GLP-1 Food Noise: How Semaglutide and Tirzepatide Ease Cravings

GLP-1 medications can ease food noise: in trials, semaglutide and tirzepatide eased food cravings and hunger more than a placebo in adults with overweight or obesity, in the first weeks or months of treatment.^1,2,3

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) medications are used to treat type 2 diabetes, and some are used for weight loss in people with obesity.⁴ Food noise is when thoughts about what to eat become excessive or harmful.

People who use these medicines describe the change too. In a survey of 550 people who had started injectable semaglutide, the median food noise score they recalled fell from 13 out of 20 before treatment to 6 after.⁵

In an interview study of 30 adults who were taking or had taken a GLP-1 medication, less food noise, psychological hunger or appetite were among the benefits people described.⁶

Every Telezen MD GLP-1 plan includes a physician consultation, provider monitoring, compounded GLP-1 medication and free, expedited shipping, along with The GLP-1 Nutrition Protocol™ and Lose It for Life™, a self-paced course on the beliefs behind emotional eating, at no extra cost.

Side effects and who should not take these medicines are covered near the end of this article.

What Is Food Noise?

Food noise has no official definition; the term describes thoughts about what to eat that become excessive or harmful.

A formal definition proposed in a review in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes describes food noise as persistent thoughts about food that a person finds unwanted or distressing, and that may cause social, mental or physical harm.⁷ The review sets food noise apart from everyday thoughts about food by its intensity and intrusiveness, much like rumination.⁷

Dedicated tools to measure food noise have started to appear, but a review in Appetite notes that these overlap with scales that already existed and that evidence on how useful they are in medical care is limited.⁸

Does a GLP-1 Medication Quiet Food Noise?

The trials point that way: in four trials in adults with overweight or obesity, GLP-1 medications eased food cravings, hunger and food preoccupation more than a placebo or therapy alone, in the first weeks or months of treatment.^1,2,3,9

Other studies asked about food noise itself:

• A cross-sectional study of 79 adults with obesity compared people eligible for a GLP-1 medication but not yet using one with people already using one.¹⁰ Food Noise Questionnaire scores were lower in people who had used the medicine for 6 months than in those about to start.¹⁰
• The INFORM survey of 550 people who had started injectable semaglutide asked them to recall their food noise before treatment; most were women (86%) and white (79%), with a mean age of 53 years.⁵ On a questionnaire scored out of 20, their median recalled score was 13 before starting and 6 after.⁵ The drop compares people’s current food noise with what they remembered having before treatment, and the survey’s authors call for research that follows people forward over time.⁵
• An interview study of 30 adults who were taking or had taken a GLP-1 medication found less food noise, psychological hunger or appetite among the benefits people described.⁶

How Might GLP-1 Medications Quiet Food Noise?

Semaglutide affects brain circuits that regulate how much people eat and when they feel full.¹¹

A crossover trial of liraglutide, another GLP-1 medication, gave 21 people with type 2 diabetes both liraglutide and a placebo in turn; 18 of them were analyzed.¹² On liraglutide, one area of the brain, the parietal cortex, reacted less to pictures of highly desirable food than on a placebo.¹² A secondary analysis also found lower activity in two areas involved in the brain’s reward system.¹²

The review in Appetite says evidence about the mechanisms behind food noise is limited.⁸

How Quickly Does Food Noise Ease on a GLP-1 Medication?

Trials found changes in eating or appetite within weeks to a few months, each on its own measure.^1,9,3

• Tirzepatide: in a 6-week trial in adults with overweight or obesity and without diabetes, people on tirzepatide ate fewer calories than those on a placebo at week 3.¹
• Liraglutide: a 52-week liraglutide trial added the medicine to behavioral therapy and tracked appetite in a subsample of 113 adults with obesity.⁹ At week 6, those on liraglutide reported larger drops in hunger and food preoccupation than those on therapy alone.⁹
• Semaglutide: in a 60-week semaglutide trial of 120 adults with overweight or obesity, past-week hunger and food preoccupation fell more than with a placebo at week 20.³

These are the weeks the trials checked, not a timetable for any one person.

