Fourteen months in and the weirdest change is how loud food smells

For what it's worth, Yes! I’m about a year in, empty nest, and my daily walk goes past a coffee roaster and a BBQ place. The BBQ smell used to be background; now it’s like someone turned the volume to 11. I’ve started taking the long way around, and weirdly, I’ve been cooking simpler—roasted veggies, plain chicken—because strong smells in my own kitchen overwhelm me. I made chili last week and couldn’t eat it, though my husband loved it. Have you found any smells that flipped from appealing to unbearable, or is it mostly sweets? I’m curious if this settles down.

I’ve had a version of this, but it’s mostly smell intensity rather than pleasantness. Coffee brewing and peanut butter now smell almost sharp, while I can barely smell my own cooking. I started jotting a 1–5 smell score next to hunger and energy in my notes app. Weirdly, it seems strongest the week after my weight drops, not during. Could be noise, but it made me wonder: has anyone found actual studies on olfactory changes with GLP-1s? I’ve only seen appetite and gastric emptying data, nothing on smell. Not trying to hype it, just curious if it’s a known thing or one of those changes we notice because we’re finally paying attention.

Not bakery for me—coffee and cooked meat. Coffee reads burnt/metallic; ground beef smells sweet and slightly off. I logged smell intensity 1–5 alongside hunger and protein for two weeks. No correlation with hunger; it tracks with processing level. Fresh herbs, plain yogurt, fruit still normal. Is yours selective by category or global? Curious whether it’s hedonic valence or just increased salience.

oh my gosh, yes — but for me it’s non-food smells too. About 10 months in, down 45, and I can smell the rotisserie chicken at our little grocery from the parking lot. Used to love it; now it’s like someone turned the volme knob to 11. I’ve started jotting in my phone notes which smells make me queasy vs. which ones still smell good, and it’s helped me plan suppers without wasting food. Did yours level off eventually, or is it still that loud? Also, our pharmacy tech said a bunch of folks mention taste/smell changes, so at least I felt less like a weirdo.

i’m about 10 months in and my nose basically got a gain knob installed. Weirdly, savory smells stayed normal; sweet/frosting/artificial flavor is what’s cranked. I started treating it like a sensory budget: hood fan on high and a window cracked when cooking, plus a tiny tin of coffee beans in my bag. One sniff after the office kitchen resets the signal so I’m not walking around with birthday cake stuck in my sinuses. Sharp follow-up: has yours faded with repeated exposure, or is it still full-volume every time? Curious if it’s the smell itself or just the novelty of noticing it.

So much this, though mine went selective — sweet got loud, savory went quiet. Walked past a Cinnabon last month and genuinely had to cross the street, but a pot of chili simmering all afternoon barely registers unless I'm hovering over it. Weirdest one: I can smell the peanut butter in my desk drawer through the closed drawer now. I started jotting a one-line note each morning about which smells hit hardest, mostly out of nosiness, and there's a pattern I did not expect — it's way worse on days I slept badly. Curious whether yours is all food, or mostly the sweet stuff?

similar timeline, different target: eggs. Around month 9, scrambled eggs started smelling like sulfur and wet pennies — objectively nauseating. No craving shift, just an olfactory threshold change. I swapped breakfast to Greek yogurt and berries and it mostly resolved because I wasn’t cooking them. Also worse in small kitchens with poor ventilation. Are yours tied to specific foods/macros, or more ambient? I started noting food, intensity 1–5, and hunger status in my phone. Helped separate true aversion from context.

Not the food itself for me — it’s the after-smell. The dorm dining hall grill used to smell like comfort; now it clings to my hoodie like I picked up a part-time job at Waffle House. I can wash it and still catch it two days later. Meanwhile my budget protein rotation (canned tuna, cottage cheese, microwaved eggs) is mostly background noise, except tuna water, which now announces itself like a fire alarm. Is anyone else getting smells stuck on fabric or containers? I’m not tracking much beyond protein and whether my room smells like a deli.

Mine seems to be temperature-based. Reheated leftovers hit me like a wall, but the same food cold is barely there. I’ve been packing the kids’ lunches at night and cold turkey/cheese doesn’t bug me — then their quesadilla hits the microwave and I have to leave the room. Also moved the snack drawer out of my line of sight because opening it released a whole wall of strawberry fruit-snack smell. Anyone else do better with cold meals now?