Episode 19 Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to The Be About Being Better podcast, where we help people make evidence-based sustainable. Small changes for their health that compounded the huge shifts towards a better, more vibrant life. I'm your host Abbie Stasior, a health and life coach, future registered dietician, a master's graduate from Columbia University, and a certified intuitive eating counselor.
And I believe that we can't make lasting or meaningful change single handedly. So I'm so happy that you're here so that together you can see that a diet free, sustainable lifestyle is possible, and you can leverage that to live a better life. And remember my disclaimer, This podcast is meant to give you general information.
And it's not meant to substitute or replace medical advice, a diagnosis or serve as treatment.[00:01:00] All right y'all. Today we are talking about Noom, and I just had this thought. There are so many podcasts that talk about Noom because they're promoting it like it's an ad for the podcast. So I just wanna preface this episode. This is not that. This is not an ad. I am not promoting Noom. This is an anti Noom campaign.
This is an anti noom episode. I'm gonna talk about why Noom is not your friend. Noom is not your answer and why you should absolutely not be investing in this e ever, but especially this time of year, I'm sure they have put so much of their advertising budget. like flashing you so many ads this time of year because they know people are vulnerable.
After the holidays, we do most of the time feel gross and icky and just bloated and ugh. And then coupled that with the new year, we feel like we should be totally reinventing ourself and starting [00:02:00] something new. And so, yeah, of course they're gonna be going hard with their ads to try and get you when you're vulnerable.
And noom is one of the worst things that you could do for your health because it is not a sustainable. They market themselves as, you know, the last app that you'll need, the last weight loss program that you'll need. But it's not, it's, it's a fad diet masked as a sustainable solution.
And it's really dangerous. It's especially dangerous. I mean, there's so many things out there that like Optavia and the keto diet and intermittent fasting, detoxes, like there's so many things that are dangerous out there, but I think Noom is especially dangerous, and that's why I wanted to hone in on Noom for the episode this week because they're so clever with their marketing and like they even got to a point where you could Google intuitive eating and like an ad for noom [00:03:00] pops up. This is not intuitive eating. And we're gonna get into all the details, but this is not a sustainable solution. Noom is a diet. I know they're trying to market themselves as a non diet approach, but it, it is a diet and it's really dangerous because of their sneaky marketing.
Oh, so I got some beef with Noom and, and we're gonna get into it. My, my first beef with Noom is that they are marketing weight loss. Whenever weight loss is associated with like a non diet approach or a sustainable solution, like it is not sustainable to be focusing on weight loss as your number one goal because you end.
Doing anything that you can, and from a business standpoint, they want you to lose weight cuz that's the claim that they said this is your last weight loss solution. So they want you to lose weight. So they are going to do anything that they can to make sure that for their profit's sake, [00:04:00] that you are hitting that goal.
Whether that means restricting your diet. Increasing exercise, having you put your body through extremes to try and hit that result that they've, that they've, that they've promised. So the problem is they, with having weight loss to be the number one goal, they are focused on a result versus a real lifestyle change. and it's really dangerous when you focus on just weight loss and trying to hit a certain number on the scale. Yes, that is harmful to our mental and emotional health cuz we beat ourselves up if the scale jumps up, which it can spike for a million different reasons.
Um, most of it's about our hydration status and things like that. I know we've gone over that in different episodes, but the scale can change for a million different reasons, but we beat ourselves up if the scale changes at all. And. so it can be very harmful to our mental and emotional health, but then also [00:05:00] our physical health because to hit that goal, we will end up putting our body through extremes.
And I saw this person, I mean, y'all hired my gut health episode and in previous episodes with my diet and history. Like my hair started to fall out. I had even worse gut health issues. I lost my period, which our menstrual cycle is our fifth vital sign. It's just as important as our blood pressure. I was starting to have hypoglycemic attacks, like I had a lot of physiological things go wrong with me and fr from under.
like literally only having 500 calories a day. Like that's not good. Uh, very, very dangerous. And then when I was over exercising in college, I know I've told this story before, I ended up in the hospital from over exercising my freshman year in college and they basically just said, you need to chill out
You can't be like over exercising like this. Like this is really dangerous. So I have been on both ends where I, [00:06:00] you know, Nutrition standpoint and dieting. And from an exercise standpoint, I know how dangerous it can be and it's, it's easy to get swept up in that. And that's what, I just really don't like this app, but preying on that and having you focus so much on the result and not about the lifestyle.
And I'll get into more reasons. And also before I get into that, I just wanna say there are so many indicators that you are improving with your health that have nothing to do with the number on the scale. Like with my clients, I don't have them weigh themselves, I don't have them take progress photos, uh, my business has developed, so I'll be honest, in the beginning, we, we did, but as I've cultivated a more non diet approach, learned about intuitive eating, have gone through my journey.
