Hold on... is this how "normal" people feel all the time?

[Wildewheat]

I no longer think about food every minute of the day.

I eat a tiny cake then don't want any more.

I leave chocolate in the cupboard untouched for days or weeks - I don't want it.

I eat, notice I'm full then want to stop eating.

I only think about food when I'm hungry.

When I am hungry, I don't want junk food - I actually want "proper" food.

My mind is so quiet.

I've struggled with my weight since puberty. Feeling like this, I can totally see why so many people had no idea why it was so hard and why they'd say things like "just eat less and move more". They must have thought I was mad, just doing something that ruins my health for years when it's so easy not to.

This has also really annoyed me and I really wish I'd been able to experience this years ago. It also makes me wish I could explain how hard it is to people who've only felt this their whole lives.

I think about food constantly but have been slim 90% of the time, it’s like a beast inside me I have to constantly ignore! If I could I would be eating 24/7, I love it.
I once went through a hellish time personally and let myself eat what I genuinely wanted.. I gained 6 stone in 6 months! Scary
I’d love to have no food noise. The only people I know who don’t are ones who don’t really like food that much anyway

Absolutely
I could demolish a loaf of bread with lurpak, instead I avoid bread all together. I see the queues for all the lovely food in city centres and the amazing smells and feel so jealous of them, while eating my apple 😂 It’s like constant punishment but the pay off is confidence and health

Oh the willpower people are out in force 🙄

This. I'm 4 ft 10. For my BMI to be healthy, I should be between 6.5 and 7.5 stone, give or take. To lose weight, through diet and exercise I have in the past restricted myself to 1000 cals and at the gym sometimes twice a day, 6 days a week.
I am a 40yo woman with 2 children and a full time job. I can't do it, it's as simple as that. Whether it's through weak willpower, sheer gluttony, laziness - it makes no odds. I can't maintain that level of activity on so few calories for any more than months.
So what do I do? Just accept that because I'm weak/lazy/greedy, I'm going to die early?
I appreciate that the jabs come with risks, and that some people consider it the easy way out but because it increases the chance of me being able to see my children marry or to meet my grandchildren, I just can't seem to give a fuck what people think tbh.

I’m going to stop watching this thread now. I know the OP asked if this is how ‘normal’ people feel about food but this thread has been inundated with slim people claiming to have just as much food noise as obese people and claiming a massive struggle to resist food. It just feels like another fat bashing thread to me. I’m out

my mum used to say some people eat to live and others live to eat. I'm more the second type, but my partner is the first.

@ringoutsolsticebells Really? The OP started out with the assumption that people who are a healthy weight don’t think about food and that’s the “normal” way to feel - all posters have done is say that this isn’t always the case.

I think it’s better to be honest about this, because once the OP stops the injections that are currently curbing her appetite, it may return.

I agree. I'm baffled by the number of assertions that everyone 100% thinks about food constantly (even though lots of people on the thread are saying they don't!) but all it takes is a bit of willpower or that you simply just have to not want to be fat.

A lot of us who get to this point are taking weight loss injections because we are at a real risk of dying early and want to live. I don't know a single obese person who hasn't constantly tried to lose weight or hasn't considered that maybe they should try eating less.

However, I have appreciated this thread and a lot of supportive comments. I actually do believe that a lot of people of a healthy weight clearly empathise with the food noise and I believe that a lot of people are fighting a constant daily battle even if they're of a healthy BMI.

I've no interest in turning this into a competition and never intended an us vs them. A lot of people have shared their genuine struggles and I believe them.

I was surprised by how many people have reported this food noise daily battle and I've learned a lot from it. I'm sorry to hear that so many are living with this. I'm amazed it's not something that's spoken about more as a lot of people are describing it as hellish (which I agree with) and more focus on this could potentially really improve both obesity issues as well as improve people's mental health greatly.

However I feel this thread has perhaps lived out its useful life and so I will thank everyone for the thoughts and unwatch.

I am really overjoyed that I've found something that works - I feel like I've been given another chance at life and I am enjoying food so much. I hope that anyone considering weight loss jabs knows there is a lot of support on this board especially on the monthly starter threads. It's definitely not for everyone and I had a rough start on them but I'm very glad I'm doing it. For anyone who isn't pursuing that option but struggles with their weight, I hope you find something that works.

Kindly piss off

@ringoutsolsticebells What’s wrong with you? You’d prefer people to lie?

WLI have been a last resort and will be life saving for many. Condescending posts about willpower aren’t helpful. It’s like imperative underrating threads, I guess thin people are feeling quite threatened that they possibly won’t be quite as special anymore.

@BlueLimes I agree that WLI is amazing.

I also think it’s worth saying that WLI work alongside willpower and healthy habits. You can still eat badly on WLI if you don’t make good choices! The difference with the injections is that you are free to make actual choices about food without your body screaming at you that only one choice (the unhealthy one) is the right one.

And I'm going to say that the one big thing I've learned is that relying on willpower is what has caused me to fail time and time again. I don't need more willpower. What I've always needed has been a plan for when the day isn't going the way it was originally planned. I need an alternative to the unhealthy choices, not more willpower not to give into the unhealthy choices. That's where I was always going wrong before.

I've been overweight since my teens. A combination of emotional eating, binge eating, addiction to sugar and learned behaviours of huge portions and having to finish the plate in childhood.

