To ask what causes 'food noise'?

[AllyHayHay]

I don't know an awful lot about obesity or the new weight loss drugs, but some of the positives seem to be a reduction in 'food noise' and the merciful cessation of years of endless diet cycles.

I would like to understand more about food noise though - I understand, from what I have read, what it is, but I am puzzled about how it actually starts?

From what I can make out, food noise seems to be integral to not being able to lose weight for many people. Is it something that is permanently there, say from childhood onwards, or does it develop once a certain weight has been maintained for some time?

It is something that I have only really heard about since the chatter about GLP-1 drugs became more popular online, and it would be great if a better understanding of food noise could create more awareness and understanding for doctors and healthy weight people alike, who may have previously been ignorant of it.

For me, it's any chatter related to food/weight/calories. And that tended to start first thing in the morning and was present basically constantly all day.

Eg.

From the very moment I woke up my thoughts would go something like this ..

"I'm hungry, shall I grab a biscuit?...no it's too many calories. How many calories? 100 calories. How many calories will I have left for the day? What if I have porridge? No that's 300 calories, that's too much. But if I don't eat anything I'll be hungry, then I'll eat more later. What might I eat? But I'm hungry, so I need something?.but I'm so fat I should try not to eat anything..but I could probably have just a bite of a biscuit..but maybe that's 50calories..maybe I could have toast..no that's too much it's a a whole meal......blah blah blah from the moment I wake to the moment I sleep.

I have been on mounjaro for 6 months now. I still have food noise but it's much much less.. I am reducing the dose so it is noticeable but when the dose was at its peak it was amazing. On days when I had full suppression, the noise was almost gone. Like I actually had space in my head to think of other things...

That Reddit thread just appears to be a lot of medics saying that recommending Exercise is just a con. It’s not effective for weight loss, especially long term, even diets don’t really work.

Got to love being brought up with Special K adverts and Weight Watchers.

I’ve felt a bit of a failure on WLIs. I don’t think I do anymore reading that.

This feels exactly like me too.

There's always that 'one' who seems resistant (not to mention rude) towards a patient's lived experience. Especially that of women.

With further reading I enjoyed the comments from cardiologists who are at least attempting to remove the stigma diet failures perpetuate. I suppose they get to see first hand how the medication reverses a good amount of disease.
It was a largely positive thread with some decent stuff in there. Still reddit-y though!

As this thread has demonstrated, there's lots of different factors at play, but yes - food 'noise' is really just a nice word for an eating addiction. Very very interesting from a previous poster about picking their nails, ive read something similar elsewhere.
I used to have food noise, and I would have sworn on my mothers life i was genuinely hungry.
I wasn't, I was chronically dehydrated with a sugar addiction, it turns out. When I have a run of eating badly and not drinking enough water, the noise comes back.
I hate it when people say 'its so patronising when people tell fat people what to eat, they know whats healthy to eat' because thats just not true for a lot of people. They believe their diet is healthy because they have vegetables in it, and thats just not the full story. Some write people off as greedy and eating the wrong thing which isnt true, but then others insist that they arent greedy (addicted) and are eating the right things which also isnt true, and we cant shy away from that either or people just won't get the help and support they need! Unfortunately it needs proper individual focus from a professional and the resources arent there.

Michael Moseley’s son has written a book called food noise and the beginning of the book describes it perfectly

I’d love to know if it has been an eating addiction on its own I may have had or it’s been hormonal.

The carb cravings I had with PMS were something else.

I’m orally fixated. Thumb sucker, nail biter, over eater, over drinker, smoker.
I am overweight not obese, not a 10 a day smoker, can stop nail biting for 3 months…but constantly spiralling between all my habits.
Going on the jab cured pretty much all of them. Very weird .
Unfortunately I don’t have £100 spare to stay on it otherwise I would.

I don’t really think that’s it.

Food noise is where food almost talks to you, where it is there is your subconscious. This doesn’t have to be accompanied by feelings of shame. I crave mainly sweet foods, although sometimes it alternates sweet and savoury. I not ashamed of this and I don’t eat in secret.

In terms of when does this start, I certainly didn’t have this as a child, or on my teens and twenties when I drunk a lot of alcohol and smoked, so probably at some point in my late 20s / early 30s. I have at times, attempted low carb eating (doesn’t last long as I don’t really enjoy that kind of food) and this very much reduces the feeling.

I understand that when on WLIs people are able to look at food a lot more objectively and eat for nutrients, rather than being guided by emotions and cravings.

I don't think it's an eating addiction. Not for me.

I don't even really like food that much. For me my problem is, and has always been, hunger and a fear of fat. I basically am (or was before mounjaro) always always hungry, and the food noise was me CONSTANTLY adding up calories in my head and battling what and whether to eat or not. I had a CONSTANT internal monologue calculating calories in everything (even chewing gum, coffee....) and trying to battle what and whether to eat or not, and if I did eat, or over eat, then the food noise was me telling myself off for eating, and working out how many calories over what I should be, I now was, and how to sort it out.... My head was just always full of calories and battles over what to eat or not eat. Exhausting...

Before MJ I had no idea others had what we now call ‘food noise’ - I genuinely thought for me it came from being neglected as a child, now I realise how common it is in not so sure

@lickycat
@TragicMuse

Yes to the biscuits and / or doughnuts ‘talking’ to you!

This thread is really interesting- @OnyourbarksGSG- I feel like your 3 radios in my head on a constant basis. I’m only overweight by a stone (post menopause) but at 5’0 that’s a lot to me and feel gross. I doubt I’d get it prescribed would I? I gave up drinking wine for a while and ended up replacing it with binging on sweet things like biscuits. I used to have a savoury tooth and be able to control my appetite. Now I just can’t shift that extra weight.

For me it's literally thinking about food all the time. I'm a size 20 but would easily be twice that if I didn't exercise some will power.

If I'm going on a journey the first thought will be about what I can eat on that journey. If I'm going away with friends for the weekend I'll be thinking about what emergency food I can smuggle with me.

I've always been like this and can see that one of my kids is the same and has been since she was very young.

If I could afford MJ or qualified for it, I'd be on it in a flash.

That's because many of us thought is was some sort of moral failing until it just went away. Just like that.

I've always had it. My eldest son does too. I don't know why.

It seems that the WLI's have actually helped people to perceive things in their own behaviour that were previously dormant or unconscious? It does seem, from this thread, that many of you have gained an awful lot of self awareness since starting them.

Some descriptions, like that of @Bob231 above, make me think there might often be an OCD component too. Forgive me if that's off base, obvs I am no expert.

I also have food noise when not taking the prescription. Unfortunately, once I start eating something, or if I'm upset, then it kicks back in. So, if I start eating pizza, it calls to me even if I try to restrict myself to a modest portion. If I'm really upset by something then I do want food to help me cope. In spite of that, I have lost a lot of weight over the last 2.5 years.

I do wonder how I'll manage to keep it off, though as at some point I'll need to go it alone and already I feel like the food noise is starting to override the effect of the drugs.

I'm reading Why we eat (too much) hoping this explains it all and helps me to get my weight under control, or rather my food noise and how to ignore it or rewire it.

Does anyone here know about a 'set point'?
I heard about this theory years ago but can't recall the thinking behind it.

My own body seems to have one, give or take a few lbs.
I think the idea was that the body gets used to where it's weight has sat for some time and resists attempts to alter it?