Have you ever wondered how some people can go for hours without thinking about food and how they never seem to struggle with weight fluctuations?
At the same time, you struggle every time you diet and gain weight the moment you start relying on your natural hunger and satiety signals.
If that feels familiar, read on because we are discussing a hidden force that impacts how and what you eat: food noise.
What is Food Noise?
Food noise boils down to constant thinking and obsessing over food. This can often lead to overeating, gaining unwanted body fat, and struggling to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
It includes thinking and planning what to eat next, worrying about your calorie intake, and feeling guilty after eating certain foods or having a larger meal or snack.
This mental ‘chatter’ can turn into an obsession. Instead of having a healthy relationship with food, using it to fuel yourself, and enjoying certain treats guilt-free, your life begins to revolve around food: planning, obsessing, and trying to undo the ‘damage’ you’ve already created.
But what would ‘damage’ mean in this context? It refers to the binge-purge cycles people sometimes find themselves in.
This is when people cycle between periods of restrictive dieting (often a combination of ‘clean’ eating and a low-calorie intake) and binge eating. Such cycles can be particularly bad because they feed into one another:
You restrict yourself too much, which leads to extreme hunger and cravings, so you satisfy those cravings (often going overboard). Then, extreme guilt and disappointment set in, forcing you to do another restrictive diet to ‘undo’ the damage you’ve caused. On and on the cycle goes.
What Factors Influence Food Noise?
Below is a list of factors that affect food noise and its impact on people. Together, these largely explain why some people deal better with food and urges to eat while others don’t.
- Hormones
Several hormones are crucial in appetite, weight loss, and weight management: insulin, leptin, ghrelin, cortisol, and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). We discussed most of these in-depth in our article on how hormones affect weight loss, except for GLP-1, so here is a quick breakdown:
GLP-1 is a hormone made in the small intestine. It triggers an insulin release from the pancreas, which helps reduce blood sugar levels. The hormone also helps promote a feeling of fullness and reduced appetite.
Certain classes of drugs like semaglutide and ozempic have become incredibly popular in the last couple of years (generating billions in sales) thanks to their ability to reduce appetite and food intake, leading to relatively quick and sustained weight loss. These drugs work by mimicking the natural function of GLP-1.
Tirzepatide is a drug in the same category and works in many of the same ways. The primary difference is that it mimics the gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) hormone along with GLP-1.
- Time of Day
By getting used to a specific eating schedule (whether most of your meals occur at night or during the day and whether you eat two times or six), you get hungry at the same time each day.
Some people are naturally hungrier in the morning, whereas others eat most of their calories at night. It’s important to find a routine and stick to it. We’ll discuss why under the strategies section below.
- Place
Where you are can also significantly affect hunger, cravings, and thoughts about food. For example, you could be used to having a quick lunch with some coffee or tea and not even thinking about food for the rest of the day while at work.
However, at home, you might be used to certain habits like:
- Having a big breakfast or dinner
- Snacking while watching TV
- Drinking soda while eating
Over time, your mind begins to associate home with food, whereas work remains the place where you focus on other things.
- Food Environment
One factor influencing food noise is palatability––the hedonic reward we get from eating that is tightly linked to dopamine release in the brain.
Dopamine plays a crucial role in the reward center of the brain. When a food causes a spike, the brain remembers, and we seek that feeling again in the future. That’s why it’s easier to overeat on cookies than apples; the former brings more pleasure.
This factor affecting food noise is the food environment: what foods do you have available at home, at work, while going for a walk outside, and everywhere else you go?
If you’re constantly surrounded by junk food, you’re more likely to obsess and battle cravings all the time. But, by having healthier foods available, cravings gradually subside, and it gets easier only to eat when you’re physically hungry.
- Habits
Though you may not realize this, you may have certain habits that are always linked to eating––for example, cooking, watching TV, reading, or playing video games. So, when you practice certain activities, you may subconsciously start to think about eating.
- Emotional State
Some people use food as a coping mechanism to go through tough things like depression, anxiety, and stress.
- Body Image
If someone is dissatisfied with how their body looks, they may become overly obsessed with the foods (the types and amounts) they eat to try to make a change, such as to lose body fat.
- Past Experiences
Past experiences like periods of excessive dieting can also shape a person’s attitude and mindset toward eating. For instance, if a person has gone through long and demanding periods of dieting, they may become increasingly food-obsessed.
- Genetics
While we don’t enjoy mentioning genetics or encouraging people to use theirs as an excuse, a person’s genetic makeup will inevitably impact their body shape, body fat distribution, metabolism, and ability to lose and gain body fat, all of which inevitably impact habits, emotional state, and body image.
Plus, research suggests that some individuals are more sensitive to hunger signals.
Strategies to Cope With Food Noise
1. Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is a common term tossed around so much that it’s kind of lost its meaning. At its core, it’s about becoming more thoughtful about your eating habits. Some ways to practice mindful eating include:
- Try to understand how hungry you are before you start eating. Ask yourself, “Am I genuinely hungry, and do I need to eat, or am I just bored or craving something I can go without?”
- Eat slowly. Chew your food thoroughly and avoid putting more food in your mouth before you’ve swallowed the last bite. Doing so eases digestion, but a far more profound benefit is that it helps you feel fuller earlier in your meal.
