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It is much harder to treat a food addiction than a smoking one. The usual way to do that is to stop smoking entirely and eventually forget about it. You cannot

It is much harder to treat a food addiction than a smoking one. The usual way to do that is to stop smoking entirely and eventually forget about it. You cannot stop eating. Food tastes good. We have infinite food available. The hell are we supposed to do about it?

unclad5968 2y ago
That's just because you consider all food equally. Nobody is out here dying from a vegetable or fruit addiction.
- davzie 2y ago
  Tell that to Steve Jobs!
  - kibwen 2y ago
    We're being glib, but Jobs' extreme dietary predilections, regardless of whether they contributed to his cancer, definitely weren't motivated by anything that we'd classify as addiction.
qwerty456127 2y ago
The same - just stop eating (for some time between a day and a week). I tried (for a week) successfully and that was fun. This way you discover you have power to choose to eat or not to eat, also learn to distract yourself from hunger and forget about it for whatever time you choose to. Switching to keto first, supplementing minerals - helps a lot.
- orwin 2y ago
  So I will second this post, but with a caveat: 'fun' is extremely relative. I was obese, 34 BMI, and did this. My first fast, the hunger 'spikes' were extremely painful. If 'broken leg' is a 10, the pain would be was a 6 to 9. Intermittently. Around every two hours, for a dozen minutes, from the end of the first day until the end of the second. I was prepared. A doctor was consulted before, my sister was around, I took the week off, and yes, I entered ketosis 2 days before the fast. Still, it was very difficult. It did help a ton though, because like my parent say, once you've gone hungry once and managed it fine ( day 3-4-5 were 'normal' to me), your body learn to accept hunger. I now leave every meal hungry, and it's fine. I went from 34 BMI to 28 in less than two years, without changing anything other than the quantities I ate. The 28 to 25 took 5 years and physical exercise.
  - qwerty456127 2y ago
    Sounds epic. I always admire people who have actually been overweight (I haven't) before learning to manage hunger sustainably. That probably is hard.
benatkin 2y ago
I don't think that's true at all. The reason people are having so much success in not smoking is that a lot of people never started smoking. Plenty of people have managed their food addictions and still are overweight. That's just the nature of it. If you think everyone who is overweight has an active food addiction, you should probably look into whether that's really true.
- orwin 2y ago
  You're right, especially because I think being overweight is extremely easy to reach by just being sedentary. But obese, especially 35+ (never reached that, I caught myself a hair before), imho you need a 'food addiction', which was at least in my case either an overproduction of ghrelin or an hypersensitivity to it. Which kills any sort of temporary calorie restriction diet. My solution was a 5 day fast, and it worked well enough: I can now easily go hungry ( I am right now) and leave most of my meals hungry, without feeling more than a very, very mild discomfort (from a heavily to painful discomfort before, on the level of an occular migraine).
spondylosaurus 2y ago
To some extent, "treating food addiction" is exactly what GLP-1 drugs do. People who take them talk about having a much lower level of "food noise," which is kind of a silly term, but it's easy to understand what they mean.
- andersa 2y ago
  I must have been living under a rock, first time I've heard of this.
driverdan 2y ago
Learn some self control.
- andersa 2y ago
  Do you think suggesting this to someone with any other type of addiction (smoking, gambling, heroin, whatever) would do anything?
  - vladvasiliu 2y ago
    I get your point, but I think what makes food addiction somewhat easier to manage is that you can pretty easily find "substitution" products which help a lot. I used to eat a lot of junk food and got pretty fat after an injury which also had me drop my activity level. It's not easy, but with some will power, it's manageable to start eating other things, which help lessen the cravings for the junk. After a few months, the cravings disappeared completely. Don't know if there's an equivalent for smoking / heroin.
yodsanklai 2y ago
Smoking is extremely addictive. I don't think people are obese because of food addiction. It's more a combination of unhealthy diet and lack of exercise.
- orwin 2y ago
  No. I went from 34 BMI to 28 by just eating less. Couldn't do much sport at 34 anyway. 28 to 25, yes, exercise needed.
yen223 2y ago
The marketing and messaging for getting people to stop smoking is simple. "Stop smoking". You don't need to get nuanced, which is good because nuance kills marketing effectiveness. The marketing and messaging for getting people to eat the right amount - "not too much! But also not too little!" is considerably trickier. Also, you can put taxes on cigarettes, but you can't really put taxes on food...
- vladvasiliu 2y ago
  Sure, but not all "foods" are equal. Eating 300 calories from some broccoli, eggs, and steak won't leave you with the same cravings as eating 300 calories from Snickers bars. I also think we're not all the same when it comes to these addictions. For example, I never had a smoking problem, although I do smoke. I must have smoked 10 cigarettes in 2024, even though I almost always have cigarettes on hand (I sometimes enjoy one or two when out drinking with people who smoke). Didn't smoke once during covid, when "going out" wasn't really allowed. Now, if you let a pack of Snickers bars in my house, there won't be any left one hour later. So if the marketing and messaging for getting people to stop smoking is simple, it can be so for food, too: don't ever eat "junk food". At all. Haven't had a Snickers bar in years, and I seem to be doing fine. I've found it's orders of magnitude easier to not start eating at all than to attempt to "only have one" and hope I won't overindulge.
thefz 2y ago
> The usual way to do that is to stop smoking entirely and eventually forget about it. You cannot stop eating. Food tastes good. We have infinite food available. The hell are we supposed to do about it? I think 99 out of 100 doctors will not tell you to stop eating. Just - eat less - eat less shit
latentcall 2y ago
I agree and I’ve been struggling with this for a long time. I’m not super fat. I can get around good and and remember to get up from my desk and walk around. I don’t get tired on small hikes. But I can’t seem to get weight off. I’ve tried GLP-1, appetite reduction medication, drinking a ton of water, etc. I one point a few years ago I used to be much skinnier. The main difference between then and now is then I worked a physical job not in IT, was taking Adderall, and working long hours and didn’t have time to eat. So transitioning to a desk job I underestimated how much work it would be to make time to do physical activity and watch what I eat. At this point I accept it may be an emotional thing for eating. I have a therapist but he doesn’t specialize in that area. Anyway I am just rambling.

