{"id":545728,"date":"2025-11-03T06:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/545728\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T06:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:54:18","slug":"the-appetite-doctor-i-lost-a-stone-and-a-half-by-learning-to-silence-food-noise-without-weight-loss-jabs-this-is-how-you-can-do-it-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/545728\/","title":{"rendered":"THE APPETITE DOCTOR: I lost a stone and a half by learning to silence ‘food noise’ without weight-loss jabs – this is how you can do it too"},"content":{"rendered":"

I used to think about food most in the evening. I\u2019d graze and snack, and then regret it. The part of the nation\u2019s current obsession with weight-loss jabs that I relate to most is the way they eradicate the \u2018food noise\u2019 that would drive me to the fridge and the ice cream tub.<\/p>\n

But I also knew, as a psychologist, there must be another way of dealing with food noise and the cravings that come with it. And indeed, there is. I am proof of it.<\/p>\n

Over six months I altered my insistent appetite completely, retraining it with no drugs required. And I only had to do it once to lose all the weight I wanted. It\u2019s a method I\u2019ve since discovered works for a lot of people, without altering your appetite signals with fat jabs \u2013 although those who are living with obesity have benefited hugely from the emergence of weight-loss drugs.<\/p>\n

Like so many women, my weight issues began after my first pregnancy. At 38 I weighed 11st 5lbs \u2013 about a stone and a half more than I wanted to be \u2013 and so I joined WeightWatchers. After three and a half months, I\u2019d lost it and now weighed 9st 11lbs.<\/p>\n

But it required a hellish amount of self-restraint, and I became obsessed with when the next mouthful of food was coming. It wasn\u2019t a regime I could sustain and within six months of reaching my target weight, I put most of it back on, settling at 10st 9lbs \u2013 at the top of the healthy weight range for my height of 5ft 5in.<\/p>\n

For the next 15 years, my weight became an annoying issue, lingering in the background.<\/p>\n

By the summer of 2011, I\u2019d been working as a clinical psychologist for two decades and was treating a woman in her forties who\u2019d developed bulimia, triggered by a very low-calorie meal-replacement plan. She made an excellent recovery but in her last session told me \u2018I just wish I could lose a stone\u2019.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d helped her overcome a serious eating disorder, but I had no idea how to help her lose weight because I still hadn\u2019t lost my own. It was a turning point. I knew there must be a way of applying psychological methods to sustainable weight loss.<\/p>\n

\"Dr <\/p>\n

Dr Helen McCarthy, the Appetite Doctor, who retrained her brain to shut down food noise<\/p>\n

I broke down the problem, starting with why I was overweight, then the steps I\u2019d take to make losing it manageable. I analysed my eating patterns, noticing I was scared of getting hungry and would eat to prevent it. I was also opportunistic \u2013 I\u2019d eat because food was there.<\/p>\n

One by one I began to tackle my issues, relearning how to use appetite signals to guide my eating \u2013 and sure enough, the weight dropped off. It took six months to get to 9st 2lbs, but I only had to do it once and I have kept the weight off ever since. Here\u2019s how you can too.<\/p>\n

What are your bad habits?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a long list of reasons why women are heavier than they want to be, and you need to identify yours. It might be an erratic eating routine, skipping meals to save calories or eating too much unhealthy food.<\/p>\n

For me, it was that my meals were larger than I needed, and I would eat when I wasn\u2019t hungry. I\u2019d eat beyond the point of being full and not even notice. My dinner would be the same size as my husband\u2019s: three sausages and what I thought was a medium portion of mash, plus vegetables and gravy. Then I\u2019d still be looking for snacks in the evening.<\/p>\n

I noticed I was anxious about even the possibility of being hungry. This led to an absurd practice of \u2018insurance policy eating\u2019, where I might buy chocolate to prevent getting hungry on the train, for example, but then eat it whether I was hungry or not. I would also eat in the evenings because I was tired, bored or wired from the day. I\u2019d graze on chocolate and crisps, none of it enjoyable or satisfying.<\/p>\n

Through trial and error, I discovered the amount of food I needed to feel just full, which also meant I was genuinely hungry by the next meal.<\/p>\n

