When Food Noise Gets Loud

When Food Gets Loud

Understanding the anxiety behind tracking, calories, and protein perfectionism

Some women can weigh oats, log their macros, and go on with their day.

Others feel their entire nervous system tense when opening a food tracking app.

They freeze over how many grams of chicken to cook.
They panic over whether a banana is “worth it.”
They oscillate between perfection and paralysis.

This is food noise.

And if it sounds familiar — you’re not alone.

It’s not about the numbers

Food tracking is a tool. But tools only work if the hand holding them feels safe.

When a woman is anxious, even a helpful tool becomes a weapon.

Protein intake isn’t the problem.
Counting calories isn’t inherently harmful.

But how you relate to them?
That changes everything.

An obsession with “getting it right” often masks a deeper fear:
that if you mess this up, you’ll lose control.
That your body is unreliable.
That you can’t trust yourself around food.

That’s not a food issue.
That’s a safety issue.

When nutrition becomes a stage for perfectionism

So many women I work with say they just want to “eat well.”
But when we unpack it, we find something else.

A fear of doing it wrong.
A belief that only extremes work.
A history of reward and punishment cycles tied to food and body size.

This is especially common in women with histories of disordered eating, high-achieving tendencies, or unmet emotional needs in childhood.

Calorie tracking becomes the new report card.
Protein intake becomes a metric of self-worth.
And hunger becomes something to ignore, rather than respond to.

That’s not health.
That’s hypervigilance in disguise.

Reclaiming peace around food

You can want structure without needing control.
You can aim for protein targets without panic.
You can nourish your body without micromanaging every crumb.

Here’s how we start:

• Notice your patterns: Where do your thoughts get loudest — before, during, or after meals?

• Name the underlying emotion: Is it fear, guilt, shame, uncertainty?

• Normalise the experience: These responses were learned, not chosen. They made sense at some point. They just don’t serve you anymore.

And then we rebuild trust — one decision at a time.

You don’t have to be rigid to be consistent.
You don’t have to count everything to be intentional.
You don’t have to earn food with numbers.

The truth about food freedom

Food freedom isn’t never thinking about calories again.
It’s being able to think about them — and not spiral.

It’s being able to track if you want to, not because you’re afraid not to.

It’s being able to say: “I care about my health, but I refuse to make it another place I punish myself.”

Because when the food noise gets quiet…
you can finally hear your body whispering:

“I know what I need.”

And that — more than any macro ratio — is the true foundation of sustainable change.

Kindness always,
Didi