06/14/2026
Vulnerable post alert.
What IS food noise? It's not just craving food. It's being trapped in a RELENTLESS CYCLE of cravings.
I'll explain what it looks like for me (Jen) - that might help. And at the end, I'll tell you what shut mine down completely.
I LOOOOooove pie. Fruit pies with a double crust are my favorite, but I'll get down with a custard pie for sure. I've rarely met a pie I didn't make heart eyes at, honestly.
If I buy a pie to have as desert, I will have a small piece after dinner. Normal. When I cut that small piece, I'm going to eat the filling that leaks out to sort of clean up the tin. (Normal? Probably normal.) After I eat my small piece of pie, I'll get the foil out to cover the tin. Before I cover it, I will have a couple bites because it was just so good, and I only had a small piece after all. (Not ABnormal.) I'll wrap the pie and put it in the fridge.
While I'm cleaning the kitchen, I'm thinking about the pie. It's in the fridge. I'm full. I already had some. But I don't stop thinking about it. I actually may say, out loud, that I don't need more pie. I get in the fridge, have another bite or two.
Kitchen is clean, I move around the house tidying. I'm thinking about the pie. I stop by the fridge for another bite. Put it back. Get it out again - another bite. Put it back.
I walk the dog. I think about the pie. I have a bite when we get back. This one for sure is ok because I just got some exercise. Even if I just walked him a block - pie as reward.
I go upstairs to wind down for the night. I think about the pie. I lie down to read. I think about the pie. I tell myself it's weird to go all the way back downstairs for more pie. I can't focus on my book because I keep thinking about the pie. It isn't long before I'm standing over the pie with a fork, eating more pie.
By the time I quit, there's only about a quarter of the pie left, if that. I've been known to polish off the whole thing. If I'm serious about not eating the rest of it, I have to actually defile the pie - I have to make it inedible (my go-to is a healthy dusting of black pepper) and then it has to go upside down into the trash.
THIS is food noise for me. Typed out like this - I'm feeling so exposed. I've had food noise since I was a kid. I didn't know its name until a few years ago, but I remember this feeling as far back as junior high. Maybe you identify with this - maybe your thing is chips? Whatever. It's the mental looping. If you have it, you're pickin' up what I just put down. I shared this whole thing to help you not feel alone.
I also shared this to tell you it's gone. I don't have food noise anymore. In December 2024, at age 50, I started semaglutide. A month later, I realized the food noise had stopped. Completely. I started this GLP-1 med for post-menopausal weight issues and it totally helped with that. But sincerely, the best benefit by far was the silencing of my food noise.
