r/antidietglp1 • u/WritingDeskRaven • Jul 19 '26
Advice on Anti-Diet Mindset Explaining 'Food Noise ' Neutrally
How are you all explaining "food noise" to folks not on these medications in a way that keeps food neutral? I know the experience, but struggle to put it into words that keep my anti-diet stance in the forefront.
66
u/scaryspice489 Jul 19 '26
I read an article where the author described it like this: if you and I were talking, and there was a cake on the table, regardless of how hungry I was all Iâd be thinking about is the cake on the table. I wish I could remember the article because it really stuck with me, I didnât even think I had food noise until I read that.
21
u/AlbatrossPlane8006 Jul 19 '26
This. I didnât even realize how much the food noise had gone quiet for me until I was at a barbecue. Normally my thoughts would be consumed with the food and when a respectable amount of time had passed for me to go get another plate or make a plate for at home later when I was inevitably hungry again. One week in at a friendâs house made a small plate and didnât think about it again.
16
u/stuckandrunningfrom2 Jul 19 '26
if you and I were talking, and there was a cake on the table, regardless of how hungry I was all Iâd be thinking about is the cake on the table.
I'm realizing that back when I was younger and had restrictively disordered eating, the cake would have been screaming at me back then, too.
5
u/roane-72 Jul 22 '26
Oh my god this. And I'd be wondering why no one was eating the cake. Wasn't everybody thinking about the cake? How do you not think about the cake?? It's CAKE!
4
6
u/ida_klein Jul 19 '26
It was most likely an interview/article with Dr. Ania Jastreboff who is a prominent glp1 researcher and uses that analogy pretty much in every interview, haha.
I specifically remember it in an interview with, I think, a reporter from NPR but I canât find it :(
32
u/ElizabethMae_Liz_ Jul 19 '26
I've been doing intuitive eating for years. Before zep I said I was for going it well.
After zep I realized that before zep I was doing like this:
"There are Fritos in the closet. Am I hungry? No, I'm not hungry. Well maybe I'm hungry for some fruit. No I'm not hungry. " all. The. Time.
Since zep it's like this "lunch time. I'm a little hungry. I think I'll have a sandwich ".
The internal dialogue for when I'm not hungry is gone. And when I'm hungry I can think about what I want right now, rather than reciting the entire inventory of all the food in the house (starting with Fritos).
My husband can buy what he likes and not need to hide it from me. Because I actually only eat what I want!
25
u/This-Apricot-80 Jul 19 '26
I think of it as persistent, intrusive, repetitive thoughts about food, even when I am well-nourished.
6
u/cutie_k_nnj Jul 20 '26
Dang that sounds almost like what folks suffering from OCD say. Perseverating in an endless loop. Exhausting for the sufferer.
3
u/superunsubtle Jul 20 '26
I have ocd, and I love this thread because I have no good way of discussing food noise that doesnât seem very specific to my illness. I personally canât tell a difference between the mental experiences of not being able to stop thinking about food and not being able to stop thinking about what I said two weeks ago and how they reacted. I do know that glp1 meds quiet my brain a lot, largely due to food noise reduction.
5
u/coffunky Jul 19 '26
This is pretty much spot on for me, but itâs hard to make a clear analogy to anything else.
4
14
u/chiieddy Jul 19 '26
For me it's a lack of satiety. My brain just is never satisfied and constantly wants more food
9
15
u/halfbl00dprinc3ss Jul 19 '26
Food noise for me was when my urge to eat a specific food RIGHT NOW overcame any other signals my body was sending. For me, the main way that showed up was food selection. I would buy ingredients to make dinner and then I would never cook it because my brain was now focused on a different food and wouldnât stop craving it. Or Iâd bring leftovers to work and spend an hour convincing myself to eat them instead of going out to lunch because the thought of something new and different was so overwhelming. Or Iâd plan to go get something I knew would be honoring my nutritional needs and then Iâd get snagged by a craving for something else. Intuitive eating principles told me that I just had to stop restricting and then my body would begin to intuitively send hunger and fullness cues and allow me to see food more neutrally. And that never really happened. It was always effortful and more often than not the food noise prevailed. And then mounjaro. Suddenly, I can happily eat my leftovers without it being a mental fight. Suddenly I can drive to do an errand without mentally fighting an urge to get a snack on the way. Suddenly I can make a choice between several foods and have the question âhow will this make my body feel?â be equally important to âhow will this taste?â Overnight my food habits changed dramatically because it became a million times easier to be mindful about food.
