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.

My husband is naturally extremely thin - underweight BMI - has been all his life and he's in his mid-sixties now.

He doesn't think about food at all, so he tells me, until he's hungry (which happens about twice a day) in which case he immediately eats something, often doesn't finish it - stops when full- and forgets about food again. He can go for hours without eating. What he eats is am odd mixture of absolute rubbish - biscuits, chocolate etc. and very healthy (e.g. beetroot, green salad, lean meat at random times).

It's very interesting to observe him, as I'm person who is not at all naturally thin and has to count calories to stay in a healthy weight bracket, and I think about food on and off all day long.

Have you read the responses on this thread? They confirm the opposite - that most slim people do think about food and it is indeed all about willpower.

There are people who get second jobs to afford Mounjaro. They’re not on it because they’re lazy or just don’t care enough about their weight. If it were just about really caring about their health, they’d be a healthy weight already.
Mounjaro isn’t a magic button you press and then lose weight. After a while, you still need to exercise will power. There’s a dosage of mounjaro that means you lose weight, a dose that means you maintain and a dose that does nothing. I’ve found on maintenance that I reduce my dose as much as possible. There comes a point, even trying my hardest, where I find I can’t fight against the cravings. Then I change the dose and can. However much you need to take to stay level, that’s the way people who manage to maintain without mounjaro feel. Because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t maintain. I have to weigh myself daily, exercise, think about food choices. I’m putting a lot of effort in to stay standing still, just like everybody else is. It’s bloody hard to find that balance of not gaining, not losing, whether you’re on Mounjaro or not. But for some people, without Mounjaro, it’s impossible.

I’m sure we’re not born with it being impossible, but we’re not entirely responsible for our relationship with food and/or our metabolisms and I don’t think even the scientists really understand all the mechanisms at play.

I think of being able to maintain a healthy weight without mounjaro as a bit like people who have babies that sleep through the night, or easy teenagers. If you’ve got those things, well done you. But don’t necessarily assume that it’s because you did something right and other people did something wrong.

But that’s not true, they do think of food a lot of the day according to the naturally slim people on this thread - have you read the whole of the thread?

From what I've gleaned from trainers, isn't it more that there's societal issues there didn't used to be? Eg UPFs-you say you used to eat an open pack of biscuits, OP? But in the days when we ate normal, real food, we were much less likely to overeat. And there's a lot of medical conditions which are related to modern lifestyles (yes, of course some people in the past had metabolic conditions, but not nearly so many). We now have worse quality food, more sedentary lives and generally both parents work so are struggling for time-the days mum made soup from scratch, using veg from the allotment (and not having a Tesco local with UPFs and cheap wine just round the corner) have gone.

Yes this is true and it is also much easier to binge/overeat hyper palatable (really tasty) foods. So given all of this, it is no surprise that the general population is more overweight than the past. It is harder to know what is healthy to eat and to exercise control. It's a wonder that any one manages it. But some do. I'm not sure I'd call them 'normal' in this context.

Some do, some don't. The naturally slim people I know, the ones who do not need to put in any effort to remain slim, do not think about food. Only just before mealtimes, when they get biologically hungry. They do not go around obsessibely thinking about food all the time. My effortlessly slim Dh was actually quite shocked when I described what's it like in my head.

Mounjaro acts like a dial, not just on appetite, or satiety, but on all kinds of levers. There’s a dose I can take to not think about food at all, there’s a dose I can take which has no discernible effect. There’s a dose I can take where I really struggle to maintain and there’s a dose I can take where it’s a bit easier. One of those doses, somewhere along that sliding scale, will make me have a similar relationship to food as someone who maintains their weight without using Mounjaro at all. Will I feel the exact same as them? Who knows. But it will have the same result.

It’s a bit like if I go for a hysteroscopy. I’ll feel an amount of pain. Someone else will feel a different amount of pain. We’ll be offered pain killers until we think that pain is manageable. Some might need no pain killers, some might need more. Will we be feeling the same amount of pain to begin with? Is one of us better able to bear pain than the other? Maybe, but we can’t tell, and it doesn’t matter. It’s a good thing that the pain relief is available and that everyone can have their pain made manageable.

It would just be bloody brilliant if we could remove all the value judgements from both of these things.

I'm slim (6) and I do think about food a lot. I enjoy cooking and eating new recipes. I appreciate good food. But I wouldn't say it's a matter of willpower. I just naturally eat when I'm hungry and stop before I'm full. I'm not restricting myself if anything i want, I just don't want takeaways and huge amounts of food, junk food etc. I do eat chocolate and crisps most days but that's about it for junk.

You are very lucky. I am slim and have had to curb my appetite and maintain my exercise levels my entire life. That is why I never understood everyone pretending to be outraged at Kate Moss saying 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. She was articulating the trade-off many of us make to stay slim, which involves willpower and self discipline. It is worth it for the health and aesthetic benefits, but that doesn't mean it is effortless.

My DH and sister are both quite old now and lifelong skinny people.

