So this is how normal people feel about food?!

[thatsginthough]

Two days into my second week on Mounjaro 2.5.
Not once, since the day after my first jab have I actively thought about food. Mealtimes can come and go without it even triggering a thought in my head. I’ve already lost 5kg which is 15% of my target loss.
DH makes dinners so it miraculously appears. I enjoy it but after about a third of what I’d normally eat I’ve had enough. I then don’t think about snacks for the rest of the night.
Compared to before when food consumed my thoughts all day this is an absolute revelation.
I used to wonder how people could pace themselves at a buffet, not eat their entire plate in one go or sit with an open packet of biscuits on their desk. This must be how they feel. It’s amazing.

I don't think having no interest whatsoever in food is how "normal" people feel - if you didn't have someone putting food in front of you, do you think you'd eat enough to sustain you? It's normal to enjoy food and think about it when your body needs it.

No. Having this sort of disinterest in food is not how normal people experience food. Experiencing interest, enjoyment, curiosity and delight in a variety of cuisines is an integral part of life for normal people. It is an important part of traveling, exploring different cultures, family times and various such things.

I don’t know if I’m normal, but I assume you mean people who are a healthy weight.
Of course I think about food. A lot. Am I hungry? Shall I get something to eat? What’s for dinner. Shall I go to the corner shop and get some M&Ms. Looking forward to BBQ at the weekend. I think the difference is in stopping eating when full.

Highly unlikely to have lost 5kg of body fat in that time. That would require a reduction of 38500 calories over 9 days.

Whatever you are doing, it’s not healthy!

Most of the initial loss will probably be water weight, I imagine. If that level of weight loss keeps up though, it could be a worry.

Personally, OP, I don't think about food at all, and despite enjoying some foods, find preparing and eating it an inconvenience - I frequently forget to eat except for the meals my DH cooks me (he does dinners) and can easily accidentally go two days without eating if he doesn't cook for some reason. It's not been particularly amazing for me - I'm constantly verging on underweight, and struggle to keep weight on and build/maintain muscle mass.

I think a healthy balance is best! Relishing food and looking forward to it, but having the self-control to do so in moderation.

I am "normal" in regard to food. being a size 10 all my life and never needed to diet.

I don't feel like you describe. Instead I
-wake up hungry but not starving. I shower, dress, then eat wholemeal toast & butter, and some fruit. Drink a coffee
-forget about food until about 1pm when I am hungry again. Eat lunch, maybe a salad with walnuts & dressing, and drink water.
-forget about food until 6.30, feel hungry again and make a meal, perhaps a seafood risotto or cassoulet. More water and fruit.

Meal plan for the following day, so I take the necessary things out of the freezer
Then forget about food until the next morning.

I love food, think about food, cook food, plan food for the next day, try new recipes. The difference is I eat and enjoy my food but only eat enough to sustain me. My body loses interest in food when I have eaten enough. I don't need someone to put it in front of me. I always cook from scratch because tv-dinner type food makes me feel ill.

Well this makes me feel as if I'm abnormal! I've been a size 10 all my life (healthy but upper end BMI 23ish) but it's a constant act of will. I intermittent fast now I'm middle aged as it's easier to reduce calories, I think about food most of the morning and count down until I can eat. Then I have a light lunch and I try to resist the idea of snacking. Quite often I'll have a full dinner and still want chocolate or something sweet after and it's a real effort not to go to the fridge. Have I been playing life on hard mode and most other slim people out there just don't think about food most of the time?

thats how I felt when I started. I’ve lost 5stone. Much of my life has been overshadowed by obesity and dieting. There’s lots of people on this thread that don’t get it but I do. I was obsessed and addicted to food. Now I am not. The freedom is unreal. Some days I would eat non stop as the urge was just uncontrollable I would eat healthy stuff and unhealthy stuff.