unclad5968 2y ago

That's just because you consider all food equally. Nobody is out here dying from a vegetable or fruit addiction.

davzie 2y ago
Tell that to Steve Jobs!
- kibwen 2y ago
  We're being glib, but Jobs' extreme dietary predilections, regardless of whether they contributed to his cancer, definitely weren't motivated by anything that we'd classify as addiction.

qwerty456127 2y ago

The same - just stop eating (for some time between a day and a week). I tried (for a week) successfully and that was fun. This way you discover you have power to choose to eat or not to eat, also learn to distract yourself from hunger and forget about it for whatever time you choose to. Switching to keto first, supplementing minerals - helps a lot.

orwin 2y ago
So I will second this post, but with a caveat: 'fun' is extremely relative. I was obese, 34 BMI, and did this. My first fast, the hunger 'spikes' were extremely painful. If 'broken leg' is a 10, the pain would be was a 6 to 9. Intermittently. Around every two hours, for a dozen minutes, from the end of the first day until the end of the second. I was prepared. A doctor was consulted before, my sister was around, I took the week off, and yes, I entered ketosis 2 days before the fast. Still, it was very difficult. It did help a ton though, because like my parent say, once you've gone hungry once and managed it fine ( day 3-4-5 were 'normal' to me), your body learn to accept hunger. I now leave every meal hungry, and it's fine. I went from 34 BMI to 28 in less than two years, without changing anything other than the quantities I ate. The 28 to 25 took 5 years and physical exercise.
- qwerty456127 2y ago
  Sounds epic. I always admire people who have actually been overweight (I haven't) before learning to manage hunger sustainably. That probably is hard.

benatkin 2y ago

I don't think that's true at all. The reason people are having so much success in not smoking is that a lot of people never started smoking. Plenty of people have managed their food addictions and still are overweight. That's just the nature of it. If you think everyone who is overweight has an active food addiction, you should probably look into whether that's really true.

