to think “food noise” is becoming one of those phrases people hide behind rather than actually dealing with their eating habits?

[foodywoody]

I keep hearing people say they have “food noise” and that’s why they’re constantly thinking about food or snacking, but isn’t that just hunger, boredom, habit, or emotional eating dressed up in a nicer label? I’m not saying it’s not real for some people, especially where there are medical issues involved, but the way it’s thrown around now makes it sound like no one has any control over it at all.

It just feels like another way to remove any personal responsibility. Not everything needs a label. Sometimes it’s just about eating properly and getting enough protein and actually addressing emotional eating.

@abso, that may not be the way that food noise works for you, but I suspect that for some people food noise may be driven in part by UPFs and / or the addictive qualities of high sugar, high fat food.

It isn't driven by UPFs for me either, but I think that so many of us have such dysfunctional relationships with food and / or dysregulated hormonal responses, that very little can be dismissed as utter bollocks.

I don't think you understand proper low carbing, at all.

I'm not aggressive, I'm fed up with people like you who think stupid questions like 'what did you call it' are some kind of 'gotcha'

they're not.

i didn't 'call it' anything, because I didn't know what to call it. It doesn't mean I didn't have it.

🙄🙄🙄

I know what you mean. It sounds ridiculous but the amount of effort to look the same is exhausting 😂

Med express & Voy both prescribe at 25+ now. I had to supply a photo.

DM me if you want a code @Theolittle

No it's not

You'll be told your aggressive in a minute!

some posters just can't accept that.

I find this obsession with the word ‘greed’ so interesting. Why are some people so invested in upholding this very judgmental moral aspect?

Calling it greed casts it entirely as a moral failing, with all its connotations of selfishness and disregard for others. Do you ever stop to wonder if that’s fair?

I’ve struggled not to overeat for my whole life. A battle every single day before WLI. You want to insist that’s because I’m greedy - that I want more than my share, an insatiable desire to possess more than I deserve. But how does that tally with other aspects of who I am? Like the fact that I would never eat a slice of cake if it meant someone else missed out, like how I will always give another person the bigger portion, like how every month I spend a week’s grocery budget on items needed by the food bank, like how I’d share every treat I have with a friend or colleague, how I go last when dishing up food to make sure there is plenty for everyone, how I take the smallest slice if I’m offered first. Food noise is constant in my life but I don’t recognise myself as greedy when all of my behaviours in respect of other people are geared towards sharing and fairness.

It makes some people feel good to think that being overweight is purely an issue of greed. If you aren’t overweight yourself it gives you a sense of moral superiority, because if fat people are greedy and you’re not fat it must mean you’re free of that particular sin. It lets you think your slimness is because of desirable personal attributes, an achievement for which you should get praise and recognition. You don’t like WLIs because you feel like slimness is a praiseworthy achievement and you think getting there by the use of WLIs is cheating.

Well, that’s fine. Think what makes you happy about yourself. But I know that when you think I’m fat because I’m greedy, you’re wrong, and you don’t know anything about it.

I find this obsession with the word ‘greed’ so interesting. Why are some people so invested in upholding this very judgmental moral aspect

because weight is something they are deeply messed up about, and they wish to be offensive, goady, insulting. Whay they don’t realise is it says more about them than they wish people to know.

id also bet good money some of the posters saying this are fat.

Yes I’m sure that’s true - people who have internalised the shame and stigma and so perpetrate it themselves. I’ve definitely seen an attitude from some other fat people whereby they seem to think that if they’re cruel and judgmental about fatness they’re somehow distinct from fat people who adopt a less judgmental perspective, because they’re somehow being ‘realistic’ about it. It’s like they’re saying ‘I may be fat but at least I recognise that it’s because I’m weak-willed and greedy, and that recognition makes me morally superior to fat people who insist they’re not greedy’.

And it’s all just sad and unnecessary because the world would genuinely be so much better if we didn’t see weight and morality as inextricably linked.

What I’m finding particularly difficult about this thread is that people who experience quite extreme food noise have posted on here honestly and openly and made themselves vulnerable in doing so only for a bunch of absolutely awful people to
come along and dismiss our lived experience, tell us it’s a made
up phrase and try to police our language, call us greedy or not busy enough or we don’t have enough willpower.

It’s absolutely disgusting and those of you that have done this should be really ashamed of yourselves. Except
you won’t be. It says far more about your moral character than caving into food noise will ever say about mine or any of the other unfortunate people on here who have bravely shared this about themselves in the hope that someone will understand.

I wonder if the WLI works on the compulsion part of the brain to quieten it down, which is why it mitigates ADHD symptoms in some cases as well as to stop the food noise. Does anyone know if it has any effect on those with other similar compulsions, like OCD or Tourettes?

