What does food noise mean?

[NCScout]

I’ve heard the expression ‘food noise’ and this is why some people are larger and other slimmer people don’t have this. Please can someone explain this to me? If anyone could direct me to a book that would be great. Many thanks

I am not denying it exists, I 100% believe what people are saying. I only wonder where this comes from - very few people were talking about food noise before WLI. Also, if food noise is mainly responsible for putting on weight, why do we have so significant national differences in obesity rates?

I have always had it but never had a word for it. I've been thin before...in my late teens and early twenties I was slim with a healthy BMI...I still thought about food constantly and it was a battle to stay slim.

I don't know what the obesity statistics are so I can't help you on that and in my case it's shame that has stopped me from talking about it. Where it comes from in my view is usually some kind of chemical imbalance in the brain - at least it was for me but of course I can't vouch for anyone else.

I'm not diminishing it but is some of the food noise caused by the absolute shit show of mixed messages we've had over the last few decades around food - which have largely been led by marketing fads? I'm absolutely not diminishing the effects but it does make me think. Especially as so much of the advertising is aimed at women.

Its absolutely normal to have a lot of food noise when you are consciously dieting and cutting calories - we are programmed to seek food and every ounce of your fibre will rally against losing weight. That's why I find tracking and joining a support thread really helpful when I'm dieting, as it provides an outlet for the food noise. No one who isn't dieting would really care if I'm pleased I've met my target or am feeling guilty that I went over.

It is tiresome though so wouldn't diet for more than 3-4 months and it's important to try and allow the occasional planned treat (obviously really hard to plan and really hard to stop at one, but gets easier).

In a normal phase, which I think is normal for me, I think about food every day - what do I fancy, this or that, when am I eating etc. I know I will get hangry so try to avoid that.

Over the years I have automated my relationship with food - I've been eating the same breakfast for about twenty years, making a few tweaks along the way. That works for me is I don't have to engage any brain cells on what to eat in the morning, plus once I have eaten a satisfying breakfast I'm set up for the day - food decisions are calmer and easier after that.

So I think a degree of food noise is normal.

It does make me think if we've been dealing with it wrong- maybe it wasn't weight but food noise (thoughts and emotions bout food) that we've needed to be dealing with.

There is no shame about food noise, shame is a huge blocker, but good if the WLI is helping with seeing things differently.

All I think about is food. When I can next eat, what is for dinner, the cake I walked past this morning etc etc

I think a lot of people do, more do than don’t.

I haven’t read all posts. But in my humble opinion Slimming World encourages food noise

What I am saying is I believe some degree (maybe all of it) of the food noise is normal, people who don’t think about food or don’t experience hunger are long dead - food focus is a survival mechanism.

I often read on MN how people on WLI say that they finally understand how slim people feel. I don’t think it’s true that slim people don’t experience any food noise. The vast majority of people are interested in food, feel hungry, enjoy eating, seek food and spend a lot of time during the day around food. Traditionally slim cultures such as Japanese or Italians are bunch of foodies, usually extremely proud of their cuisine and centering a lot of their social life around food and drink.

Have you noticed in recent years that food is labeled as entertainment? Eating out, coffee shops, it’s way beyond a pub lunch.

When I was younger we had take out once a year, occasionally had ice cream from the shop, there weren’t many food places at all. Now the high street has more food places than anything else.

We have normalized food as something to do, as opposed to eating as survival.

I do think there’s a link between eating for pleasure, it’s everywhere - you can’t escape it.

The term "food noise" seems have come about with popularity of weigh loss injections. In the same way that the terms, "kerb appeal" and "the wow factor" came about with tv shows about improving or selling your home.

It's a form of advertising gimmick which has been taken on and given special status as something that only some people experience and others don't.

I agree with those who point out that thinking about food and where your next meal is coming from is a primitive survival instinct. Whether or not you are able to, or choose to act upon those thoughts is another matter altogether. And it's this issue of acting on the thought which is responsible for increasing rates of obesity. And it is much easier, faster and cheaper to act on the thought, in most of the developed world.

I’d always assumed that ‘food noise’ was a bi product of dieting and food restriction. You know who thinks about food an awful lot: anorexics!

in general psychologically the more you try not to think about something the more you wind up thinking about it and indeed obsessing over it. I always assumed that it’s diets that cause food noise.

always assumed that it’s diets that cause food noise

Is that human survival though? when there famine the biggest thought is always food.