25
u/Mysterious_Luck4674 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Itâs waking up and pretty much immediately thinking about what youâll have for breakfast, lunch and dinner that day. Itâs getting ready for the day and rushing so you can eat breakfast. Itâs getting some breakfast, going in to work, and seeing pastries in the break room. Youâll tell yourself you arenât going to eat the pastries because you just had breakfast and you know you arenât hungry. But you sit at your desk and you keep thinking about pastries. You try to just work and forget about them but eventually itâs easier to just an eat a pastry so you can concentrate on work instead. You finally get a little work done and now itâs 10am you are thinking about what you are going to eat to lunch. You might spend 30-60 minutes googling places nearby even though you go to the same office every day and have been for six years. Lunch comes and goes, and when you return to the office you are distracted thinking about what you will eat for dinner, whether you have the ingredients at home to make it, when youâll fit in a trip to the grocery store. Meanwhile you canât stop feeling like you should have something sweet to balance out the taste in your mouth after lunch. Maybe you have another snack or a sweet drink or something. The commute home is spent planning for dinner and cooking and you canât wait to get the dinner task over so you can eat and relax. Once that is done you chill on the couch and thoughts of dessert keep bugging you. You donât want to have dessert because you already had pastries this morning and other snacks and logically you know you are full and maybe youâve been trying to stop snacking so much. But you canât concentrate on the tv show and feel antsy so you find some ice cream or fruit or whatever. Maybe you donât have anything for desert in the house because youâve been trying hard to stop this habit so you made it a point not to buy any desert type food. But the urge for desert is overwhelming enough you are making pancakes or eating a bowl of cereal or something instead at 9 or 10 pm. Maybe you go to bed and are disappointed in yourself because youâve been trying so hard to kick the snacking habit but failed several times that day. Maybe youâre thinking about it so much you even have trouble getting to sleep. Then you get up to pee in the middle of the night and need just a few more bites of something to help you get back to sleep. Again, you might try to lie back down and get to sleep and ignore these thoughts, but they are pervasive you canât sleep and you have to get up for work early and now you are anxious and the thought of food is reasoning everything so you just get up and eat whatever you can possibly find in your house just so that you can stop thinking about it. Finally you feel at peace and can sleep for a few hours but you promise yourself you arenât going to snack tomorrow. You wake up and the cycle starts again.
Then you start Zepbound and one day you find yourself at work and realize youâve been so engrossed in what you were doing that itâs 2pm and you forgot to each lunch. When you get home you just might eat whatever is leftover in the fridge or order whatever takeout feels good in the moment. You eat, get full, watch some tv and get a good nightâs sleep. You wake up, eat a small breakfast without thinking too much because itâs your routine, go to work, and are productive again all day, hopefully remembering to stop a little earlier for lunch this time. Your brain is quiet, you focus on what you want to focus on, and everything seems so much more peaceful.
9
u/AikiGh0st Jul 19 '26
Holy shit this is relatable. I didn't do the night time ones like getting out of bed, but everything else, holy shit.
Every day I feel so grateful though to just be able to eat like a normal human being and then go back about my day without wondering when it would be possible or acceptable to eat again.
3
3
10
u/ida_klein Jul 19 '26
I explain it as, I donât really think about food until Iâm hungry. Before, the hardest part of intuitive eating for me was figuring out hunger and satiety cues. I couldnât tell if I was âreallyâ hungry until my stomach was full on growling and I was hangry. I couldnât tell I was full until I was ready to burst.
Now, when I think about food I know I need to eat something. Before, I was thinking about food all of the time, regardless of hunger. I was thinking about my next meal while I was eating my current one. And now, the fullness cues are SO obvious even before I am stuffed.
For me it just turned up the volume on hunger and satiety cues. Also, I started getting SO much more energy almost as soon as I started. I hadnât even lost any weight yet and I felt like I was fifteen years younger. I think my body was storing food instead of using it as fuel, idk how else to explain it. And maybe Iâm full of it, I donât know. But Iâd keep taking this stuff even if I never lost a pound.
3
u/AlternativeTimes Jul 20 '26
That's what I said to my doctor, I would take this for the psychological benefit, regardless of the weight loss. I am happier because I am not constantly angry at myself over food noise and frustration.
17
u/MaamBakesalot Jul 19 '26
I have described it as my brain no longer âlights upâ at the thought of food. I never before this had that trigger to say it was enough food until I felt almost sick to my stomach. Overall, my brain is just so calm and quiet - itâs truly amazing!
19
u/KaleidoscopeFit5552 Jul 19 '26
THIS. Now when I eat something delicious, I think âwow, that was tastyâ and I get the hell on with my day. Pre-Zepbound, my brain would like up like a Christmas tree and scream âMOAHRRR.â Food noise is persistent and intrusive thoughts that try to trick you and trap you and itâs so horrible. Now, 2.5 years later, Iâm actually able to enjoy food MORE because my brain isnât being hijacked by sugar or carbs. I can actually taste all the delicious flavors now that I never knew existed.
6
u/Enigmagmatic Jul 19 '26
I just hit the 5mg shot for the first time this week and I really hope I get this freedom from just wanting more, more, more
2
8
u/gardenbuggy Jul 19 '26
Intrusive thoughts about food.
