Discover La Tête et le Ventre: a method for losing weight and keeping it off
Who is La Tête et le Ventre for?
La Tête et le Ventre (The Head and the Belly) is a method for people who were within a normal weight range when they reached adulthood and have gradually gained weight through overeating***.
Ideally, you have rarely or never dieted. You may eat more than your body needs***, but do not have another eating disorder such as bulimia or anorexia. Many people recognise themselves in this situation. If this describes your experience, La Tête et le Ventre is intended for you.
***Eating beyond your physiological needs at mealtimes is known as prandial hyperphagia. It can involve losing touch with your natural regulatory cues, such as hunger, fullness, taste and enjoyment.
How does La Tête et le Ventre work?
LA TÊTE ET LE VENTRE IS A PROGRESSIVE METHOD WHOSE MODULES BUILD ON AND REINFORCE ONE ANOTHER.
Information and therapeutic education
This module introduces basic principles intended to help prevent weight gain as you grow older.
It explores questions about food preparation, eating patterns and the energy provided by food:
- How does boiling rice compare with steaming it?
- How does fruit juice compare with eating the whole fruit?
- What is the difference between pasta cooked al dente and pasta cooked for longer?
- How do white bread and sugar compare?
- Does eating a pastry on its own differ from eating it after a meal?
The aim is to help you develop your understanding of food and enjoy eating with less fear of weight gain.
Integrative psychotherapy
You may eat too much when you are stressed, or find it difficult to pay attention to your eating because you are not giving enough attention to your own needs. Stress may also be linked to difficulties asserting yourself, saying no or asking the right people for things that matter to you. Eating can then become a way to compensate, forget or avoid difficult experiences.
Together, we will work on these difficulties so that you can learn to face them rather than turn to food to escape them.
La Tête et le Ventre is a form of psychotherapy that goes beyond a diet.
The food diary
A food diary helps you identify when and where you overeat, snack or eat more than you need.
What lies behind these behaviours? Difficult emotions, distressing thoughts, habits, difficulties managing stress, or finding it hard to stop eating?
The diary helps you map your eating patterns and identify the times and situations you can work on in therapy.
My online food diary
One meal at a time: food, feelings, hunger and fullness. To identify emotional avoidance.
Open my diary
My summary
| When | Food and drinks | Feelings before or during the meal | Hunger before | Fullness after | Actions |
|---|
No meals recorded for this day.
No answers are sent to the website. Without this option, entries disappear when the page reloads. Leave it unchecked on a shared device. The French and English versions share the same diary on this device.
Understand my habits without judging myself.
The natural regulation of weight and appetite
Discover or rediscover your body’s signals:
- Enjoyment, taste, hunger, the feeling of becoming full during a meal, and the feeling of satisfaction that lasts afterwards.
- How do these signals work?
- Why does it matter to respect them, and how can you learn to listen and respond to them?
Listening and responding to your physiological signals can, over time, help with weight loss.
Intuitive Eating
Rediscover the sensory experience of eating: enjoyment, taste, textures and flavours. Learn to focus your attention on your food and savour it, rather than simply eating to fill yourself up.
Long-established habits and learned patterns can lead you to eat more than you need. Paying attention to the sensations of eating helps you reconnect with your body and its physiological needs.
La Tête et le Ventre focuses on enjoyment rather than deprivation, helping you choose food and quantities that respond to your body’s signals.
Choosing minimally processed foods
Learn to choose foods that are minimally processed or unprocessed. The approach encourages a return to simple foods, with a greater place for fresh ingredients and less reliance on industrially processed products.
It also invites you to take a critical look at food advertising when making your choices.
Physical Exercise
Physical activity is included to help preserve muscle as you lose weight. This part of the method explores how movement and daily habits fit into weight management.
How much do you move during the day, and how many steps do you take?
Intermittent fasting
This module considers intermittent fasting within the wider approach to regulating eating behaviour.
It is intended only for people who do not have an eating disorder such as bulimia and who already recognise and respect their hunger, fullness and satiety signals.
The emphasis remains on listening to the body and understanding eating patterns, alongside the psychotherapeutic work of La Tête et le Ventre.