Does Tirzepatide Reduce Food Noise More Than Semaglutide?

The trials did not compare the two: tirzepatide reduced food cravings compared with a placebo in adults without diabetes who had overweight or obesity, and semaglutide did so in adults with obesity.^1,2

Tirzepatide acts on two receptors: the GLP-1 receptor and the GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide) receptor.¹³

• A 6-week tirzepatide trial in adults without diabetes randomly assigned 114 adults with overweight or obesity to tirzepatide, a placebo or liraglutide.¹ Compared with a placebo, tirzepatide lowered food cravings, along with overall appetite, perceived hunger, the tendency to overeat and reactions to food around them.¹ It did not change how much people deliberately held back on food.¹
• A 20-week semaglutide trial randomly assigned 72 adults with obesity to weekly semaglutide or a placebo.² Semaglutide reduced appetite and food cravings and improved control of eating.²

Do GLP-1 Medications Help With Emotional Eating?

GLP-1 medications may help with some kinds of eating: in one study, eating triggered by food cues fell and stayed lower, and in a review of five studies, binge eating scores improved.^14,15 The change in emotional eating itself was temporary, and results on binge eating varied.^14,15,16

Emotional eating is when you eat food to cope with difficult emotions. Food noise, by contrast, is when thoughts about what to eat become excessive or harmful. Binge-eating disorder is an eating disorder of out-of-control eating, in which people keep eating even after they are full and often feel guilt, shame and distress afterward.

• Emotional eating: a prospective observational study in Japan followed 92 people with type 2 diabetes after they started a GLP-1 medication; their emotional eating scores changed for a time, but the change did not last.¹⁴ The study describes external eating as eating triggered by cues such as appetizing smells, the look of food or watching others eat.¹⁴ External eating scores fell and stayed lower.¹⁴
• Binge eating: a systematic review of five studies with 182 people with binge-eating disorder found that Binge Eating Scale scores improved on GLP-1 medicines, though results varied between studies.¹⁵ Its authors call the data limited and recommend more trials.¹⁵
• Liraglutide and binge episodes: a review brought together eight randomized trials of weight loss medicines in adults with obesity and binge eating.¹⁶ Among the 231 people on liraglutide, binge episodes fell in most of the individual studies, but when the studies were combined, they did not show a clear drop.¹⁶

What Else Helps With Emotional Eating?

Mindful eating programs were linked to greater reductions in emotional eating than the comparison groups in two trials, one in adults with overweight or obesity and one in university students.^17,18

• The Mind-Eat trial randomly assigned 66 adults with overweight or obesity to eight weekly sessions or the clinic’s usual patient education.¹⁷ Mind-Eat was linked to larger drops in emotional eating.¹⁷ Weight did not differ between the groups, and the authors say the results should be read in light of people dropping out.¹⁷
• A trial in 46 Hong Kong university students (42 of them female) tested a 10-week mindfulness-based eating program taught over Zoom.¹⁸ Students in the program group showed greater reductions in emotional eating.¹⁸

A review of GLP-1 medicines in behavioral care for obesity and binge-eating disorder suggests the temporary drop in appetite and food reward may open a window when strategies such as self-monitoring work better.¹⁹

In an interview study of 30 current or former GLP-1 users, people described the medicine as a help to lifestyle change rather than a replacement for it.⁶

Mayo Clinic suggests seeking help from a mental health professional if you cannot control emotional eating on your own, and notes that therapy can help you find out whether you have an eating disorder.²⁰ For how to eat while taking these medicines, see the GLP-1 diet plan.

What a Telezen MD GLP-1 Plan Includes

Every Telezen MD GLP-1 plan includes The GLP-1 Nutrition Protocol™ and Lose It for Life™ at no extra cost.