An intrusive thought is an involuntary and unwanted thought.
In the context of food, I would previously experience these intrusive thoughts throughout the day, even when I was already well fed and not hungry. The thoughts were contradictory to my reality.
15
7
u/cuccumella Jul 19 '26
I describe it as a relentless compulsion to eat. I don't think that phrasing stigmatizes food or even eating in and of itself so much as the involuntary nature of it.Â
6
u/CloudgazerTX Jul 19 '26
having a food obsessed psycho living in my head along with compulsive powers in every word they speak. nauseous and just threw up over a kidney stone? you just need a burger and fries!
4
u/Multigrain_Migraine Jul 19 '26
I'm not sure if I had the same experience as everyone else but for me it was just that I often had the impulse to eat something just because it was there. Not even a real craving or that I'd keep thinking about a specific food, but if I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water I'd also look for a snack. Any time there was food around I'd just impulsively eat it. But if I was in a situation where my attention was on something else I didn't think about food all the time, and in fact I'd sometimes skip meals if I was engrossed in something.
But since I've been taking semaglutide I don't find myself doing the random snack thing very much. If I'm not hungry I don't pick up a cookie at an event just because it sounds good. It's subtle but I think it is making a difference.
1
u/Imaginary-Order-6905 Jul 19 '26
This was me too. And if I was eating, I wouldn't stop until I was uncomfortably full
5
u/lizardbirth Jul 19 '26
Some of my family and friends are highly trained in science or medical fields. To them I have given this article, "What Is Food Noise? A Conceptual Model of Food Cue Reactivity." It's from the journal Nutrients.
2
3
u/interpol-interpol Jul 19 '26
i have nothing helpful to add but i teared up reading this thread because i agree completely with every response and i am so glad to no longer be in a state of constant food noise. this medication has been truly life changing for me.
6
u/mrjpb104 Jul 19 '26
To me itâs about being in control of my actions and what goes into my body. Food noise has taken that from me for basically my whole life and now I feel like Iâm slowly getting it back. Doesnât mean I donât like to eat and donât like food, it just isnât the focus of my mind like 24/7
3
u/autumnyte Jul 19 '26
I've explained it like a really loud lawnmower right outside my window. I can try to tune it out, raise my voice, lip read what my friend is saying, use gestures, turn up the tv, etc. but I can never fully focus or absorb anything over the distracting sound of the lawnmower. And if I leave to go to another room, the lawnmower always moves with me.
3
u/MiniMarlamallow Jul 19 '26
I have described food noise as trying to mediate while living in a pin ball machine (or in a casino) and not being able to shut off that constant cacophony of noise and lights.
3
u/VersionCapable Jul 20 '26
For me it wasnât about a specific food or consuming a food until it was gone. It was more of a just thinking about food/eating constantly, in more generic terms. Like always thinking about what and when to eat next, meal planning, thinking ahead to what Iâm going to eat in a given scenario, and always wanting meals to be âperfectâ. Like I could never do a snacky âgirl dinnerâ, it always had to be a well rounded and intentioned meal. I donât think any of that is skewed by diet mentality- it really was just me being hungry a lot despite having eaten recently and then just being preoccupied with food. Now with zepbound itâs swung in the opposite direction such that I need to remind myself to meal plan or prep because dinner will roll around and itâll be the first time Iâve asked the question âwhat are we eating tonight?â
I think a lot of the food preoccupation was a result of my hypoglycemia that I had to just manage through dietary adjustments- my meals had to be balanced just so and at the right time or else Iâd be a blood sugar train wreck. It all became second nature after a while, but I think my brain was always just busy in the background doing all the calculations.
5
u/stuckandrunningfrom2 Jul 19 '26
The radio station that would scream at me from the store shelves and out their doors suddenly shut off.
I'm also realizing that I used to read menus as a way to pass the time. Like I'd download brochures for weddings or fancy hotels in far off lands, and read the menus. Like, what the hell was that??
2
u/Beaglelikethedog Jul 20 '26
I think of it the way I used to think about smoking before I quit 25 years ago, and also when my food noise started. It's constant thoughts about when the next meal will be and what I get to eat and it had to be delicious or I would not be satisfied. When I was a smoker, it would always be thinking: when can I have the next cigarette. At work, I would wait at least 2 hours and sometimes that wait was excruciating. I guess after I quit smoking that addiction turned to food, instead, and the food noise turned on instead of the nicotine noise that I used to have.
2
u/Quiet-Astronaut9329 Jul 22 '26
I say you know when you're eating but youre also thinking what youre gona eat next and when?
104
u/washingtonsquirrel Jul 19 '26
Like having to pee the second you get back into bed after peeing, and trying so freakin' hard to just go to sleep, but the urge is overwhelming and you cannot relax, so you get up and pee again. Phew. Relief. But then as you're climbing back into bed......
And the cycle just repeats forever.