INFORM survey reports a 46 percent drop in constant food thoughts on semaglutide

A new US survey found that people taking injectable semaglutide for weight management reported far less "food noise" — persistent, intrusive thoughts about food — than they recalled having before treatment. The findings, called the INFORM survey, were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting on September 15, 2025, and later published in the journal Advances in Therapy ^[1][2].

The survey asked 550 US adults, recruited through a market-research panel, to recall their experience with food-related thoughts before and after starting semaglutide. The share of respondents who said they had constant thoughts about food throughout the day dropped from 62% before treatment to 16% while on semaglutide, a 46 percentage-point decline ^[1]. Using a five-item Food Noise Questionnaire, the median score fell from 13 out of a possible 20 before treatment to 6 after, a median drop of 5 points ^[2].

Participants also said food noise interfered less with daily life. Before starting semaglutide, 60% said food noise disrupted their day; afterward, only 20% said so ^[1]. Most respondents (83%) said they were satisfied with treatment, and majorities reported improvements in mental health (64%), lifestyle (76%), and habits (80%) since starting the drug ^[1][2]. The survey population was mostly women (86%), white (79%), with an average age of 53, and most had used semaglutide for at least four months ^[2].

Because the survey relied on people's memory of how they felt before starting treatment, it cannot prove that semaglutide caused these changes. The study authors note it was cross-sectional and retrospective, not a controlled trial, and they call for further prospective research to confirm the pattern and connect it to clinical outcomes ^[2]. Novo Nordisk, which makes semaglutide (sold as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus) and helped design the survey along with the panel operator Numerator, said the results were "encouraging" through a company executive's comment, though the finding has not yet been tested in a randomized trial ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

For people using semaglutide, or considering it, the survey adds real-world detail to a pattern many patients and doctors have already described anecdotally: a quieting of persistent food thoughts alongside weight loss ^[2]. The data suggest this experience may be common among semaglutide users, since almost two-thirds of the sample weighed 92 kg (about 203 pounds) or more when starting treatment and most had obesity by body mass index ^[1][2].

The survey does not tell patients whether the same effect would show up on a different GLP-1 medicine, such as tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) or oral semaglutide (Rybelsus), since it only surveyed people using injectable semaglutide ^[2]. It also does not establish how long any reduction in food noise lasts, whether it fades if a person stops treatment, or how it relates to weight regain. The authors are explicit that these are self-reported recollections, not measurements taken in real time before and after treatment, which limits how much weight can be placed on the exact numbers ^[2].

What happens next

The study authors say prospective, longitudinal research is needed to characterize the effect more precisely and link it to clinical outcomes such as sustained weight loss ^[2]. No dates for such follow-up studies were given in the sources. Novo Nordisk also presented related data at the same meeting from its STEP UP trial on eating behavior, with full results published in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology on September 14, 2025 ^[1].