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

Do some people not have food noise at all

Yes, I don’t. I’m just not fussed about food, I’ll eat if I’m hungry but it really doesn’t occur to me to eat if I’m not. So for me it’s not anything remotely related to willpower, or self control, or commitment to health etc. I don’t feel like I have to resist food because when I’m full I don’t want anymore.
This has caused me to always be a bit underweight, and to struggle putting weight on, because I don’t want to eat more than I do.

Oh and this idea that you can cut carbs/sugar for a few days and it solves it always cracks me up. Ive done as long as a month with no carbs/sugar (genuinely - paying attention to even things like fruit, drinks etc). It gets marginally easier to resist but I still LOVE tasty food and end up eating more of it than i need - i just end up enjoying a cheesy omelette or a delicious steak with bearnaise sauce instead of a cake.

I think the answer is that everyone experiences these things difficultly?

I am obese and on Mounjaro currently which makes an enormous difference to food noise for me.

But on the other hand, I have been a very moderate gambler for many many years and genuinely feel no compulsion to gamble more or recklessly.

Why are these things different for me? I have absolutely no idea but I don't think compulsive gamblers choose to be so

I feel like you're fishing for the answer that they are less morally virtuous than you are, certainly many people who post on this subject are. Id that is the case, I am not going to be able to argue you out of wanting to feel superior but I would suggest that you might be a happier person if you didn't get want to judge other people

I am fat, I don’t actually know what food noise is I don’t really understand that concept, I eat when I’m hungry, till I’m full, my problem is I’m always hungry and I don’t get full easily?

Either it's not a full on roar, or you simply couldn't ignore it, or you are just superior to fatties in every way with your iron will. 🙄.

I hadn't heard of food noise until on here. If I want to lose weight which I am doing at the moment. I cut out sugar, biscuits, crisps and chocolate. I am not hungry when I eat them so I don't need them so tell myself don't have them and I don't it's just willpower.

My food noise is often boredom, otherwise it doesn't bother me. Can overrule it though. I do think eating fewer carbs helped. Exercise also helps - never hungry after working out, though I know others are different. And intermittent fasting - not intentionally, just I often get distracted and don't get round to eating.

One thing I also wonder is, with the current thoughts and advice about having 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, I think many people don't know what real hunger (as opposed to emotional or boredom hunger) feels like, and so it may be harder to differentiate "this is my body telling me it needs food" vs "this is my body telling me it wants comfort or stimulation".

And also, because it's almost normalised to eat frequently, then ignoring/saying no to hunger feelings may not be something people are used to.

Some people seen to have a metabolism where small frequent meals suit them better. I prefer to eat one massive meal a day, or maybe one small and one medium, but hardly ever three. Many friends would struggle to eat like that, and I would struggle to eat as they do - but it's often proposed as a one-size-fits-all approach, and I don't think that's true at all.

It sounds like you are really motivated to manage your weight and therefore make the effort to say 'no' to yourself a lot of the time. I think a lot of people lack that motivation - or lack it consistently. For some the positives that they associate with over-eating (be that pure enjoyment of taste, the sense of freedom, the pleasure of shared treats, the use of food as a way of coping with boredom or with more painful emotions, the convenience of unhealthy options etc) are more compelling than the many, many negatives (physical health consequences, impact on appearance, judgement from other people, internalised shame, etc). Some people would rather reach for those biscuits than not reach for them.

I suppose at an extreme end, an actress who has to stay very slim for the purpose of their career and who has their body frequently scrutinised is going to go through a different biscuit cost-benefit analysis than someone whose body shape has little impact on their work. Likewise a woman who has been brought up to believe it is shameful to be larger will go through a different cost-benefit analysis to someone who is less judgmental of and more relaxed about their body. There are infinite variations between people. Some of us who say they want to lose weight / stop overeating / be healthier just don't want it enough... or we do want it but we are more internally conflicted than it is socially acceptable to let on.

Of course many people say that the negatives of over-eating DO outweigh their positives and still find it really hard to stop, so what's going on here? It seems obvious but important to point out that the positives of overeating tend to be to do with instant gratification whilst the negatives tend to be cumulative, longer-term effects. Some people seem to be better than others at sacrificing instant gratification for a longer-term goal. I'm sure that temprement and willpower play a role in determine whether this is achieved, but so do things like habits, the eating behaviours and attitudes of the people in our lives and other aspects of our environment. I therefore don't see it as just being about virtuous self-control winning out over laziness when one person says no to food noise and another doesn't.

Is the same as some people find gambling addictive or smoking - I can’t really comprehend either… but food rules my life. Brains are weird old things.

Low carbing turns it right down. You have to cut out all refined carbohydrate foods though, no sugar, no fizzy drinks, no bread, potato, cakes, biscuits, pasta, rice, cereals etc. It's difficult for about three days then your sweet tooth diminishes and you stop feeling hungry all the time as your blood sugar stabilises. If you're climbing the walls, you can have a keto pud or make something with almond flour and xylitol. You can also have full fat Greek yoghurt with berries and xylitol sprinkled on.

I would love to know op.

My friend is baffled by people who regularly eat things like cake, biscuits. She can easily just eat one, doesn't overly enjoy it and isn't tempted to have another. She's very slim. Generally she doesn't ever seem to crave food, is a bit picky and is frankly a bit disgusted by anyone who isn't slim, she doesn't understand how they have eaten so much.

I battle against my love of food. I am not picky, i love a delicious meal whether savoury, vegetarian, sweet etc. I genuinely enjoy a tasting menu of rich food. I don't eat a lot of processed junk, the sweet/carby foods etc I eat are home made and baked from scratch. I am at the top end of healthy weight and just struggle to lose it because at my age it means pretty much never eating a warm ginger biscuit, or crusty sourdough toast with salted butter, a fresh scone with homemade jam on a summer afternoon. It makes me sad never enjoying those simple pleasures. I manage it for short stretches but end up giving in. I do quite a bit of exercise including muscle work and was very thin until mid thirties but now find nothing compensates for my enjoyment of food. I can't tune out those cravings. Im not sure mounjaro would even work on me as i can enjoy a dessert even when full from a good meal.

Maybe for some people the food noise is a barely perceptible whisper and for others it's the roar of a jet engine.