Mind Over Matter—Companies Selling Mindfulness as a Way to Lose Weight

Psychgrrl
Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
For $65-$100/month (except WW). I’d seen ads for Noom on Insta, but never clicked and had no idea how expensive it was. They’re still all about logging food and calorie restriction. Sure, some do telemedicine services and can prescribe weight loss drugs, but how many of us should actually take them.

The featured man in the story was recommended to eat 1400 calories a day. Why would you pay when you can do it for free? That must be some slick marketing job.

https://apple.news/AC5uC4hm8TDiwTnDXXYAiNg (article by Fast Company)

Replies

  • nicolabradley87
    nicolabradley87 Posts: 95 Member
    I signed up for the free trial for Noom, the lessons are interesting, and if you don't know much about weight loss could be helpful. But it set me as someone with approx 15 lbs to lose, and with maintenance cals of 2000 a 1200 cal per day goal with no option to change it, so I didn't think it was that useful. That isn't sustainable for me, and I think for a lot of people. Just my opinion though!
    Otherwise it's just logging food, same as MFP.
  • Beautyofdreams
    Beautyofdreams Posts: 1,009 Member
    Just heard John Tesh on the radio citing a study that people who practice mindfulness are thinner(have smaller waists) than people that do not. He wasn’t promoting any program. Just suggesting that you use your sense of vision, smell, taste and feel while eating. He stated the more imagery that you employer, the more successful you would.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    My best friend did noom for awhile.

    she liked it, but as someone who I consider to be moderately active (sometimes very active) it had her eating 1200 calories, which is not enough for her, imo, and she was starving. She only has a small amount to lose, maybe 15 pounds, tops.

    she didnt do it terribly long. maybe a month? she did lose some weight but since she was not able to stick to that deficit not much.
  • FREEFIT50
    FREEFIT50 Posts: 1 Member
    edited December 2021
    Weight loss and wellness, as we all know, is not a one size fits all choice. What might work for you does not guarantee it will work for others. A price of a cup of Joe per day is a small fee to pay for a lifetime of wellness. I say to each it's one and if it works for some, then have at it!
  • Walkywalkerson
    Walkywalkerson Posts: 456 Member
    edited December 2021
    I'm going to write a weight loss book
    It's a short story - it will say.
    ' Eat less calories '
    The End
    £29.99 😁
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,686 Member
    Walkywalkerson wrote: »
    I'm going to write a weight loss book
    It's a short story - it will say.
    ' Eat less calories '
    The End
    £29.99 😁

    What’s that in American? 😂
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I had a friend that used Noom and it worked really well for him. He benefited greatly from the CBT aspects. He also wasn't particularly knowledgeable about nutrition or calories and he found it a lot easier to just get feed back from the app. MFP works great for people who really want to do their own "homework" and such and be more hands on...Noom is great for people who would otherwise just be floundering around on their own.

    He lost about 50 Lbs and he's maintained that for a couple of years now. He used to eat out almost every meal and now he cooks most of the time and his nutrition is much improved and he's become a regular exerciser.
  • Walkywalkerson
    Walkywalkerson Posts: 456 Member
    springlering62 wrote: »
    Walkywalkerson wrote: »
    I'm going to write a weight loss book
    It's a short story - it will say.
    ' Eat less calories '
    The End
    £29.99 😁

    What’s that in American? 😂

    It's a bargain 😁
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    I have a cousin who credits Noom with helping her deal with some of the issues she has with food/eating/healthy body image issues. NOt sure if she still subscribes. Some people will have more confidence in a program they have to pay for - than in something that is based on logic & free.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,365 Member
    I think it's mainly about programs communicating a message in a way that each individual can hear it, whatever method or medium you chose. My sister had great success with Noom because it would explain the relationship between what she ate and what the scale did. She would get messages basically telling her things like, "looks like you had more salty foods than usual today. You'll probably see a higher weight in the next day or two, but it should drop off again in a few days". It explained the processes behind weight loss in easy to digest nuggets at the relevant times. She would have no patience for 5 pages of debate about fat weight versus scale weight and whether you should drink more water or less water to stop retaining water, nor is she interested in a bunch of PubMed lit searches or 12 hours on YouTube. She just wanted to know what she could expect in the weight loss process and that she hadn't screwed it all up because she ate a tortilla chip. She did Noom for several months and has maintained her losses, lost a little more in fact. She sometimes does a month or two of Noom to get back on track, but has done a great job of internalizing what she learned and continues to use that information day to day.
  • angelexperiment
    angelexperiment Posts: 1,917 Member
    I think some people need the guidance, most of us have no idea what we are doing or how to lose weight. But there are books on eating mindfully eating been around before noom existed. My in law family wants to do noom. But I say I can show you I can even make the meals but you guys won’t eat them. They eat out a lot, and consume a lot of bread and pastas ( like not a normal amount like triple). But I guess advice from an app is better than what I know lol.

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