I have been in it for 18 months and I found a balance point where I enjoy food and look forward to it but I am not obsessed by it.

the other thing I can do is balance the amount I eat over a couple of days so a huge dinner one day I can have a apple for breakfast and a light lunch of maybe and egg, veg and so on.

and yes I do think it is how Normal people feel too. I still go on holiday eat holiday food and Christmas food and don’t put on any weight ever.

for me the obesity was a biological compulsion to eat. Satiety and appetite are complex. I was never satiated and always had appetite.

i should add tho- my diet isn’t as healthy now as it used to be. I was much more concision of eating healthy foods (in an effort to loose weight) now I eat what I fancy in moderation. It’s weird.

I once said on a thread here about having to deny yourself certain foods at certain times and I had someone make a comment about how awful I must find life and it’s no way to live. I said but that’s life- we deny ourselves stuff- we don’t for example buy everything we want at the time and I think that’s the way it is with food, we want it but it’s feasible to not have to have it. I think that’s the difference as opposed to I don’t ever need food but I’ll have it because it’s time to eat something! So I think we think about it but are lucky to (sometimes) be able to stop ourselves instead of the food noise people say where they really can’t stop

So interesting, @thatsginthough - I could have written your post when I first started on MJ. It does wear off a bit in my experience, and you end up needing a higher dose to keep the food noise at bay.

I get what you're saying though and have had this conversation with a couple of friends who have never been overweight. Both said that, while like pp have said, they think about food in terms of what to cook, recognising they feel hungry etc, outside of those times they really don't have any food noise. I, on the other hand, would wander through our kitchen and immediately be thinking about what I could eat, without being in the least bit hungry.

So I think you're at an extreme end of it at the moment but it is definitely similar to how my friends feel.

Almost 6 months in I experienced food noise again yesterday for the first time since starting but the MJ gave me enough suppression to be able to resist (mostly!). It did make me think I might need to go up a dose though.

This is me. Also a size 10 but the thoughts about food are constant. I really have to have internal fights with myself because I know that I want to eat even if I recognise that I’ve eaten enough (sometimes more than enough). It’s quite exhausting

This idea that 'food noise' is a burden only for the overweight is ridiculous. Of course it varies. I've never been overweight but have always thought about food all the time. I'm obsessed with sugar. I'd eat Nutella cake and biscuits for breakfast lunch and dinner if I could. DH is literally never full and he'd eat portions twice the size if there were no consequences.

Hi op. I don't think I have food noise or have ever had it.

I'm 48 and don't struggle to stay size 10/12. I've always exercised too.

I just can't care about food. I care about eating enough fibre and protein now I'm older, but I don't get excited about eating out. Buffets turn my stomach, all that yellow pastry and sugar.

I don't eat much sugar as I don't like having gritty teeth or mouth ulcers.

My heart sinks every night when I have to think of something to cook for DH and whichever children are at home. I don't eat dinner as it gives me reflux. So I'll pick at whatever I'm cooking. Last night I ate some left over chicken breast dipped in a pot of houmous. The family ate Spanish chicken with peppers, brocoli and rice.

I'd be happy to live on overnight oats, chicken salad, the odd slice of real sourdough and dark chocolate for pudding. (I do eat a lot of very dark chocolate).

Food is to stop me feeling hunger, fuel me and make me poo efficiently.

I’ve lost 5 stone on MJ in the last 15 months. I’m not sure I totally agree with the Op’s view. I’ve never lost interest in food, I’ve also regularly fancied chocolate and cakes! The difference for me on WLI has been quite simply I ate less of it. I was fuller quicker and stayed fuller longer.

I wonder if SOME (I know not all) slim people are so horrible to/about overweight people because they have lots of food noise that they don't listen to/give in to and they're annoyed/angry/frustrated at the people who do give into it because they perceived themselves to be working hard to overcome it and other not to be.

