Food noise. Why can some overcome it and others can’t?

Yes, 100%. I barely think about alcohol and can go weeks without. Food is totally different.

This is interesting. I don’t get ‘food noise’, and I don’t think I ever have. I am slim, a 6-8 in UK sizes. I come from a slim family too, so I imagine there’s a genetic element.

My diet is protein and fat dominant, and isn’t carb heavy, which is cultural influence rather than conscious decision to cut out carbs for the purpose of weight management (Ime there’s an expectation in Britain that every meal has to include a starch in order to constitute a meal). I’m not a snacker, and I don’t have a sweet tooth. I don’t consider not eating things like cake or sweets to be denying myself, as they’re not something I want that I’m stopping myself from have.

Really?

this doesn’t sound too different to how I was brought up. Yet I have food noise all the time.

interestingly my sister doesn’t. She can have drawers full sweets and chocolate and ignore it all.

the difference I think is my sister was always “thin”, whereas I was very athletic, muscly, and perceived as “big”. So my sister was pretty much allowed to eat what she wanted. Encouraged to eat in fact. Whereas I had constant “you’ve had two biscuits, no more”, you can’t really want seconds, don’t be greedy, etc etc. as a result I thought about food all the time. Always wanted more.

i still think about food all the time. Constantly. If I could take a wld I would, in a heartbeat. But I’m only just over weight so don’t qualify. So I battle on.

Same - l have a really healthy relationship with alcohol, just don't think about it really but enjoy the occasional glass of wine - just wish l could be like that with cake!

I think your mentality. I'm obsessed with food, always have been.

When I'm in the right frame of mind, I'm size 10-12. When I'm not, I'm a 12-14. So a range of about 3 stone depending on where my heads at.

What I will say is that at any size, the noise doesnt go away, it just manifests differently. At size 10, I'm planning healthy meals, exercise, considering how I'm going to burn off food intake. At size 14, I'm dieting, focused on calories etc.

I've been overweight most of my adult life, and was diagnosed diabetic aged 40 (my Dad was, and my grandmother) so there was a genetic link but my weight didn't help either. I coasted along for 10 years with Metformin and some small diet changes keeping things under control and then boom! my blood sugars were simply uncontrollable. So I knew something had to change - and I've lost nearly 4.5 stone now by lower carb/higher protein. I eat 3 meals a day, and stopped snacking. And I'm nearly off all medication - just take 1 Metformin a day as a kind of safety net. I eat because I feel genuine hunger, not because my body is craving something.

I think we're all so used to constant snacking/grazing; high sugar/fat/carb dense foods being presented to us as normal. I hate going into supermarkets as I can't eat 95% of what's in them. These foods are designed to make us crave more of them and that's food noise. Eat clean, that goes. And goes quickly.

Anorexia also fucks up your satiety signals, so do bhinge eating disorders. So essentially your body makes less GLP1 along side changes in kher hormones.

So yeah what your describing is the same food noise seen in obesity.

I know it does when I write it down like that. Haven’t done it since my 20s. It was all combined with me suffering from depression and a lot of other self destructive behaviours- self harm, binge drinking, casual sex etc so it’s difficult to separate it all.

In obesity the body's satiety signals are dysregulalted

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/obesity-and-hormones

This link summarises some of it but to be honest saying dysregualted satiety signals is not really something that is easy to say.
Once WLI became a thing and people went from overwhelming hunger to feeling 'normal' the name " food noise" was a clear way of explaining this.

For me the noise is overwhelming, the concept of not eating a meal or just ignoring it was not something I could do. It was an absolutely overwhelming feeling that would stop me being able to do my job, I lacked focus, was incredibly irritable, was emotional and teary. I would also get physical shakes from skipping meals.

My point is the concept of dysregulated satiety is not at all new in obesity research there has just been a new name to describe it.

I would say this is classic eating disorder behaviour.

It's not. I am really happy. I have a lovely life can honestly say there is nothing I would change, happy relationship lovely kids great job no financial worries.

My brain tells me to eat constantly despite me inwardly shouting at myself not to eat it's like I'm unable to stop myself at times and there is definitely a hormonal link it tracks like clockwork with certain times in my cycle.
If I lose weight after about 10lbs it becomes completely impossible to continue fighting it.

I have never, ever, been one of those lucky people who 'forget' to eat when busy. It used to drive me mad when somebody said that as I thought it was them being smug, but the truth is I was jealous! My brain never lets me forget 😣

You simply would not be able to ignore it if it was like it is for some people.

Stop acting like you simply have more willpower and that it's mind over matter. It isn't.

I think it's a mixture of how you were brought up and genetics. In my family I was raised on a 90% processed diet. Donuts for breakfast that sort of diet. It was shocking. Loads of diet drinks packed with artificial sweeteners because they were "healthier".

My mum's relationship with food was awful, she didn't cook, her relationship is still awful. She's gone through various stages of skeletal to grossly obese, all connected to how her mental health is at that time. She has type 2 diabetes, caused by her intense sweet tooth. Despite that, and being told for years if she doesn't sort her diet out she's going to lose her sight (quite close to that happening) and other serious things, we'll go out for a meal, she'll eat a few mouthfuls, declare herself unable to eat more and order a bowl of ice cream and eat the lot. Her mum died from diabetes related illness, her aunty found two days after passing away from a diabetic coma.

I'm very aware of all of this family history, but I've battled with my weight a lot since childhood. Fortunately I don't have the sweet tooth my mum has, I find if I don't eat it I don't tend to want it. I do over eat though if left to my own devices. I have to weigh and calorie count and be insanely meticulous or I just pile weight on. It's like I have no off switch when it comes to eating. I don't recognise I'm full until I'm overly full, and I eat slowly and mindfully.

