Food Noise
Lately I keep hearing more and more that the weight-loss injections that have become so popular mainly reduce “food noise”, making it easier to eat less.
There’s Another Way
Interestingly, food noise (which until recently I didn’t even know was a thing) was, in hindsight, one of the first things that stopped when I began my trial month of a ketogenic diet back in 2012. Fun fact: that trial month is still running - I’ve never had a reason to call it off.
While the first few days of the switch were certainly unfamiliar and challenging, it was actually the inner calm, focus, clarity and absence of hunger that made me stick with it.
Problems From the Outside
“Sticking with it” and the “social aspect” are brought up again and again as arguments against a ketogenic diet: “people won’t keep that up anyway”, “it isolates you” and so on.
You're not given the option
Especially annoying: doctors who, with the attitude “that’s too hard to keep up anyway”, withhold the option from their patients entirely. Even though many patients would be grateful to be able to do something themselves.
It happens even with nutrition specialists.
What Ketosis Does
Ever since, I’ve actually found it absolutely easy to occasionally skip a meal: the body has a five- or six-figure number of kilocalories in storage, and once it knows how to get at the fat, there’s simply no need to refuel in a hurry - it’s a completely different sense of my body, one that can’t be compared with the glucose-driven metabolism we’re usually steered toward.
Your body has enough fuel on board
What is classically regarded as the “tank”, the readily available fuel, holds about 2000 kcal of carbohydrates - not even a day’s supply.
In the “reserve”, the fat, by contrast, more than 100,000 kcal can easily be slumbering.
Which of the two do you suppose is the body’s preferred fuel?
The “social problems” mentioned above are only problems for as long as you make them so. I like to compare overcoming “dependence” on carbohydrates with other dietary changes - it depends on your own constitution: nothing and nobody demands that a change of diet means swapping out your entire circle of friends, but that circle should at least not torpedo your switch. The same goes for switching to a vegetarian, vegan, low-histamine, gluten-free or allergy-driven diet, just as it is already generally accepted today for abstaining from alcohol.
Of course there are problems too: as a recovering alcoholic I’d no longer go to the weekly pub regulars’ table; as a vegan I’d eat the salad at the steakhouse or perhaps decline this invitation altogether; and with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis I’d drink nothing but water at a vegan restaurant(1).
Just water at a restaurant? If the group plays along (as it usually does when someone gives up alcohol) it works fine. And in ketosis - I promise - it’s no problem to sit at the table and eat nothing. You quickly learn that appetite and hunger are two completely different feelings. And with that we’re gradually easing back to the topic of “food noise”.
Selbst Hunger ist nicht eindeutig
Hunger (in the Plural)
We act as if there were only one kind of hunger - there are actually three, and the dietary guidelines mostly talk about number four.
Read more →My Results
Particularly fascinating to me: I myself didn’t lose much weight back then, but my body composition changed dramatically - my waist circumference, for example, dropped notably. Entirely without any change in physical exercise.
Personally I didn’t (at first) even need the motivation of receding symptoms: for me, the mental focus, clarity and absence of “brain fog” were motivation enough. Now and then I’d still buy myself a croissant - but after I noticed that this cost me exactly that focus for 1-2 days afterwards, only when it was clear that I wouldn’t need any particular mental effort on those days. The trade “2 minutes of taste for 2 days of focus” is (for me) an argument strong enough on its own.
That’s all the more true since I found out that only giving up fiber brings me tangible medical benefits as well (2).
How cutting out fiber actually helped me
Fibre: Necessary or Unnecessary Ballast? A Self-Experiment
The literature doesn’t list fibre as essential, yet standard guidelines treat it as indispensable. A self-experiment, with a surprising outcome.
Read more →Back to “Food Noise”
It seems that ketones circulating in the body reliably switch off “food noise” and - quite incidentally - bring a whole host of other benefits.
So the question occurs to me: if it’s that easy, why would I choose a product that switches off nothing but food noise, while its package insert lists a pile of risks and known side effects?
All right, I know: changing habits is hard - getting (or having someone give you) an injection is no effort at all. Not least for that reason, the most important criterion when drawing up the German dietary guidelines is the preservation of existing eating habits 🙄.
Old habits guide hard
The decision for or against medical support is both a personal and a medical one. I can neither advise for nor against it, only relay my own position.
As with everything on this site, I do it because, in my perception, this additional option - the one that lets patients become active themselves - often isn’t brought into the conversation at all. The reasons for that are linked above.