orwin 2y ago
You're right, especially because I think being overweight is extremely easy to reach by just being sedentary. But obese, especially 35+ (never reached that, I caught myself a hair before), imho you need a 'food addiction', which was at least in my case either an overproduction of ghrelin or an hypersensitivity to it. Which kills any sort of temporary calorie restriction diet. My solution was a 5 day fast, and it worked well enough: I can now easily go hungry ( I am right now) and leave most of my meals hungry, without feeling more than a very, very mild discomfort (from a heavily to painful discomfort before, on the level of an occular migraine).

spondylosaurus 2y ago

To some extent, "treating food addiction" is exactly what GLP-1 drugs do. People who take them talk about having a much lower level of "food noise," which is kind of a silly term, but it's easy to understand what they mean.

andersa 2y ago
I must have been living under a rock, first time I've heard of this.

driverdan 2y ago

Learn some self control.

andersa 2y ago
Do you think suggesting this to someone with any other type of addiction (smoking, gambling, heroin, whatever) would do anything?
- vladvasiliu 2y ago
  I get your point, but I think what makes food addiction somewhat easier to manage is that you can pretty easily find "substitution" products which help a lot. I used to eat a lot of junk food and got pretty fat after an injury which also had me drop my activity level. It's not easy, but with some will power, it's manageable to start eating other things, which help lessen the cravings for the junk. After a few months, the cravings disappeared completely. Don't know if there's an equivalent for smoking / heroin.

yodsanklai 2y ago

Smoking is extremely addictive. I don't think people are obese because of food addiction. It's more a combination of unhealthy diet and lack of exercise.

orwin 2y ago
No. I went from 34 BMI to 28 by just eating less. Couldn't do much sport at 34 anyway. 28 to 25, yes, exercise needed.

yen223 2y ago

The marketing and messaging for getting people to stop smoking is simple. "Stop smoking". You don't need to get nuanced, which is good because nuance kills marketing effectiveness. The marketing and messaging for getting people to eat the right amount - "not too much! But also not too little!" is considerably trickier. Also, you can put taxes on cigarettes, but you can't really put taxes on food...

vladvasiliu 2y ago
Sure, but not all "foods" are equal. Eating 300 calories from some broccoli, eggs, and steak won't leave you with the same cravings as eating 300 calories from Snickers bars. I also think we're not all the same when it comes to these addictions. For example, I never had a smoking problem, although I do smoke. I must have smoked 10 cigarettes in 2024, even though I almost always have cigarettes on hand (I sometimes enjoy one or two when out drinking with people who smoke). Didn't smoke once during covid, when "going out" wasn't really allowed. Now, if you let a pack of Snickers bars in my house, there won't be any left one hour later. So if the marketing and messaging for getting people to stop smoking is simple, it can be so for food, too: don't ever eat "junk food". At all. Haven't had a Snickers bar in years, and I seem to be doing fine. I've found it's orders of magnitude easier to not start eating at all than to attempt to "only have one" and hope I won't overindulge.

thefz 2y ago

> The usual way to do that is to stop smoking entirely and eventually forget about it. You cannot stop eating. Food tastes good. We have infinite food available. The hell are we supposed to do about it? I think 99 out of 100 doctors will not tell you to stop eating. Just - eat less - eat less shit

latentcall 2y ago

I agree and I’ve been struggling with this for a long time. I’m not super fat. I can get around good and and remember to get up from my desk and walk around. I don’t get tired on small hikes. But I can’t seem to get weight off. I’ve tried GLP-1, appetite reduction medication, drinking a ton of water, etc. I one point a few years ago I used to be much skinnier. The main difference between then and now is then I worked a physical job not in IT, was taking Adderall, and working long hours and didn’t have time to eat. So transitioning to a desk job I underestimated how much work it would be to make time to do physical activity and watch what I eat. At this point I accept it may be an emotional thing for eating. I have a therapist but he doesn’t specialize in that area. Anyway I am just rambling.