A new study presented at this year’s European Obesity Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, shows that using obesity drugs in conjunction with behavioral therapy reduces so-called “diet noise” to a greater extent than using behavioral therapy alone. The study was conducted by Dr. Hanim Diktas, a postdoctoral fellow at the LSU Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and colleagues.
Food noise, defined as persistent and intrusive thoughts about food that interfere with daily life and make healthy behaviors difficult, has received attention with the introduction of GLP-1 receptor agonists (RAs) for the treatment of obesity. Based on anecdotal reports, GLP-1 RAs can cause significant changes in food noise. However, there is no empirical evidence testing whether GLP-1 RA reduces eating noise more than behavioral therapy alone. This study examined short-term changes in food noise in a digital behavioral weight management program with and without GLP-1 RA.
Dr. Dictas presented “Changes in food noise in two weight management programs: impact of GLP-1 receptor agonists” at the poster session at the 33rd European Obesity Congress this week.
This observational cohort study included 417 adults participating in a digital behavioral weight management program, assessed 1-month changes in food noise using a validated Food Noise Questionnaire (FNQ), and compared outcomes with and without GLP-1 receptor agonists.
The FNQ asks participants five questions and scores each answer from 0 to 4 for a maximum total of 20 points. Questions and statements that users have to rank themselves have very different ratings. i disagree. I neither agree nor disagree. Agree; Strongly agree:
- I found myself constantly thinking about food throughout the day.
- Thoughts about food feel out of control.
- I spend too much time thinking about food.
- My thoughts about food have a negative impact on me and my life.
- Thinking about food distracts you from what you need to do.
All individuals completed an online survey at baseline and 1-month follow-up, and the analytic sample included participants who started GLP-1 RA concurrently with behavioral treatment (“Weight Watchers Med+, GLP-1 RA”, n=92) and participants who did not start GLP-1 RA while receiving behavioral treatment (“Weight Watchers Core+, no GLP-1 RA”, n=325). Individuals using GLP-1 RAs or weight loss medications at baseline were not included.
FNQ scores and weight measured using a digital scale were collected at baseline and at 1-month follow-up. Statistical modeling estimated changes over time and whether those changes differed between the two groups. All statistical models were adjusted for baseline FNQ score. This allowed us to analytically isolate the effect of GLP-1 use on changes in FNQ scores.
Most participants were Caucasian (390, 94%) and female (388, 93%), with a mean age of 59 years and a mean BMI of 34 kg/m2. FNQ scores at baseline were significantly different between the two groups. Weight Watchers Med+ reduced average FNQ (unadjusted) from 13.1 to 8.7. Weight Watchers Core+ reduced the average FNQ (unadjusted) from 10.7 to 9.7.
Statistical models adjusted for baseline FNQ revealed significant reductions in eating noise from baseline to 1-month follow-up in the Weight Watchers Med+ group (adjusted mean change -4.05) and Weight Watchers Core+ group (-1.15). Results also showed that eating noise was significantly reduced in the Weight Watchers Med+ group (adjusted between-group difference of -3.0).
Additional analyzes examining the relationship between changes in body weight and changes in dietary noise are ongoing on the full manuscript.
The authors write, “During weight loss treatment, eating noise was reduced, and initiation of a GLP-1 RA drug was associated with a significantly greater reduction than behavioral therapy alone. The greater reduction in eating noise with a GLP1 RA drug when combined with behavioral therapy is consistent with previous anecdotal reports and may serve as an early indicator of treatment response.”
“For the current study, we focused on the 1-month follow-up because it was the first follow-up time point available in this dataset for most participants and provided an indication of short-term changes in food noise. However, future studies should examine food noise over longer follow-up periods to understand the mechanistic role of food noise in weight, health, and quality of life outcomes.”
sauce:
Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Reference magazines:
Mr. Dictus, he; Others. (2025). Development and validation of a food noise questionnaire. obesity. DOI: 10.1002/oby.24216. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.24216