The thing is though, how do you (as in, the generic you) know your food noise is any worse than anyone else's?

What one person describes as relentless and impossible to control, someone else might describe as being manageable if they do XYZ, for example.

You’re not listening to all the slim people who say they have experienced food noise, with some posters saying they experience it all the time. They’re just making different decisions: to over-ride it, to overcome it.

WLIs aren’t magic they simply put you off food. See how easy it is to stop thinking about food? If you can do it with a jab you can do it with your mind.

This whole idea that you’re at the mercy of your “treacherous body” is just victim mentality. Food noise is not about hunger. It’s just about wanting something that tastes nice.

Exactly.

You’re not listening to all the slim people who say they have experienced food noise, with some posters saying they experience it all the time. They’re just making different decisions: to over-ride it, to overcome it.

This is it - I've always been a healthy weight yet but I have also struggled with food noise for as long as I can remember - even as a small child. I would describe it as relentless and often overpowering but I've learnt to distract myself from it over the years. Yet posters on here will call me smug, or aggressive, or tell me I have "no idea" because I've (on the outside) easily managed to keep my weight under control.

Can't see the link with being uneducated and overweight to be honest. Leaving school at 16 and working in a minimum wage job does not lead to life of obesity. There was a time when barely anyone was educated other than the very rich. The working classes weren't obese back then! It was the rich that were obese with their indulgent lifestyle and it was desireable to be large. Now we can all afford calorie rich foods which are readily available at relatively low prices. Healthy foods are still cheaper than takeout and convenience foods so I don't buy the poverty excuse either.

How you eat and cook is largely based on how you were brought up. My parents both left school at 14, DM was a cleaner and DF did an apprenticeship in engineering and worked in a factory. Neither are overweight. My DM has always cooked a healthy meal every night for us and my DF grows his own veg and they're both in their 80s. I've never been overweight, I don't give in to every craving I have for cake and biscuits because I was brought up to eat moderately. Greed was discouraged in my family.

Well that’s just the nature of human experience, isn’t it? We don’t have objective measurements and scales for a lot of things. But we don’t say to people who are seeking treatment for chronic pain or exhaustion etc. ‘well how do you know your pain / exhaustion is any worse than anyone else’s? Everyone feels sore and tired sometimes but they just get on with it so you should too.’

(Actually people do say shit like that sometimes unfortunately, and that’s bollocks too).

But anyway - why does it matter if my food noise isn’t actually objectively worse than other people’s? It’s debilitating to me, and WLI stop it from happening. Whether or not someone else is battling from worse food noise than me is totally irrelevant to my decision about what I do for my own benefit. I don’t need to know if I have it worse than others, I just need to know whether this treatment works on a problem I have.

I hear you. I think you’re very normal.

Certainly people think about food more than others - foodies for example are people who enjoy cooking, eating, eating out etc. But they’re not all overweight. Some people let that take over their life and some people keep it in check.

My father has always loved his food. After breakfast he’s asking what’s for lunch, after lunch what’s for supper. But yet he’s never been overweight because he thinks health and fitness is important so he keeps everything in balance.

Then please tell me what the xyz is that we should all be doing to control it so it’s manageable.
What I can tell you is that I’ve tried many, many things and not yet hit on the answer.

WLIs aren’t magic they simply put you off food. See how easy it is to stop thinking about food? If you can do it with a jab you can do it with your mind.

”painkillers aren’t magic, they simply stop you feeling pain. See how easy it is to stop being in pain? If you can do it with a painkiller you can do it with your mind.’

this is exactly how stupid you sound.

But anyway - why does it matter if my food noise isn’t actually objectively worse than other people’s?

It doesn't, really.

But there are people on this thread claiming that other people can't possibly understand how awful their "food noise" is simply because they're not overweight.

My parents cooked fresh and we ate very healthy diets growing up (not poor but council estate in the 80s). I'm awful though, I hate cooking and love junk food. Trying to be better now though as overweight and type 2 diabetic. My sister is thin and eats better than me. I have never heard the phrase food noise until this thread though.

You are wrong & you are rude.

It's definitely a thing , and good that there is now a way to describe it. Acknowledging it as an issue helps people to find a solution. Yabu for belittling people's issues. Good luck to you if you don't have it. No need to criticise those that do.

But there isn't one simple answer - otherwise nobody would ever become overweight to begin with. We'd all just do "XYZ" and be magically skinny with no issues whatsoever.

What helps for me (exercise, set meal times, distracting my hands, crunching ice, going to bed early) won't necessarily help someone else - there are plenty of people up-thread who have said exercise makes it worse for them, for example.