This. Good for you for having the ‘willpower’ OP But you have no idea how ‘loud’ your noise is compared to the next person. Perhaps what you think of as hard but do-able is actually pretty easy… regardless, if you aren’t obese with health conditions connected to obesity then you don’t need medication.
lucky you!

I’ve never had an eating disorder but have resorted to unhealthy methods in the past- taking speed, smoking a lot, making myself sick. Not done those for a long time though.

For me it’s an obsession with food. It fills my waking thoughts. I’ve been a classic yo-yo dieter since I was 13 and I’m not 44 and I’m sick of it ruling my life. I’ve been a size 10, a size 20 and every size in between. Never had the typical skinny phase during my teens and 20s- I yo yoed then too. My BMI is currently 26/27 and I have no medical complications so don’t qualify for the injections which I am sad about. If I ever reach weight in the future (which is likely given my history), I wouldn’t hesitate.

I don't know OP.

I have suffered v loud food noise since a child. In my teens and twenties it caused bulimia because I couldn't resist eating and binging but then I'd feel so disgusted with myself that I had been unable to control myself, that I'd vomit.

People saying things like 'have some self control' or implying they are better than others for managing to refrain from acting on the food noise by not snacking etc.. made me feel worse because I thought I was a complete failure for over eating.

At that time calorie counting also started.

Although I've not been bulimic for twenty years, I still have v loud food noise and it's v intertwined with constant calorie counting in my head and loud thoughts about 'i want to eat. I mustn't eat.' and thousands of numbers in my head. Numbers of calories in everything and me adding up everything... All the time. I have never been able to switch off the number counting of calories in everything.

Until ... Mounjaro.

I was 27 BMI when I started taking it. The heaviest I've ever been. I lied about my weight to get it. The main reason I wanted it was not to loose weight (though that's v nice!), but simply to have a mental breakdown from the food noise and constant calorie counting.

And it's worked.

The food noise has stopped and my calorie counting has reduced. I am learning to let go of totting up numbers all day every day.

I finally have a mental break from something that has dominated my life since I was 8 years old. I'm 47 now.

I'm sure some people think they are superior because they can stop this mental craziness without wl injections. I don't care to be honest! Think what you want! I am just pleased I have some reprieve from it all. It's honestly life changing.

I’m interested in the concept of food noise. Can I ask, if someone with food noise chooses not to eat at that food noise point, what happens?

I’m wondering because I recently beat an addiction.
The fear of what would ‘happen’ if I didn’t satisfy a craving was what stopped me even trying for so long. Truth is, nothing happened! I just acknowledged the craving was there, and got on with what I was doing. Then it went away.

It’s a new phrase ‘food noise’, not heard it until fairly recently but it does describe what I have battled all of my life. Chunky child, never lost it in adolescence, it’s been a battle my whole life and I’m 50 now!

I turn to food for comfort from any emotion, happy, sad, stressed, you name it, it makes me want to eat! I never lose my appetite ever!

I have lost weight before but never ever have I kept it off. I haven’t been on a diet or managed to lose any weight for about 14 years and subsequently my weight went up to 13 stone!

I’m now doing intermittent fasting and I am losing weight slowly. Think for me reduced work stress and a close bereavement have given me time and determination to work on myself. Whether I will keep it off, who knows but I’ve joined a gym and am determined to be a healthier version of myself. Maybe that will be the difference, I’m focused on improving my health rather than my appearance. I’ve been overweight all my life really, I know now I’m never going to be skinny.

For me it was all hormonal. I went from a skinny kid to a chubby teenager and then obese adult. I would be obsessed with food once a month and eating was almost a compulsion (eat til I felt sick, then keep eating!).
Then I would feel so depressed and filled with self hatred I 'medicated' with junk food. Just an endless cycle.....
Then I hit menopause and the food noise just vanished! I lost over 100Ibs and feel like a different person.

I know some people think it's just will power but I feel I have will power now. I still fancy a cake or chocolate bar now but most of the time I can say no. Before I couldn't say no, it was honestly like a car crash....you could see the disaster coming but didn't feel like you could stop it.

To me it's like saying what can some people reach the top shelf in a supermarket whilst I, at 150cm tall can't - because we are all different. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

I used to be fat because I ate badly. Only ever small portions but too much fat and not enough veg. I changed my diet about 6 years ago, low carb, low sugar, not many fatty foods, loads of veg. The weight dropped off but it was easy for me because I never really had 'food noise'.

A good friend has been clinically obese since I met her about 25 years ago. She started weight loss jabs 2 months ago (alongside therapy and dietary advice) and it's been a revelation to her. She didn't realise how much food noise she had until the jabs made it stop. She thought everyone was like her constantly obsessing about when she could eat next , what it would be and how much she could have. She's eating really well now and looking amazing. Hopefully this will set up new habits that will be with her for life. I'm really excited to go clothes shopping with her.

This is interesting.

I had a tooth out a few days ago. It really hurts and I’m eating yoghurts etc. I have no food noise at all at the moment.

equally, when I’m ill or have a tummy bug I have no food noise noise.

when I was young I had no food noise at all. Then I had a very difficult twin pregnancy with severe vomiting and it’s been here ever since.

This is me. I will never get to cook and eat and experience the range of recipes that I would like to try in my lifetime. Every time I eat something I love the experience of something slightly different (if I can). I am known for ordering something in a restaurant that Im not even sure I will like, so that I have had the experience.

OH completely different, eats a completely beige diet, full of UPFs, same food all the time, always, without doubt will order some sort of fish and chip type combination even in really posh restaurants or a pie/meat dish of sorts. He has to play it safe.

He likes Frey Bentos pies. This is what we're talking about here.