Patients say drugs like Ozempic help with ‘food noise.’ Here’s what that means

As more people turn to drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss, another side effect for some patients has emerged: less so-called “food noise,” or food chatter.

The terms refer to constant or intrusive thoughts or preoccupation about food, said Dr. Karla Lester, an obesity physician and pediatrician. Whereas “hunger would be the physiologic sensation that you need to eat … food noise and food chatter is more like the craving mind.”

There’s a lot researchers are still trying to understand about the use of diabetes or weight loss drugs for weight management, including their influence on food noise. Some of these drugs have been approved by the FDA for weight loss; others are used off-label. Why some people experience more food chatter than others is also not well understood, but Lester pointed to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Food noise “doesn’t necessarily relate to weight,” Lester said.

Lester said one reason why someone may have more food noise is insulin resistance, which can cause them to “have more of those hunger cues, less of the fullness cues.”

Getting hold of these drugs can be cost-prohibitive. Ozempic, for instance, has a list price of $1,000 out of pocket before insurance coverage.

But some patients say it’s worth the effort and cost.

Food ‘ruled my whole day’

Kathleen Olivieri said she had “no idea that there was such a thing as a normal appetite” until she started using Mounjaro, an injectable diabetes medication, for weight loss.

For Casey Mason, who has used Mounjaro for less than a year for weight loss, food noise became shockingly – and happily – absent in her life.

“It ruled my whole day every single day,” Mason said. “As soon as I woke up [I thought], ‘what am I eating?’ I just don’t think about food anymore.”

Nancy Barnes, who used Mounjaro before switching to the diabetes drug Trulicity, has lost 130 pounds on the weight loss medicines.

“The noise in your head stops,” Barnes said. “It is just so unbelievable”

Some patients use these medications for a short amount of time. For others, they’re part of a long-term plan to treat obesity as a chronic disease, Lester said. That may include making lifestyle changes.

Barnes said that in switching the medication, her food noise has slightly “crept back in.”

“Not every patient will experience an automatic rebound of the cravings, but you need to work with your doctor to have a plan once you get into maintenance, because that can be kind of tricky and totally individualized,” Lester said.

Managing food noise without drugs

Lester said it’s key to recognize what the cause of the food noise is in order to manage it without medication, in cases where someone may not be able, or want, to take it.

She said that cues, like food commercials, or diet culture that can preach food restriction, contribute to these food noise cravings. She said there are other ways than drugs to limit food noise.

“We’re not taught how to check in with ourselves throughout the day,” she said. “We’re having a lot of stress or restricting ourselves of food, and then we’ll get more of that chatter throughout the day.”

She also suggests that food chatter can be regulated by changing eating habits, and avoiding spikes of sugar early in the day.

“When we start our day and we have a blood sugar spike, then we’re just going to kind of be doing a sugar chase, is what I call it throughout the day, and you’re going to have a ton of food, food chatter and food noise,” she said. She suggests protein as a way to feel full longer.

While food noise or food chatter is a serious consideration, it is not necessarily part of disordered eating, Lester said. Eating disorders are identifiable through symptoms, including food addiction. In those cases, Lester said these drugs are not meant to address those conditions, and that constant cravings would be part of a larger consideration.

There is a spectrum of food noise throughout the day, Lester said. It’s important to “process our emotions and instead of going to food, we should get out of this restrictive, perfectionistic mindset and be more kind to ourselves, check in with ourselves, have mindfulness practices,” she said. “Those are the kinds of things that are going to help us decrease the food noise and food chatter.”