I have constant food noise, waking up and thinking about what I'll eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, seeing if I can delay eating, trying to work out if I'm actually hungry but at this point I'm always head hungry but not stomach hungry.

Since mounjaro, it's been completely revolutionary. I'm rarely hungry, I start eating a small meal and lose interest after a few mouthfuls. UPFs taste of chemicals. I really enjoy proper food more than beige food or crappy snack food which has NEVER happened. It feels great and like my brain is working properly.

I'm 4st down and have learned to eat healthily, my stomach size has shrunk. I'm worried and interested of how my brain will react once I come off the WLI. Will I be craving salty/ sugary shit again? Will I be thinking about food again all day? I really hope not.

OP you made an interesting thread and people have responded about having food noise even when slim, this is what your thread is about. Sadly some people are being very sensitive

When I explained to my partner and another family member about how I think about food and how it affects me they looked at me like I had 2 heads.
They hadn’t experienced the feeling of food being the absolute focus of every area of their life.
Strangely, I haven’t lost my appetite or cravings being on the injection, I just feel full quicker.
But I’m able to fight myself easier. No, don’t be ridiculous, you’re not having chocolate for breakfast. And I’m able to leave it at that. Whereas in the past I wouldn’t be able to settle or get on with my day if I didn’t give in to the cravings.
I do think it’s ‘cheating’. There’s a lot of talk at the minute of how it’s not a ‘magic pill’ and you have to put the work in. I think that’s rubbish personally as it literally stops you eating a lot without any effort on your part at all.
Overeating is probably an addiction and like any addict if you want it enough you can stop using your own willpower. But I’ve quit both drinking and smoking with less trouble than food

What, so only fat people are allowed to experience food noise? It's not remotely fat bashing to for slim people to say it's an issue for them too.

I think there is a distinct difference between food noise and hunger. A lot of people who are successful taking WLI suffer with insulin resistance that affects the hunger centre. The drugs were originally designed for type 2 diabetics who have to reduce carbs alongside WLI. High carbs are the problem for insulin resistance so by controlling insulin resistance diabetics find it easier to cut carbs which leads to weight loss and control of blood glucose levels.

In non diabetics this reaction to WLI is mistaken as food noise. It’s actually the body not craving carbs because glucose levels are under better control.

It’s actually easy to cut carbs which”food noise” if you have insulin resistance by following a low carb diet.

Not all people who are obese have insulin resistance which may explain why they still struggle with the “food noise”. Their over eating is more likely to be behaviour based.

I was diagnosed with insulin resistance years ago. If I stay off carbs my weight is stable and with calorie deficit weight loss is fairly easy. Eating high carb foods causes a huge surge of insulin which strips glucose from my system rapidly effectively causing hypo and I become drowsy and lose energy. To compensate it’s easy to just eat more carbs causing blood glucose to drop again. It’s easy to become trapped in a cycle if you eat carbs.

I have been avoiding carbs for months now, not totally excluding them but avoiding refined carbs where possible. I’ve lost 10kg.

In answer to OP, I still have food noise but by controlling insulin resistance I can ignore it until I’m hungry. Hunger is a different feeling to food noise. It’s more physical and I often realise I need to eat when I start to feel light headed. I no longer reach for carbs but eat a handful of nuts. High protein/fat satiates hunger far better than a biscuit or a slice of toast. Our cupboard is full of carbs, my DH and DS like to snack but have no problem with insulin resistance or over eating. I have just learned to eat foods that don’t trigger the insulin resistance.

Exactly, it’s literally what OP has asked

Yes, that's how I feel about food. I don't think about it much, I leave chocolate in the cupboard for ages, I prefer proper food. The only time I thought about food all the time was when I tried to "diet" (and now I know it's a bad idea).
Alcohol, however... I can't have it at home, I think about it more than I'd like. (I used to be worse). So I think I know how you feel.

The majority of the time my body craves healthy food like fruits and veg and my body feels off if i eat too much sugar, crisps or fried food. I feel happier too when i eat healthy and i feel sluggish, fatigued and more achy when i don't

@Disturbia81 I thought that’s what she asked too and answered honestly. 🤷

@Wildewheat , no one knows what it is like to live in someone else’s brain or body. I think you are getting some self serving responses. From people who maybe can’t say much for themselves except that they are a normal weight and somehow want to frame this as heroic- or at the very least, better than you. Sad.

I know that my weight was stable and ideal without dieting until I had gestational diabetes with my first baby in my early 30s. I would have said that I thought about food before and had cravings, but it was nothing, nothing like it has been post pregnancy. The order of magnitude is completely different.

Take the medicine you need, be healthy, enjoy your life. Ignore spiteful people on the internet.

That’s exactly what I thought I would eat like when I started eating intuitively! I thought I’d be inhaling pints of Ben & Jerrys and handfuls of Doritos, but it hasn’t been like that at all. Whilst I do occasionally eat cake, crisps etc, I find myself reaching for fruits and vegetables more. I’m definitely eating less UPF’s. I feel like I was only craving unhealthy, processed foods because I was always dieting and didn’t often let myself have them.

Our bodies are so clever, we just have to learn to listen to them again. I know that as a child sweets & chocolate were often a reward and I was encouraged to ignore my satiety cues and finish my plate.

That being said, this is just what has worked for me, completely understand that it wouldn’t be the right approach for everyone.