Food and food noise is really weird because I've known a very overweight woman who never gave food a thought until she got hungry but when she did she ate loads and one of the slimmest women I've known, literally looked like a Victoria's secret model all the time, constantly talked about food, planned it, had Pinterest boards for it, found new recipes to try but would only eat small amounts of food. And I've known people who are basically everything in between.

Is there specific counselling for food noise? That might help you for when you come off the WLIs?

I think about food all the time. Even when I am not eating food I am thinking about it. I am a healthy weight though and always have been. I am able to lose weight (post babies) through dieting and exercising. When I have been dieting, I have been hungry and thought about food even more. I do not understand the 'food noise' trend as I feel everyone must think about food a lot (except a small minority).

Edited to add: I constantly look at tecipes, I.also have Pinterest boards for food. I am always planning meals

Echoing what other posters have said, I'm a healthy weight but not because I dont think about food. I think about food an awful lot and it requires a huge amount of willpower to not eat constantly.
I would love to take a jab as a substitute for willpower, it's exhausting.

I think it's how a rare few lucky people feel about food. It's more normal to think about and want food constantly, whether you are currently overweight or not.

No - most 'normal' people, myself included, exercise self-discipline and will-power to stay slim, especially as we go through middle-age.

This is exactly me also.

I also exercise a lot to keep the weight off (but still don't lose weight). At the weekend I gain a bit, in the week I lose a bit but it remains a constant weight.

I also work in a job where I don't have time for or access to food. At the weekend off work I find it much harder.

As you say, it's a constant hard-won battle of trade-offs.

Isn't it a kind of biological imperative to think about food all the time? Only now it's got a name.

I'm slim, but it's always there.
What am I having for breakfast? Shall I have something nicer but fatty, or just deal with it?
What am I having for my break.
What do I have for lunch/ what am I taking to work next week for lunch/ shall I buy something at work?
What are we having for tea? What shall we eat at the weekend?
I haven't eaten much fruit at all.
Should i have an apple? But I've got those little cakes in the cupboard.
And i have a sweet after every dinner.
Am i exercising enough to counter all the crap I'm eating? Can I sustain this when menopause hits?

My biggest battle is not living a life on cakes and biscuits.

I'm pretty sure my cats think about food a good 20% of the time. The other 80%, they sleep.

It's how effortlessly slim people think about food.
I've titrated down to half my max dose to maintain and I think this is how normal people think about food. A nice meal is a treat again, I do get hungry, I plan my next meal but I still make healthy choices 90% of the time, don't binge ever and can choose not to have a snack if I've already eaten more than usual in that day.
Long may it last ♥️

I get it OP, totally. And it’s exactly how I felt. It was like a revelation to me that other people didn’t just think about food all the time. It’s liberating.

5kg in less than two weeks is a concern, you will be losing muscle as well as fat. And you don’t want that, as honestly you will hate your appearance when you hit goal.

its important to do this right, ensure you eat your macros, sufficient protein to protect muscle, strength training, for the same reason, lose no more than 2lbs a week,

I’ve been on it well over 2 years, maintaning for 18 months on a maintenance dose, lost over 6 stone, and I’ve lost count of the amount of women who are upset as their bodies are saggy, maintained their tummies, lost hair etc.

i have no idea how normal people feel, we are all normal. But you should get hungry for meals, be able to pace yourself and be full after a healthy portion

rapid weight loss is going to see you have real issues, so take a step back and do this right.

My first couple of weeks was similar @thatsginthough and I had to make sure I was getting enough protein, fibre etc as I just wasn’t hungry. I didn’t actually like not feeling hungry but that was a short term side effect as I decided to stay on a low dose. Being hungry returned over time but it was manageable hunger, not all consuming, gnawing hunger that I had known before. I’m 30kg down in just over 12 months, a healthy bmi and still on 2.5mg.
Take care of your macros, your muscles and your water intake, track your calories so you know what you are getting and don’t trust your eyes for portion size yet, you need to adjust to what a ‘normal’ portion is.