Enjoy feeling hungry<\/p>\n

Initially I found this incredibly hard, and it created a lot of anxiety.<\/p>\n

I experimented with simple behaviour exercises like not buying the snack before starting my commute home. It\u2019s about holding your nerve when everything is screaming at you to eat or put more food on your plate.<\/p>\n

But if you do something repeatedly, you create the new habit. You have to face the natural discomfort that comes from making any change to your routine \u2013 and keep doing it. According to research, the average number of times you need to practise a new habit before it becomes default behaviour is 66. Patterns that you keep repeating (not buying the chocolate bar) become your beliefs (I don\u2019t need the chocolate bar).<\/p>\n

In time, I found that hunger became an ally and almost pleasurable. Our taste perception is heightened as we get hungrier; it\u2019s much sharper. When you learn that, it\u2019s life-enhancing.<\/p>\n

But our appetite signals don\u2019t all work in the same way. If you always feel unsatisfied at the end of a meal while everyone else is perfectly full, it\u2019s not because of your failure to tune into your body\u2019s natural signals, it\u2019s that those signals work differently to theirs.<\/p>\n

Record the times you eat and notice how you feel as the hours pass since your last meal or snack. Start the moment you\u2019ve finished a meal \u2013 do you feel \u2018just full\u2019 or fully satisfied?<\/p>\n

Then try to remain tuned in to whether you feel genuine hunger between meals or if what you are feeling is actually more about liking the idea of eating something.<\/p>\n

Once I decided to see how long it would take me to get hungry after having an adult portion of fish and chips. I ate it on Sunday lunchtime, and I wasn\u2019t hungry again until 2pm the following day.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been eating so much unnecessary food. I was astonished at how little food I needed to keep me going between meals.<\/p>\n

But the rewards outweighed the pain. The smaller amounts I was eating tasted better, and I had much more energy.<\/p>\n

Stop eating when you\u2019re full<\/p>\n

I eat about a quarter of the food I used to, but it took trial and error to get to this point. It would be a terrible mistake for people to reduce their meal size by three-quarters overnight.<\/p>\n

Start by reducing it by a quarter at the most and then get used to that new three-quarter size and see how you feel. Stick with this meal size until it\u2019s the norm for you. Then you can reduce it by another quarter and so on.<\/p>\n

I created a tool called The Appetite Pendulum which works on a moving scale from -5, which is extremely hungry, to +5, uncomfortably full. I suggest people get to -3 (definitely hungry) before eating and they aim to stop eating when they get to +3, just full. You\u2019ll need one or two weeks to master where your feelings are on the pendulum.<\/p>\n

I have retrained my appetite so I only eat a small plate of food at each meal. I\u2019m now 65, with a very sedentary job, which may be why this small amount keeps me going. If I\u2019m in a restaurant, I\u2019ll order a starter and a dessert rather than a full meal (or two sides and a dessert) because I\u2019ve got a very sweet tooth.<\/p>\n

\"'I <\/p>\n

‘I have retrained my appetite so I only eat a small plate of food at each meal. I\u2019m now 65, with a very sedentary job, which may be why this small amount keeps me going’<\/p>\n

Try this handy trick<\/p>\n

The idea is to shift your attention from one thing to the other \u2013 from the one you feel like doing (eat the cake) to the one you intend to do (stick to my goals).<\/p>\n

The point is, we may have a rational intention, but we also have a drive to do something else.<\/p>\n

The trick is to open and close each hand ten times while shifting your attention between the two options, saying them silently to yourself. When your brain processes unresolved information like this, it leans in the direction of what is adaptive and helpful, in this case sticking to your goals. It\u2019s called the two hand interweave technique and people find it incredibly helpful because it can be done discreetly under the table.<\/p>\n

Help your brain forget food<\/p>\n

I love chocolate biscuits, but science has taught us that if we can see them, we are far more likely to eat them. So, I simply put less tempting food out.<\/p>\n