The difference is, in some people it’s there all the time.

I suppose some people are predisposed to grazing whilst others are more regimented to 3 meals a day.

Humans used to be grazers, so it makes sense.

Isn't food noise just another term for food addiction though?

Just as alcoholics would have constant alcohol noise in their heads, or gamblers have gambling noise?

I appreciate that in the above cases there is the option of going cold turkey, but not for food, hence the value of WLI.

I'm not sure it's as simple as if you choose to act on it - those who have intrusive food noise don't always act upon it. I was good at resisting it and didn't have to act upon it but it was still always there. Sometimes I'd get annoyed and realise I hadn't done something I'd meant to do because the food noise was dominating meaning I wasn't thinking about other things. I still didn't always act on it.

And I don't think it's a consequence of diets necessarily. Mine started young, way before I had any nutritional understanding of food or the idea of good and bad foods. I've never been on a diet. For some people restricting something, not just food but alcohol, drugs etc. makes it more prominent in their thoughts but I don't believe it's as simple as that in every case.

It’s certainly not a validated medical term or a psychological phenomenon that has been studied. It’s peoples anecdotal self reported description of what they experience. I would want to see it being properly studied to understand if everyone using the term means the same thing by it (I think not), what is the prevalence in the population and is it associated with obesity before I would agree that is necessarily a biological thing. It sounds like what would previously have just been described as feeling hungry to me.

looks as though some people are researching it
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41387-025-00382-x

Even when I was very slender in my 20s I had constant food noise. I've had since I first worried I was getting a bit overweight at age 14/15.

I’ve had it all my life and so does everyone I know? It is just normal.

A lot of people who have never been overweight just eat food but don't think about it the rest of the time.

Food is so much more than fuel though, it has always been about pleasure and social occasions. From the start, if you have a normal childhood babies are fed with love, while being cuddled. How awful it would be to be just about fuel and survival.

Do they? I’ve only ever known one person who ever didn’t think about food between meal times. They were an alcoholic though so ever really thought about drinking.
Every workplace I’ve ever known people are chatting about lunch just after breakfast.

Not the same. There's thinking and chatting about the next meal or there's obsessing, so that you don't even function properly in the workplace because you're too busy thinking about food, and resenting being full from your last meal because it means you're struggling to eat more, or changing your plans so you can do something more food focused instead, or eating secretly because you know you can't show people how obsessive you are, or neglecting your tasks and your relationships because you need to be thinking about and doing food somehow, or not buying things you need or paying bills because you'd rather spend that last little bit on food. I could go on.

I think this is a big part of it. A lot of towns have very little actual stuff to do and quite poor shopping , over and above places to eat and drink - so it’s become normalised as ‘stuff to do’ - look how many shows we have too related to food and drink and yet huge amounts of people seem to live on pasty’s and Maccy Ds.

It is actually normal to mentally think about meals and what to have, what isn’t normal is when these thoughts are constantly there - one reason I came off wli and am just calorie counting and upping excercise was because I realised I don’t actually need my appetite suppressing as have good will power- I just needed more consistency , smaller portions and to cut the wine somewhat- and I am losing at same rate as on mounjaro if I’m honest but without feeling like I had permanent morning sickness. I do appreciate others may need a bit more help on appetite suppression

I have just spent 3 weeks on doxycycline to prevent progress of Lymes. I could barely eat a thing and the very thought of food made me sick. I struggled to eat anything at all. Then within 48 hours of completing the course my hunger returned. It was all a bit mind blowing, but I never want to have to take that medication again.

Such an interesting topic & very topical! I didn’t really realise I had it to the extent I do!

now on the wli and it hasn’t gone I still obsess about food but what I have found is it so so much easier to override the “have some chocolate sweets crisps etc” voice & and distract it, I can make much better choices & plans.

I have also found that if I have a small amount of sugar it increases the unhealthy food noise more & it’s harder to ignore.

this backs up what people were saying down thread about sugar/upf feeding it.

it’s fascinating going through this experience and learning more! I’m hoping will help me post wli.

I also agree it’s natural & survival instinct to have “food noise” but that our diet now affects our homeostasis & hormones so dramatically that our bodies just loose sight of what actually feeds us so we end up obese and undernourished.

“why we eat (too much)” book really helped me understand a lot of this!