The Tapping Evidence Base
Weight & Food Cravings

Clinical benefits of emotional freedom techniques on food cravings at 12-months follow-up: A randomized controlled trial

Stapleton, P., Sheldon, T., Porter, B. · Energy Psychology Journal · 2012

Randomized trial👥 96 participants⚖️ vs. waitlist (crossover design)Moderate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 Australia
In plain English. Ninety-six overweight or obese adults did a four-week tapping program for food cravings, and researchers checked back a full year later. The improvements in cravings, weight, and general coping were still holding at that one-year mark. This paper specifically updates and confirms the durability of an earlier six-month result from the same trial.

What they found

96
people took part

Significant improvements occurred in weight, BMI, food cravings, power of food, craving restraint, and psychological coping from pretest to 12 months (p < .05).

How the study worked

Who took partoverweight/obese adults (n=96)
What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.
Compared withwaitlist (crossover design)
Measured withfood cravings, power of food, dietary restraint, psychological symptoms, weight, BMI

💡 Where this could help

Think of someone whose New Year's resolution to control cravings usually fades by March. If a technique's benefits are still holding a full year later, as this study suggests, it points toward something learned once in a short program and then owned for life — free to keep practicing indefinitely, with no ongoing appointments or cost.

🔬 What to study next

With gains holding a full year out, it's worth testing what's driving durability biologically — does the initial course of tapping produce a lasting shift in cortisol reactivity to food cues, or in reward-circuit response to craved foods, testable via fMRI, that would explain why the behavior change outlasts the active intervention? A trial with continuous glucose or hunger-hormone monitoring across the 12 months, compared against a structured relapse-prevention program, would show whether this durability is uniquely tied to tapping's mechanism or reflects any successful behavior-change program's typical fade-resistant tail.

The full record

DesignRandomized trial
Participants96 people
Populationoverweight/obese adults
Comparison groupwaitlist (crossover design)
Outcome measuresfood cravings, power of food, dietary restraint, psychological symptoms, weight, BMI
JournalEnergy Psychology Journal
Year2012
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
MethodEFT / tapping
Publication typeStudy / trial
Verification✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Stapleton, P., Sheldon, T., & Porter, B. (2012). Clinical benefits of emotional freedom techniques on food cravings at 12-months follow-up: A randomized controlled trial. Energy Psychology Journal. https://doi.org/10.9769.EPJ.2012.4.1.PS

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on Weight & Food Cravings

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THE TAPPING EVIDENCE BASE Weight & Food Cravings 96 participants WHAT THEY FOUND Significant improvements occurred in weight,BMI, food cravings, power of food, cravingrestraint, and psychological… Randomized trial · 96 participants Stapleton · 2012 · evidence.thetappingsolution.com