Food was my dopamine 😭 Now what?

Hong Kong Yanpep International
These comments genuinely give me hope. Been craving fruit lately, fresh stuff, veggies, light meals, cold food, smoothies especially. Never really cared for fruit before this. Also noticing I've gone off things I used to enjoy entirely. Read somewhere this shifts the dopamine response tied to eating too, less of a hit, so food just doesn't bring the same pleasure it used to.
 
Also noticing less impulsive spending along with that obsessive urge that sometimes comes with it. Genuinely unexpected bonus effect!
 
Yup, ha, food was basically my main dopamine source and this medication class cut that way down for me. I deal with a diagnosed mood condition and it honestly made my depression feel heavier for a while. Also dulled the little boost I used to get from shopping sprees and getting tattoos. I'm okay with it now, but going without an easy source of that happy feeling felt really strange in the beginning.
 
A lot of people on this medication class report feeling low and detached once they start, mainly because they'd been using food as an emotional coping tool beforehand, chasing that dopamine hit during hard moments. So even once the constant food thoughts or overeating stop, the actual root cause behind that behavior never really got addressed. And that's not something a medication or dropping weight can fix on its own, that kind of thing usually needs actual therapy.
 
imo, intuitive eating is a trap on a GLP-1. Listening to your body works well when it says something. I had to treat food like a to-do item or I'd forget entirely and feel terrible by 4pm.
 
One Japanese study, fairly small at 92 people, found weaker GLP-1 benefit in folks who eat to cope with feelings than in those who eat for pleasure. Still, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that emotional eaters can benefit. Some of us end up ill from overeating, since the medication never signals that we've had enough. From what I've lived, sema tackles two things, insulin resistance that drives weight gain and my interest in food, big portions above all. Emotional eating gets punished: bad indigestion, gas, bloating and diarrhea, and the severity depends on my binge foods and speed. Like food poisoning makes you avoid certain foods, I'm slowly turning against bingeing as an emotional crutch.
 
I used food to manage my emotions as well. Now binge eating gives me no dopamine hit. A good meal is still enjoyable, but overeating does nothing for me anymore, and coffee and alcohol dont tempt me either. So I had to find another way to scratch that itch, and I've spent more time on hobbies. Fair warning, you may have no idea what to do with your evenings lol.
 
Likely nothing serious, though you should line up other ways to calm yourself. One study seemed to show emotional eating is among the things that can beat GLP-1s. If that's your tendency, work on it with counseling or your own effort.
 
I only ever felt full when I was at rock bottom, and probably because of untreated ADHD (none of 4 meds has worked, not by choice) plus dopamine/impulse eating, I'd just keep going. Last night hit me hard at my brother's joint 30th birthday and secret engagement party with his girlfriend: I ate until I was sick, carried on (up late until the final guests left at 4:45am, dissertation deadline looming, I did a little work), and carried on eating and was sick again. GLP1s did zilch for me except make me gag on chunky, half-digested food goo when I vomited, plus heartburn so brutal I genuinely believed my heart was giving out when I was barely in my mid twenties.
 
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