We have stopped that. So we are, we do not do any of those things. We don't have clients logging on MyFitnessPal. And so we've really revamped [00:07:00] our, our business and, um, have cut a lot of these diet culturey things out as we've become a more overtly a non diet company and we are really taking a strong stance on that.
And so instead of focusing on weight loss or body composition and progress photos, we are having clients focus on their energy levels and their sleep and their hydration status, and, uh, holding them accountable to exercising consistently and meal prepping. And how's your mood and how's your cycle doing?
how's your bloating? How are your bowel movements? How are your PMs symptoms? How are your cravings? Like, there's just so many different things that we can assess that are indicative that clients are making progress and trending in a good direction versus just focusing on weight. because you could be improving in all these other areas, but if the scale's not changing and you're only focused on that, [00:08:00] you're not seeing all of the good progress you're making and you're gonna think that you're not making any progress and that you're failing.
When in reality, the scale, the number on the scale is just so variable. There's so many things that can affect that, and that is not the only measure of success, and in my opinion, it's a pretty poor measure of success, and it's only one data point. It's only one measure when we have so many other things that we can measure that arguably are better indicators that you're trending in the right direction and doing great with your health, so leave it at that.
But as far as Noom focusing on the result versus the lifestyle, it's especially problematic because they market themselves. offering a behavioral approach to weight loss. And weight is not a behavior. Like we can't just like lose weight. But what can we do? We can do actual behaviors. Like we can [00:09:00] eat nutrient dense food, we can sleep seven, eight hours.
We can drink a gallon of water every day. Uh, we can. Get more steps in. We can move our body in a way that feels good. We can meal prep, like we can do these things. Those are actual health behaviors. Weight loss can happen as a byproduct, but it, it also can't, you know, your body's gonna do what your body's gonna do, but the important thing is the language there.
Weight loss is a byproduct, not a behav. . So when Noom is marketing weight loss as a behavior and like something that you do, it's like that. That's inaccurate. Weight loss isn't a behavior. It can be a byproduct, but we need to focus on the behaviors, and this is how we start to cultivate more of a non diet approach and get away from worrying about the number on the scale.
Don't worry about the number on the [00:10:00] scale. Don't worry. The weight loss, focus on the behaviors, the things that you can actually control. Those are the health, the, the action steps. Drinking more water, getting adequate sleep, managing your stress, eating more nutrient dense meals, not restricting yourself, making sure that you're eating adequately and frequently and not skipping meals, moving your body consistently and in a way that feels good.
Those sorts of things. So that's what you wanna focus on, and it's not that noom isn't like promoting those things, but it's like their main goal is to focus on the weight loss. And so just their marketing like just doesn't, doesn't make sense. And it's very misleading because focusing on weight loss is not focusing on behavior because weight loss could be a byproduct, but it's not a behavior.
And when you look at Noom s nutrition plan, it's very much a diet. They separate foods into different categories. They have like the red foods, [00:11:00] which are pretty much off limits. Avoid those. They have the yellow foods, like have these sometimes. And then the green foods, like green beans, go have those all the time.
But looking at the foods and like the red category, I'm like some of these are good foods and healthy fats that offer omega-3 fatty acids that are anti-inflammatory and so good for our system. I'm like, why are we limiting these things? And they have other things that maybe are more calorically dense foods, but we don't wanna be cutting any of those out.
In my coaching phosphate and with the clients that I've seen, when we restrict any foods, The restriction leads to overdoing it. That leads to overeating. We always want what we can't have, so you fixate on what you can't have, and finally, when you let yourself have it, or if you end up, you know, losing willpower and discipline because that doesn't last that long and it's a limited resource, you end up overdoing it because you don't know when you're gonna allow yourself to have that food again.[00:12:00]
So it's really important that we're not restricting ourselves. We're giving ourselves the freedom to enjoy all foods and not limiting some. And when you eat a red food and you're on the Noom meal plan, like how much shame do you feel like you feel like that food's forbidden, like you're, that's hurting your mental and emotional.
as well. It's hurting your self-esteem. You're gonna increase your negative self-talk, you're gonna increase your guilt and shame around having those foods. And so we need to take the morality out of food because you eating one of those foods in the red category, which I'm pretty sure like peanut butter and like avocado in there are in there.
Like those are great foods for you. Like you, like you are not a bad person because you had foods in the red category. So that's what's the problem with [00:13:00] this, is they're tying your morality to eating certain foods. So we need to take that away. You are not a bad . Person because you had peanut butter . Hello.
So that's my like main beef with Noom is that they're trying to come off like this non diet. Approach and they're trying to be like, oh, like it's all about intuitive eating when you give people a meal plan and foods to eat and what not to eat, that is a diet. That is a diet that is not a non diet approach, that is not intuitive eating.
