Online Delivery of Emotional Freedom Techniques for Food Cravings and Weight Management: 2-Year Follow-Up

Randomized trial👥 96 participants⚖️ vs. waitlistModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 Australia

In plain English. Overweight and obese adults took an eight-week online tapping course they could work through at their own pace, then were checked back in with two years later. Their food cravings dropped by more than a quarter, they felt less controlled by food, and their anxiety and depression scores improved too — and most of these gains were still holding two years out. Their weight did drop over the first year but crept back by the two-year mark, so tapping looks more reliable for cravings and mood than for lasting weight loss by itself.

What they found

people took part

Participants who completed an 8-week self-paced online EFT program showed significantly reduced food cravings (-28.2%), power of food (-26.7%), depression (-12.3%), anxiety (-23.3%), and somatic symptoms (-10.6%) from baseline to 2-year follow-up, with restraint improved (+13.4%); BMI and weight decreased significantly through 12 months but were no longer significantly different from baseline at 2 years.

How the study worked

Who took partoverweight or obese adults with food cravings (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

Measured withfood craving scale, power of food scale, dietary restraint, BMI/weight, depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms

💡 Where this could help

If food-craving and mood improvements like these continue to hold at scale, picture someone who's cycled through diet after diet finally getting a handle on the cravings driving that cycle by learning to administer tapping to themselves through a free online course, rather than paying for expensive ongoing coaching. The promise here is less about permanent weight loss and more about calmer eating and steadier mood over the long run.

🔬 What to study next

Given gains held for two years while BMI itself normalized back toward baseline by that point, a compelling next step is tracking what's biologically sustaining the craving reduction that long: does an online EFT program shift levels of appetite-regulating hormones, or change activity in brain reward regions on fMRI when shown food cues, in ways that explain why the craving relief outlasts the weight change? A dose-response follow-up checking how much ongoing self-practice correlates with durability at two years would also help clarify what maintenance practice keeps the gains alive.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	96 people
Population	overweight or obese adults with food cravings
Comparison group	waitlist
Outcome measures	food craving scale, power of food scale, dietary restraint, BMI/weight, depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms
Journal	Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Year	2020
Country	Australia
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Stapleton, P., Lilley-Hale, E., Mackintosh, G., & Sparenburg, E. (2020). Online Delivery of Emotional Freedom Techniques for Food Cravings and Weight Management: 2-Year Follow-Up. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2019.0309

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