Is Food Noise Sabotaging Your Weight Loss?
Does your brain feel like it never stops thinking about food?
If so, you’re not alone!
The constant chatter in your brain – often called food noise – is one of the most common complaints I hear from my clients when I first start working with them.
Food noise is described as the frequent, often intrusive, thoughts we have about what to eat and what not to eat. It’s that internal tug-of-war with your mind that never seems to go away.
Food noise can cause weight gain because it often leads to overeating when you’re not even hungry. It can be so intense and so intrusive that it negatively affects your food choices.
Many of my clients have shared that the food noise in their brains caused them to feel defeated and hopeless about weight loss, triggering them to eat comfort foods to soothe themselves, causing even more weight gain.
What Does Food Noise Look Like?
Food noise varies from person to person, but if you’re struggling with any of the following, you’ll know what I mean…
- Preoccupation with your next meal or snack.
- Feeling out of control around food or relentless cravings.
- Emotional eating to deal with stress, anxiety, loneliness or boredom.
- Guilt, shame, and confusion about not following diet rules or eating what you “should.”
- Always looking for the next diet or obsessively tracking your calories, carbs, or macros.
If even one of these hits home, you’re not broken.
You just have food noise.
The good news is that it can be quieted.
The Food Noise Is Gone!
A client I’ll call Susan recently experienced what it’s like to finally quiet the food noise in her head. She used to think about food nonstop and battled cravings and emotional eating every day.
She’d lose weight on a diet, but she always gained it back – because the constant mental chatter never let up.
Once she learned how to calm that food noise, everything changed.
- She’s not thinking about food 24/7.
- She no longer has cravings or emotional eating.
- She’s losing about a pound a week.
- And — in her words, “It feels easy. It’s weird to not have cravings anymore and to not be constantly thinking about food, but it’s a good kind of weird!”
She didn’t need medications, restrictive diets, or endless willpower. She just learned simple techniques to quiet the noise in her brain.
And you can do this too!
How to Calm the Food Noise, Lose the Weight and Keep It Off
I use a 4-step formula to help my clients quiet their food noise so they can lose the weight and keep it off.
#1: Calm the Nervous System
When you calm your nervous system, those overwhelming cravings fade, and you’re no longer ruled by stress or emotional eating. (One client said she stopped eating her way through the pantry after a hard day at work.)
#2: Release the Emotional Baggage
Letting go of the weight of heavy emotions and traumas that fuel those constant food thoughts is freeing. (Another client felt decades of shame melt away – and then noticed she could enjoy and feel satisfied with two pieces of pizza instead of binge eating the whole thing.)
#3: Identify and Clear Hidden Beliefs
Breaking free from the deep, learned patterns that are quietly blocking your weight loss is the next step. (A woman who believed she’d “always be heavy” was able to let that belief go – and the scale finally started moving.)
#4: Rewire the Brain for Permanent Weight Loss
Finally, it’s important to create new thought pathways that break that lose-gain cycle once and for all. (A client in her 70s is finally keeping the weight off after struggling most of her life).
When your brain and your body feel safe and calm, the food noise quiets – and for the first time you actually lose the weight AND keep it off.
Join me for my Free Masterclass, where I’ll walk you through the exact step-by-step process to calm the food noise, conquer your cravings and stop emotional eating, lose the weight and keep it off.
Let’s Have a Conversation:
Have you experienced food noise? How does it make you feel? What have you done as a result of food noise?
Hi, I eat because I feel hungry all the time. I have diabetes and am also on a couple of meds that I believe cause weight gain as a side effect. I don’t know how to get rid of this appetite. My doctor tried a different diabetes pill for me but I am still hungry. I can’t get to sleep at night if I don’t eat first, and now if I wake up in the night I have to eat to get back to sleep. I don’t feel like I am reacting to trauma. My appetite is the trauma lol. What can I do?
The only solution I found for food noise is GLP-1. I was seriously overweight for nearly 40 years. I tried and failed at all nutrition plans. Now I’m 58 lbs. lighter with 20 or so to go…slow and steady weight loss over 18 months. It’s a miracle for me. Please do not disparage those who need medication or surgery to get healthy. We are all different.
Hi DivaProfessor. Thank you for your comment. Please know that no disparing was intended and my apologies if I made you feel that way. I agree with you that we are all different and I am so glad that we get to choose what works best for us when it comes to our bodies and our health. I also applaud your weight loss! Congratulations!