Instead of eating a lot of food quickly and suddenly feeling stuffed, you allow satiety to set in before you overeat. That way, you can walk away from a meal once you’ve had enough (but not too much) food. - Avoid distractions while eating. This ties in with the previous tip and comes down to not occupying your mind with anything else while you eat. The purpose is to regain your connection to your body’s hunger and satiety signals and more accurately gauge when you’re full so you can stop eating.
When distracting yourself, say by watching TV, your mind is occupied, and it’s more difficult to think, “I’m getting fairly full. Maybe I should stop eating now.” On that note: - Eat until you’re about 80% full. This Japanese rule is called Hara Hachi bun me, which translates to “Eat until you are eight parts (out of ten) full.”
- Wait before going for seconds. Let’s say you’ve had a serving of food but are not quite full. Wait a few minutes before getting up for seconds. This can be enough time to allow for satiety to set in.
- Eat protein and veggies first. Protein and fiber are highly satiating, so eating them first can help you feel fuller before you’ve had too many calories.
2. Improve Your Food Environment
Your environment can help guide you to better eating choices or lead to unhealthy eating. It’s up to you to decide.
A simple way to improve your surroundings is to eliminate unhealthy foods from your home and replace them with healthier alternatives like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
Look at it this way:
What would you do if you went into your kitchen and saw a box of cookies on the table? Like most, you’d probably open it and snack on some cookies. What’s worse is that certain foods can act as triggers––in other words, once you start eating them, you can’t stop until it’s all gone and you’re full of guilt and disappointment.
So, by replacing these foods, you achieve two things:
- Unhealthy eating becomes more difficult because those foods are not readily available
- Healthy eating becomes easier because you will eventually get hungry or crave a snack, and nuts, seeds, and fruits will be more accessible
3. Revisit Your Habits
Reflect on your habits and how they might be linked to eating or thinking about food. This can help you identify patterns of unconscious eating behaviors and be the first step toward resolving them.
For example, you might have the habit of watching TV or playing video games at night. Those could often be paired with snacking.
One option is to document your days in a journal for a week or two and identify patterns of behaviors leading to eating. Pay attention to the time of day, place, and your emotional state at the time.
4. Employ Stress Management Strategies
Stress management can be an effective way to help regulate cortisol levels and prevent emotional eating. Doing so can eliminate stress-related triggers that may otherwise lead to food noise and overeating.
Some effective strategies include:
- Meditation – as little as five to ten minutes of mindfulness daily can have a profound positive impact
- Breathing exercises – similar to meditation, breathing exercises can promote a sense of calmness; the advantage is that you can use these exercises throughout the day, especially when feeling anxious or angry
- Physical activity – lifting weights, running, cycling, swimming, dancing, or simply going for a walk in the park; all of these can promote calmness and help you become more resilient to stress
5. Develop a Healthier Relationship With Food
Developing a healthier relationship with food is challenging because it takes time, patience, and discipline. The most important thing to remember is to take it day by day because just as it took you years to build your current relationship with food, it might take you almost as long to improve it.
Good ways to start include:
- Ditch restrictive diets for good. Avoid diets restricting your calories and keeping you from enjoying any of your favorite foods, no matter the bold promises of six-pack abs and bulging biceps.
- Focus on intuitive eating, even if the term sounds vague. Eat slowly, avoid distractions while having meals, and try to gauge your level of fullness at different times while eating to know when it’s time to stop.
- If you want to diet, restrict your calories reasonably and lose no more than 0.5-0.7% of your weight weekly.
Also, consider diet breaks: periods where you increase your calories to around maintenance (where you don’t gain or lose weight) to help normalize hormone levels and reduce hunger. For example, take a week-long diet break for every 8-10 weeks of dieting.
Most importantly, practice self-compassion and patience. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up or do something not deemed good by health influencers. No journey is perfect, and it’s entirely okay if you make a mistake here and there. The most important thing is not to give up after a setback.
6. Establish a Regular Eating Schedule
Your body gets used to doing things at specific times. This includes eating.
An effective strategy to reduce food noise throughout the day is to establish a regular eating schedule and avoid snacking, especially mindless snacking while watching TV or playing video games.
Doing so achieves two things:
- It helps you more easily control your calorie intake because even if you have larger meals, you’re not consuming extra energy throughout the day
- It gradually helps the lingering food noise that’s present throughout the day; instead, it only shows up around mealtime once your body has adjusted
Also, avoid skipping meals. While that might seem a good way to reduce your calories and lose weight more quickly, it can be a double-edged sword. You might get hungrier and overeat later.
7. Consider Certain Drugs
Last but not least, we have pharmaceutical assistance in the form of the drugs mentioned above––most notably, tirzepatide, and semaglutide. These drugs have been shown to reliably reduce hunger and make it easier to stick to a calorie-restricted diet.
That said, this is not medical advice. We recommend considering medications as a last resort and consulting with a medical professional first.
Conclusion
Food noise is real and affects our habits, thoughts, and tendencies.
By recognizing its existence and triggers, we can develop the right strategies to handle it for a healthier relationship with food, less stress, and more success maintaining a normal body weight throughout our lives.