Every plan also includes a physician consultation, provider monitoring, compounded GLP-1 medication and free, expedited shipping. Because the medication is compounded, it is not approved by the FDA, which does not verify its safety, effectiveness or quality before it is marketed.²¹

The GLP-1 Nutrition Protocol™ teaches how to eat on a GLP-1 medication; it is a proprietary program, available only to Telezen MD patients.

Lose It for Life™ is a self-paced digital course that teaches The Rewire Method™, a process for changing the beliefs behind emotional eating, body-image struggles and old habits. The course comes with lifetime access. It is an educational practice, not medical treatment or psychotherapy.

Can Food Noise Come Back While You Are Still Taking a GLP-1 Medication?

It may: in two trials of about a year, people on the medicine no longer rated their appetite clearly lower than the comparison group at the later checks.^9,3

• Liraglutide: in a subsample of 113 adults with obesity from the 52-week liraglutide trial, appetite differences between liraglutide with behavioral therapy and therapy alone lasted 24 weeks but were not maintained at week 52.⁹
• Semaglutide: in the 60-week semaglutide trial in adults with overweight or obesity, appetite ratings no longer differed significantly from a placebo at weeks 40 or 60.³ Even so, at meals where they could eat as much as they wanted, people on semaglutide still ate fewer calories than those on a placebo at weeks 20, 40 and 60.³

In 31 interviews with people on obesity medicines, several in the stable phase of their weight loss described cravings returning gradually, often putting it down to the body adjusting to the medicine.²² The study’s authors note that self-reports like these may be affected by recall bias, particularly when participants speculated about the reasons for changes they perceived.²²

If food noise returns, tell your provider rather than changing your dose on your own.

What Happens to Weight and Appetite When You Stop a GLP-1 Medication?

Weight came back after people stopped weight management medicines, including semaglutide and tirzepatide.^23,24,25 A review in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism lists a return of appetite once the medicine’s GLP-1 signal is withdrawn among the possible reasons for the regain.²⁶ It says evidence for a direct role is limited.²⁶

• Across medicines: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 37 studies with 9341 participants found that adults with overweight or obesity regained weight rapidly after stopping weight management medicines, faster than after behavioral weight programs.²³ Weight came back at an average of 0.4 kg a month.²³
• An off-treatment extension of a 68-week semaglutide trial followed 327 participants after semaglutide and a lifestyle program were withdrawn.²⁴ One year later, people who had taken semaglutide had regained two-thirds of the weight they had lost.²⁴ All analyses in the extension were exploratory.²⁴
• A tirzepatide withdrawal trial gave tirzepatide for 36 weeks, then randomly assigned 670 participants to keep taking it or switch to a placebo.²⁵ Those switched to a placebo regained much of the weight they had lost, while continued treatment kept and added to the weight loss.²⁵

Plan any stop with your provider. For more, see weight regain after stopping a GLP-1.

Risks, Side Effects and Who Should Avoid a GLP-1 Medication

The semaglutide label links its use to stomach side effects, sometimes severe, and the semaglutide and tirzepatide labels rule the medicines out for some people.^27,13

The tirzepatide label notes that, since GLP-1 medicines came on the market, there have been reports of acute kidney injury in people taking them, in some cases needing dialysis.¹³ Most of those cases followed nausea, vomiting or diarrhea that led to dehydration.¹³ Contact your provider if nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or other stomach symptoms are severe or do not go away.¹³

A joint advisory from obesity, nutrition and lifestyle medicine societies lists nutritional deficiencies from eating fewer calories, and muscle and bone loss, among the challenges of these medicines.²⁸

Tell your provider before starting if any of these apply to you:

• A past or present eating disorder: a review of GLP-1 use in people with eating disorders warns that the effects that reduce appetite and food preoccupation may also reinforce restriction and relapse in vulnerable people.²⁹ Its authors propose routine eating disorder screening before and during treatment, and planning for when treatment stops.²⁹
• Certain thyroid tumors: tirzepatide and semaglutide labels rule the medicines out for anyone with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma, or with multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2.^13,27
• Severe gastroparesis: the semaglutide label says the medicine is not recommended for people with this condition.²⁷ Gastroparesis is a disorder that slows or stops the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine.
• Insulin or a sulfonylurea: the tirzepatide and semaglutide labels advise considering a lower dose of these diabetes medicines when starting, to reduce the risk of low blood sugar.^13,27 The semaglutide label adds that starting semaglutide in people already treated with insulin has not been evaluated.²⁷
• Pregnancy: the tirzepatide and semaglutide labels say the medicine may harm an unborn baby and should be stopped once pregnancy is recognized.^13,27 The semaglutide label advises stopping at least 2 months before a planned pregnancy, because semaglutide stays in the body for a long time.²⁷
• Breastfeeding: the tirzepatide and semaglutide labels ask that the benefits of breastfeeding be weighed against the mother’s need for the medicine and any possible effects on the baby.^13,27 For semaglutide injection, there are no data on whether it passes into breast milk or affects the baby or milk production.²⁷
• Another tirzepatide or GLP-1 product: the tirzepatide label does not recommend taking tirzepatide with other tirzepatide products or with any GLP-1 medicine.¹³
• Children and teenagers: the tirzepatide label says the safety and effectiveness of tirzepatide have not been established in children and teenagers.¹³

Is Semaglutide or Tirzepatide Approved to Treat Food Noise?

No: food noise is not among the approved uses that the tirzepatide label and the semaglutide injection label list.^13,27

The tirzepatide label lists two uses, each alongside a reduced-calorie diet and more physical activity.¹³ One is to reduce excess body weight and keep it off long term, in adults with obesity or with overweight and a weight-related condition.¹³ The other is to treat moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity.¹³

The semaglutide injection label’s approved uses, each alongside a reduced-calorie diet and more physical activity, include the same adult weight-management use and lowering the risk of major heart and blood vessel events in adults with established cardiovascular disease and obesity or overweight.²⁷

Compounding is generally a practice in which a licensed pharmacist or physician combines, mixes or alters the ingredients of a drug to create a medication tailored to one patient. Compounded drugs are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which does not verify their safety, effectiveness or quality before they are marketed.²¹

The FDA warns that unapproved versions of GLP-1 drugs, including semaglutide and tirzepatide, can be risky because they do not go through its review for safety, effectiveness and quality.³⁰ It says compounded drugs should only be used in patients whose medical needs cannot be met by an approved drug.³⁰

Questions to Ask Your Provider

• How will we know whether the medicine is changing my food noise, and what should I keep track of?
• What should I do if food noise comes back while I am still taking it?
• Could my history of dieting or eating problems make this medicine risky for me?
• Which stomach side effects mean I should contact you, and how soon?
• If I stop, how would we plan it, and what support is there for my eating habits afterward?
• How does the compounded medicine you would prescribe differ from the products studied in trials?

