This has taken off more than I expected. Sorry I have a toddler so I won’t be able to reply a lot today. Just a few things so it doesn’t look like I dropped this thread and disappeared:
it wasn’t intended to be a goady thread which is why I posted on this board as I assumed people reading would either be on injections, formerly on injections or open to them being a good thing. Obviously didn’t think about traffic from active. I didn’t really intend it to become a debate about whether obese people are trying hard enough or whether slim people just have better willpower.
I was interested in if slim people who would never have considered themselves as having issues with food find they barely think about food.
We know that some people definitely feel this way - I know people in real life and there’s people who have posted here who say they only think about food when they get hungry.
I have been surprised how many healthy weight people also identify with food noise. It’s hard to compare thoughts with another person because we all experience thoughts differently. Talking about how we think is hard to explain. However I do believe from these posts that some people who have never been overweight do indeed think about food constantly in the way I always did.
I think it’s a real shame some people have to live with this forever. It’s really distressing and to me isn’t a pleasant relationship with food. I feel so much more content without this constant food noise and it’s why I hope more research is done and more medicine is developed.
If it’s possible not to have this battle day in day out in a safe way I assume the majority would prefer not to. I overate but I never really enjoyed food in the controlled content way I do right now.
A few mentions of ADHD and I do have ADHD. Interestingly while I do identify with comfort eating I have also felt it’s often more of a sensory/sensation seeking thing or at least it started like that. I remember reaching puberty and suddenly realising I could eat without being hungry and it gave me a sort of outlet for all the energy inside me. As I mentioned before, normally I don’t ever feel full unless I’ve binged and get physically uncomfortable. I noticed I often felt uncomfortable NOT having that excessively full feeling. Like the full feeling stopped me feeling empty or something.
Due to trauma in my childhood I also often had issues with not feeling feelings in my body properly - something I discovered in somatic therapy and it’s interesting that someone gave a really detailed answer about childhood factors in terms of why some people get it more than others.
It makes me wonder if people who are less in touch with their own body and feeling feelings as physical sensations maybe more likely to develop food issues in their youth.
I don’t doubt that a diet of sugar and processed foods makes a real difference but I’m surprised at how many people found that when they stopped eating junk food the cravings disappeared. I’ve done various versions of this temporarily over the years - from more extreme dieting to just following healthy meal plans with lots of veg etc. I’ve tried various calorie limits including much higher ones like 1800 calories and there’s times I’ve lasted months. Excruciating months. However for me the food noise genuinely never went away. After weeks or months of eating this way I was still thinking of chocolate constantly and eventually my willpower would collapse and I’d return to my old eating patterns.
Someone asked what food noise actually looks like and said that if it’s literally thinking about it every second of the day you wouldn’t be able to do anything. I disagree with this and would say that yes I do literally mean pretty much every single minute I’m awake. However I think you can have more than one thought at once and these thoughts are nagging background ones that I’m aware of but are not the only thing I’m consciously thinking of. So I can do my work and be thinking about a spreadsheet but I am also aware of the thoughts of foods. A bit like when you’re in pain enough that it’s constantly there and noticeable but you can still look after your kids. Like a toothache that’s there and very unpleasant but doesn’t mean you’re incapable of putting your attention on something else at the same time.
Or like how you might be in a busy pub and are aware of voices at tables around you to the point it can be unpleasant and distracting but you can still keep your attention on the person you’re with enough to follow what they’re saying.
But yes I think not having the food noise has made me better at my job and at being present with my family.
There are some people talking about just sometimes getting hungry or fancying junk food and needing to distract themselves which I don’t believe is the same thing as a lot of us are describing as constant food noise but I am not intending to get into a weird competition about how much we each individually struggle. There’s no way to actually compare the intensity or frequency of our thoughts and so I think taking peoples explanations at face value is the best way to approach these conversations.
I don’t really mind if people think it’s cheating or an easy way out to be on injections. I am trying to make healthy changes to my life while on them including therapy to deal with my unresolved issues and starting exercise that I actually enjoy (which has been hard to find!) so that it’s part of my life and a habit. it’s exceptionally easier to do this when I’m in control of my eating and I’m hoping that once these are habits it’ll be easier to maintain.
There is of course always the worry one day I will pile the weight back on but all we can do is the best we can to avoid that. I am open to maintenance doses and I am also hopeful about advancements in medicine over the next couple of decades. Although of course not relying on that.
The injections come with risks but I’m happy I’ve weighed them up (no pun intended) and made a decision I’m ok with. They’re not for everyone and that’s ok too.