Sister loves her food but has always been happy enough eating about half of what I’d class as a normal portion as she prioritises staying slim. She knows if she ate a ‘normal’ portion, she’d put on weight, like me and my mum. 😳

DH however, has little interest in food and eats almost the same 3 meals daily, 365 days a year. I stopped cooking for him years ago as he just wasn’t bothered.

Since being on mounjaro I can now eat sister's size of food portions without feeling like I’m still starving. It’s a total revelation!!

Yes i always had a problem with that as I've always been slim without effort. My mum had a difficult relationship with food and worked really hard not to pass that on, and was successful. I am lucky, you're right. Dh is the same as me too.

Total BS. I've had this conversation with my slim friends for decades now as I was always interested why I struggled and yoyo'd with my weight for years (I varied by 3 stone over the years!). By the way I've always loved healthy foods - porridge, lentils, brown rice, fruit, veg salads...and loved exercising (county high jump champion), but I always found I need to eat a lot to feel happy and satisfied. However, like most people I cared about how I looked and wanted to be thin so I would diet in my 20s and 30s....and yes, via sheer willpower I could force myself to barely eat and get very thin BUT I would feel starving and tearful the whole time as the effort was huge . Eventually I couldn't carry on due to feeling so ill, lethargic, HUNGRY, depressed and tearful and I would then binge eat....my body knew if had been deprived and then I would eat everything in sight for a couple of weeks to make up for the (what felt like) a starving period. When I compared my food intake with my skinny friends, they would be eating a similar amount to me when I was also thin BUT they didn't feel starving and tearful the whole time. They seemed to feel fuller and more satisfied on the same amount of food. Perhaps they naturally had more GLP1 in their system? Perhaps it's genetic not hormonal? Who knows? What I do know is that it's isn't fair. What I do know is that it is NOT a level playing field. What I I do know if that I'm not stupid or lazy! I have dieted to the extreme and have exercised LOTS of willpower. But at the end of the day some people can NOT sustain the level of calorie deficit required to remain slim as they feel tearful and overly hungry. Have you never heard about the black labrador that never gets full due to a genetic mutation?

I suppose I'm what you mean by normal. Never been overweight, never been on a diet, weight is the same at 68 as it was at 18.
I don't think about food in between meals other than in a "what shall I cook" sense. I do enjoy food though I have a good appetite and eat anything and will try anything. I do prefer to feel really hungry when I sit down to a meal, the old fashioned phrase "don't eat between meals or you'll spoil your appetite" is true for me.

I know lots of people on jabs and it is not helping them with a healthy approach to food.

I have always been very slim. I am now one of the few people in my office who eats lunch and they all look at me, amazed that I am actually eating something. It's like they feel that eating anything at all will make them fat (except they all skip meals and then just munch on meeting biscuits). (They're all on the jabs to be clear).

I eat three healthy meals a day and exercise regularly. Always have done. Of course I would love to eat the most delicious food possible at all times but I just can't because I am a grown up and I have responsibility for my health. I don't need a jab to stop me walking into McDonald's FFS.

However I will say that I think the caveat to all that is that the secret to not being fat is never getting fat in the first place. I'm pretty convinced that most overweight people will find it very difficult to ever maintain a normal weight again.

Exactly the same. I ballooned when I was pregnant because I felt like I needed to eat ALL the time and could only stomach white carbs and pure sugar and I couldn't find the determination to not eat when I felt constantly queasy if I didn't - was a size 8 before my first pregnancy and went up to a big 16 when I'd given birth. Got it back down and did the exact same thing again with my next pregnancy a year or so after and had to lose it all again...

I think about food all the time. It is a constant choice, but my desire to look how I want tends to win over the thoughts and hunger pangs. I am always thinking about it though.

Stopping when you're full is an interesting one. I didn't have that full feeling without Mounjaro. I could eat a big meal and still be up for something else after. It's been a revelation to me to find that I can feel full half way through a main course!

Wow, this is very insightful. Thank you. I agree about the sliding scale. I am choosing not to up my MJ dose too much because I want to learn to work with it.

Exactly, the food noise is still there and has to be fought against/silenced on a daily basis.

No, it's not normal to not think about food; we're animals, we need food to survive - all animals tho
ink about food.

What 'normal people do is exercise self control.

Agree it’s not normal. I’m a healthy weight and go running/walking most days. I loveee food and thoroughly enjoy planning and eating it. Today we had lemon pepper salmon with rice, tomatoes, salad, and pan fried button mushrooms - all well seasoned. It was so yummy I’m still thinking about how satisfied I am haha.

Ah yes. That's the sole difference between overweight people and healthy weight people. Just boils down to self control 🤔

Interestingly there area lot of scientists who would disagree. Try listening to The Hunger Game on Radio 4 with Giles Yeo for a clear explanation of the science.

Absolutely.

Arh yes, the excuses and trying to make food issues a disability.

OK so excessive amounts of shit screws people's metabolism, but that comes from abusing food and drink in the first place. Sugary, fatty foods are undoubtedly addictive and are made to be so, but 'normal' people know this and don't overdo it, even when they have cravings for something. That's how they avoid buggering themselves up and getting into a state where they cannot lose weight.