found Danielle was a surprisingly good patient."
Danielle was put into a 'dream-like state' by her mum, who then told her her stomach was smaller and couldn't take so much food. She convinced her that if she continued to eat junk food she would make herself sick.
Having maintained her figure for a year, Danielle says she now eats what she wants but always has her mum's voice in the back of her mind reminding her not to over eat.
"I can't thank mum enough," she said. "I'm so thrilled with my new figure. I'd tried every diet going and hypnotherapy was a last resort."