If you have a food craving, make an active decision to place something else that\u2019s not food related, such as a forthcoming event, into your working memory. Every time you think of chocolate biscuits, think instead of the party you\u2019re going to at the weekend. This is the part of the brain that processes what is happening right now and anything new we need to learn, as opposed to the long-term memory that deals with established habit patterns.<\/p>\n

\"Start <\/p>\n

Start by reducing it by a quarter at the most and then get used to that new three-quarter size and see how you feel<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t finish what\u2019s on your plate<\/p>\n

Most of us have been raised to believe you should clear your plate or you\u2019re being wasteful, but it leads to people eating food they don\u2019t need and never learning the amount that will keep them full. Once you\u2019ve cut back your portion size you can clear your plate in good faith \u2013 but till then, stop eating it all.<\/p>\n

Yes, it can be socially awkward when you\u2019re eating at a friend\u2019s house and in this case it\u2019s worth remembering one large meal does not make you gain weight any more than one tiny meal makes you lose weight.<\/p>\n

Remind your brain you\u2019ve had enough<\/p>\n

If I finish eating before my family, which is likely as my portions are smaller, I move away from the table, to reduce the risk of serving myself more food.<\/p>\n

Or if that feels too rude or impractical, I place a glass of water between me and my plate. It acts as a reminder to the brain that you\u2019re no longer eating. When the autopilot brain wants to reach for more food, there\u2019s something in the way. There is also plenty of evidence that just slowing down the speed at which you eat reduces the amount you eat overall. Twenty minutes is a rough guide for how long it takes your brain to register that you\u2019re full. So slow down, you can eat an awful lot of food in that time.<\/p>\n

The last mouthfuls are the least tasty<\/p>\n

We have a learned understanding that the end of eating something savoury activates the desire in your brain for something sweet. But there\u2019s no physiological reason for this.<\/p>\n

If you offered guests more main course, they might well turn it down, but still enthusiastically accept dessert. That is called \u2018taste specific satiety\u2019 and it demonstrates how our ability to taste a food reduces mouthful by mouthful.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the reasons why reducing your meal size is less painful than you think it\u2019s going to be \u2013 because the last quarter of that meal is the least tasty part.<\/p>\n

Yet if you\u2019re presented with a different sort of food, it\u2019s like your whole appetite has been refreshed. If you can tolerate having a smaller main course, then you will still be able to have a small dessert too without taking yourself beyond feeling \u2018just full\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"One <\/p>\n

One of my non-negotiables when I started this plan was that I wouldn\u2019t give up any food I liked, and for me that was sweet treats<\/p>\n

Eat the things you love<\/p>\n

One of my non-negotiables when I started this plan was that I wouldn\u2019t give up any food I liked, and for me that was sweet treats. What enabled me to lose a stone and a half and keep it off was I\u2019d have my small evening meal and then at about 9pm I would have a full-sized Magnum ice cream, at 250 calories, if I wanted it.<\/p>\n

We would always eat with the children at 6pm so I was usually hungry for it. It meant there was always one planned treat I was looking forward to instead of endless evening snacking. For you the treat might be a glass of wine or a milky coffee. But it must feel special and not make you feel too full. Interestingly, over time the Magnum habit died out, without me intending it to.<\/p>\n

Use heavy crockery and cutlery<\/p>\n

Research shows if you eat yoghurt out of a heavy bowl, you perceive it as richer and better quality than if you eat it out of a light plastic bowl. That experience also makes us feel fuller quicker.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a discipline called neurogastronomy and it also shows that the weight of the knives and forks we use influences our enjoyment of a dish. The heavier they are, the better the food is judged to be. So get the best stuff out for every meal.<\/p>\n

And if all else fails, give menthol mouthwash a try. Studies show that menthol mouthwash after you\u2019ve eaten makes you less likely to eat again soon.<\/p>\n

As told to Jade Beer<\/p>\n

Dr Helen McCarthy\u2019s \u2018How to Retrain your Appetite: Lose weight permanently eating all your favourite foods\u2019 (Pavilion Books) is out now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I used to think about food most in the evening. I\u2019d graze and snack, and then regret it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[92,368,105,388,169252,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-545728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-femail","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-lifestyle","12":"tag-lifestylefitnesswellbeing","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115484457549908017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}