If you would like to talk through food noise and whether a GLP-1 medication fits your situation, see how a Telezen MD GLP-1 plan works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. Tirzepatide on ingestive behavior in adults with overweight or obesity: a randomized 6-week phase 1 trial., Nature medicine, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40555748/
2. The effect of semaglutide 2.4 mg once weekly on energy intake, appetite, control of eating, and gastric emptying in adults with obesity., Diabetes, obesity & metabolism, 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33269530/
3. Short- and long-term effects of semaglutide 2.4 mg on energy intake, appetite, and food reward: a 60-week, double-blind randomized controlled trial., The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42323166/
4. GLP-1 agonists: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, medlineplus.gov. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007853.htm
5. Retrospective Assessment of Food Noise Changes After Initiation of Injectable Semaglutide for Weight Management in the USA: The INFORM Survey., Advances in therapy, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42217114/
6. Patient Experiences With GLP-1 Receptor Agonists., JAMA network open, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42247231/
7. Food noise: definition, measurement, and future research directions., Nutrition & diabetes, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40628707/
8. Food noise: Conceptual, methodological, and ethical considerations., Appetite, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42392316/
9. Effects of liraglutide on appetite, food preoccupation, and food liking: results of a randomized controlled trial., International journal of obesity (2005), 2020. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30926955/
10. The effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists on chemosensory function and ingestive behavior., Physiology & behavior, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42641845/
11. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist semaglutide through the lens of psychiatry: a systematic review of potential benefits and risks., International clinical psychopharmacology, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40577093/
12. GLP-1 receptors exist in the parietal cortex, hypothalamus and medulla of human brains and the GLP-1 analogue liraglutide alters brain activity related to highly desirable food cues in individuals with diabetes: a crossover, randomised, placebo-controlled trial., Diabetologia, 2016. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26831302/
13. ZEPBOUND (tirzepatide) injection, for subcutaneous use: highlights of prescribing information, www.accessdata.fda.gov. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2026/217806s042lbl.pdf
14. Association between eating behavior patterns and the therapeutic efficacy of GLP-1 receptor agonists in individuals with type 2 diabetes: a multicenter prospective observational study., Frontiers in clinical diabetes and healthcare, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41040428/
15. The impact of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists in the treatment of eating disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis., Eating and weight disorders : EWD, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39891848/
16. Weight Loss Medications for Adult Patients With Obesity and Binge Eating-A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis., Endocrine practice : official journal of the American College of Endocrinology and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41513086/
17. The mind-eat program leads to greater improvements in mindful, emotional, and external eating compared to intuitive eating-oriented education in adults with overweight or obesity: a randomized controlled trial., The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42163359/
18. Mindfulness-based eating awareness training (MB-EAT) decreases emotional eating behavior among Hong Kong university students: a randomized controlled trial., Journal of behavioral medicine, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42178450/
19. Beyond weight loss: Integrating GLP-1 RA therapies into psychological and behavioral care for obesity and binge eating disorder., Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42068458/
20. Weight loss: Gain control of emotional eating – Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20047342
21. Compounding and the FDA: Questions and Answers | FDA, www.fda.gov. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/human-drug-compounding/compounding-and-fda-questions-and-answers
22. Changes in Eating Behaviour During Treatment With Obesity Medications., Clinical obesity, 2026. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12717437
23. Weight regain after cessation of medication for weight management: systematic review and meta-analysis., BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41500720/
24. Weight regain and cardiometabolic effects after withdrawal of semaglutide: The STEP 1 trial extension., Diabetes, obesity & metabolism, 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35441470/
25. Continued Treatment With Tirzepatide for Maintenance of Weight Reduction in Adults With Obesity: The SURMOUNT-4 Randomized Clinical Trial., JAMA, 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38078870/
26. Early Weight Regain After GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Discontinuation: Mechanisms and Implications for Treatment De-Escalation Strategies., Diabetes, obesity & metabolism, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42396734/
27. WEGOVY (semaglutide) injection, for subcutaneous use; WEGOVY (semaglutide) tablets, for oral use: highlights of prescribing information, www.accessdata.fda.gov. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2026/215256s033lbl.pdf
28. Nutritional priorities to support GLP-1 therapy for obesity: A joint advisory from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the American Society for Nutrition, the Obesity Medicine Association, and the Obesity Society., Obesity pillars, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40673264/
29. Eating Disorders in the GLP-1 Era: A Spotlight on Emerging Clinical Risks, Research Gaps, and Practice Priorities., The International journal of eating disorders, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42223191/
30. FDA’s Concerns with Unapproved GLP-1 Drugs Used for Weight Loss | FDA, www.fda.gov. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-alerts-and-statements/fdas-concerns-unapproved-glp-1-drugs-used-weight-loss

Disclaimer

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Telezen MD services are available only to patients who qualify following an online medical evaluation with a licensed healthcare provider. Results vary by individual. Compounded medications prescribed through Telezen MD are compounded by 503A FDA-regulated pharmacies. Compounded medications are not reviewed or approved by the FDA for safety or efficacy. Statements on this page have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before beginning any new medical treatment. If you experience any adverse effects, contact your provider immediately.