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
Ninety-six overweight or obese adults did a four-week tapping program for food cravings, and researchers checked back a full year later.

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 part overweight/obese adults (n=96)
What they did In a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.
Compared with waitlist (crossover design)
Measured with food 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