That said, GLP-1 meds and weight loss surgery are not for everyone. I work with many women who have had weight loss surgery and the most common thing I hear is that “surgery fixed my stomach but my head or my heart”. Most have experienced regain after their initial loss and are devasted. I also work people who have taken the GLP-1 meds but were not successful. Many couldn’t tolerate the side effects, some didn’t lose weight at all, some gained it back once they stopped the meds, and others couldn’t afford it.
On the flip side, I’ve also worked with women who are taking the GLP-1 drugs but who also wanted to resolve the underlying reasons they gained weight in the first place. For example, their childhood trauma (especially a history of emotional, physical or sexual abuse) is still triggering their cravings and emotional eating and they want to resolve that. Or they have sabotaging beliefs in their subconscious minds such as not safe or not good enough and they want to let these go and get new, positive beliefs. Or their nervous systems are overly sensitive and reactive and they use food to calm and soothe themselves. Or they’re carrying lots of guilt and shame about their bodies which is weighing them down.
My intention with this story was to let women know about the power of calming the nervous system, releasing emotional baggage and creating the mindset needed for permanent weight loss. I love what I do and one of the best things about my “job” is that I get to help women lose weight but I also get to help them change their lives in many other ways as well.
I appreciate that your comment inspired me to write more about this! I hope that all women, wherever their choices take them, will know that there are many options and that I support them in whatever choices they make. Thanks, Karen
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
She provided another opinion and wasn’t “disparaging”/
My “food noise” took a different form: I was constantly meal planning, shopping-planning, or shopping, or cooking, or cleaning up—-I wasted 20 years of mental energy and life-force cooking 3 meals a day for a family! When I finally was able to divorce and realized I still had time left to live MY life, all that noise got suddenly quiet, as career and travel and friends took first place. But I wasn’t eating very much or very well, and I lost weight I did not need to lose, and didn’t have such a healthy diet (some days I would eat a yogurt, an apple, and a chocolate bar, in total: yuck!)
Fast forward another decade and I partnered with a wonderful man who is a very good cook and highly attuned to good nutrition, no processed foods, etc.. He takes 3 nights of responsibility for planning/shopping/cooking/clean-up, I take three nights, and the 7th day we rest (and go out to eat). I can honestly say that the four days I am off KP duty I no longer have any food noise in my head! I just show up to the table at dinner time and enjoy a wonderful meal. Highly recommended.
Thank you for this article. “Food noise” is a new concept for me, but it’s been with me much of my life!
Thanks Liz! Sounds you like have a very wonderful man and I’m so happy for you that this is working. And I agree that the mental energy of meal planning, shopping, cooking and cleaning up can be exhausting. Part of what I help women with is letting the “heavy” energy of this go so that these “chores” can be done from a high vibe place. Haha … I think you’ve found your high vibe place but for those of us who don’t have this we’ll just have to create it… or perhaps manifest a live-in chef! I enjoyed your comments! Thank you.
In my case, I think it’s low blood sugar and habit. Perhaps every 5 years our diet has to be changed. I will check this.
Hi Jane. Our health does change over time so I think it’s good that our diet does too. I definitely eat differently that I did in my 20s and 30s and even in my 50s. What’s nice is that I don’t ever feel like I’m on a diet and I’m still able to maintain my weight at a healthy level. It might sound silly, but sometimes I imagine that I’m a queen very worthy of delicious healthy foods that nourish my body, sould, and mind. Thanks for commenting and let me know if I can be of help! Karen
Thank you. My problem is that I can easily get diverticulitis* and am allergic to nuts, shellfish and blue cheese. I’m not good with raw stuff.(See *) I am trying to find à healthy snack (I already do babyfood fruit pouches). The only real ones I found so far are soya pudding, low fat yoghourt and possibly nibbling on cherry tomatoes, or olives (?). Any ideas for.me please????
I find that my only solution to stopping the food cravings was to either be engaged in something I love doing/ thinking about or volunteering in a way that helps others and I can see the positive results of my actions. In other words, taking myself out of the equation.
I know I will.nibble every two hours or so. It’s true, though, that doing à crossword or sudoku helps stay the.munchies à little.
Hi Kate. I’m glad you found a way to stop your cravings! It sounds like you’re raising your vibe doing something you love. I highly recommend this regardless of what’s going on with your food. Many blessings, Karen