And as a certified intuitive eating counselor, I can, I can say this, you know, like it's, ah, it's very frustrating. So I just urge you to, to not get swept up in this and know that there is another way and if you are feeling frustrated with your health or if you know, if you hear that somebody is frustrated with their health, because not everyone that needs to hear this message is going to hear this message.
So I really encourage y'all to share this episode with. other [00:14:00] people. And I encourage you to have conversations with people in your life that are considering Noom, cuz their marketing is really sneaky and I'm sure they're gonna be throwing ads out like crazy this season. So try and get this message out to more people that that need to hear it.
Because if you're listening to be about being better and you've been following me for a bit, I can trust that you're starting. Look, you know, come along for the ride. Starting to believe that a non diet approach is, is possible for you. And maybe you're already starting to live it. Maybe you've been through one or more of our programs, so you know that it's possible.
You're farther along on your journey than someone that is not listening to the podcast yet. So the more that we can get this message out there, the more that we can really save people from investing in really sneaky and dangerous and toxic companies like Noom, like this. So I just wanna let you there.
There, there is a better way and I need y'all's help with getting the [00:15:00] message out there that a non diet approach is possible and that's what's actually sustainable because you end up approaching your healthy habits through the lens of care, love, and respect for. and you start to expand your definition of health.
You're not just only going to eat nutrient dense foods because those are good for you, but you also recognize that eating a classically calorically dense food can also be good for you because it's serving a different need. It might not have as many nutritive needs, but that might help you connect socially.
It might make you make you feel good, and it might lift your. And those are valid reasons, like an enjoyable experience with eating like that. That is a valid reason to eat, eat a food, and whatever food that you eat that says nothing about you as a person. Noom wants you to feel guilty for eating certain foods.
Noom wants to restrict you because they know when [00:16:00] they restrict your calories, you're going to lose weight and you're gonna keep investing in the app if you're losing weight, and that's gonna increase their profit margins. because you're hitting a certain goal and they, they don't care about your mental and emotional health.
They care about their, the result that they're promising you, which is weight loss. And I can guarantee you with this approach that any weight loss that you may or may not see with Noom is not sustainable. And we just talked about in the Gut health episode two weeks ago, but I saw this with myself.
Whenever you lose weight, you end up gaining more weight back than where you originally started. that's just how it works. This stuff is not sustainable. So I really need y'all's help in, in getting this episode out, out there and this message out there.
Especially cuz Noom is on the prowl this season. They've always been, but especially around this time of year. It's just especially crazy. So if you could share this episode with three people, that would be amazing. Let's get the word out there about be about being better and a non diet approach, and [00:17:00] thank you for helping me be a part of this movement and honestly, saving people's lives and improving people's mental and emotional health.
Because if we could have people learn more about intuitive eating and learn more about a non diet approach, the clients that I've worked with that have cultivated a non diet approach and have been successful with intuitive.
They just feel better. They love themselves more and their relationships improve and they enjoy their job or they gain more confidence to leave their job and do something else. They just feel better in, in their lives and more comfortable and confident in their own skin. And imagine if we had more people, more peers, more family members that felt more comfortable and confident in their own.
that had positive self-talk versus negative self-deprecating thoughts, like the world would be such a better place. People would be way more pleasant. And imagine if people were eating and were fully [00:18:00] nourished, like how many people are just walking around and they're in such a bad mood because they're literally hungry and starving themselves.
Like, I think if just we're nourished, we're just happier people. Like our bodies are happier, we're just happier overall, like, so this is really a change in the world in a positive way. So thank you all for sharing this episode. and if you need help with this, if you need help cultivating a more, a non diet approach and actually a sustainable solution, like that's what we're focused on here.
Be about being better. Take my quiz, see if one of our health coaching programs could be view. We do still still have several spots left for the January, 2023 class of the Be About Being Better Academy. We're starting at the end of the month, so this is your time. This is your time to do something different and not fall for predators like Noom.
Thank you all for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode. [00:19:00] Hey y'all. Thanks again for listening to the Be About Being Better podcast. I so appreciate you. If this episode made you laugh, smile, think about yourself or your life differently, in any way, making your life better, I empower you to share the show with three people who just like you, need to hear this message and have this type of transformation in their lives.
I personally read all the reviews the show and see the Instagram story shares. It honestly gives me so much joy to see that our mission is making people's lives better, and the reviews really do help in increasing our impact. So thank you so much for taking the time to do that. If you need personalized support with anything discussed in today's episode or need help creating a sustainable diet free lifestyle, take my quiz.
It's linked below in the show notes, and that quiz will help you see which one of our coaching programs is right for you. Thank you so much again for listening and hears to being about being better.[00:20:00]
