Keto and Noom

(Ruth E Holleran) #1

Hello keto friends,

Looking for people who work with the Noom program. I find it offers me lots of psychology science, which I believe was a missing part. I know a lot of stuff, but my mind constantly distorts and sabotages. I think Noom is on to something. However, it is CICO and its food coding is somewhat contrary to keto WOE. For instance, grapes and other juicy fruits are considered “green” because they are low-calorie-dense (containing more water than something calorie-dense like cheese.) Likewise, olive oil is considered “red”–not forbidden, but should be limited. I usually can just push my own way, but sometimes I give in and have an apple or a banana because there are subtle rewards for choosing the “correct” foods.

Other than those two annoying foci, I find the rest of the guidance fresh and helpful. How to build new habits, how to change ingrained ways of thinking. But I miss the fellowship of the keto community.

Has anyone worked successfully with Noom as you built a keto life?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

I checked them out when they got started, and I didn’t like their biases. So no experience, sorry!

(Rebecca ) #3

I’m sorry, I can’t help either.

(Allie) #4

I’m not a fan of any WOE that insists on costly subscriptions. People in other groups I’m involved with often say it’s not worth paying for.

(Marianne) #5

I don’t know anything about it, but from what you describe, it sounds like a lot of the principles are contrary to the keto way of eating, especially being able to stay under 20g carbs a day. We all have to find what works for us and something we can live with. Good luck with your program.

(Joey) #6

While I track with the responses seen above, I do wonder what your personal goals are?

Based on your HbA1c (profile) it would seem you are motivated to reduce your diabetic leanings and potentially reverse the metabolic damage?

If so, then eating juicy fruits (rather than hard cheeses, for example) will not help you achieve your objectives.

To reduce your insulin/glucose cycles, you are best served by carb-restriction. CICO is not relevant in any meaningfully way.

I appreciate that there’s a lot of psychology that goes into changing habits - especially deeply-rooted socialized habits surrounding our eating patterns.

If Noom is something you can follow, perhaps it’s far better than the S.A.D. diet. But significant carb-restriction (=keto) would be much more likely to address the issues that may be your primary concern.

Perhaps others can suggest some constructive group-oriented/social keto-focused programs that can help @Auntgrace?

(Ruth E Holleran) #7

My A1c is finally in the diabetic range (6.6) where I might actually get help. I still hope to turn it around. I have kept it at bay for about 20 years. Gestational diabetes let me know early I could head in that direction.

To be honest, I didn’t know what I was getting into when I signed up for Noom, which is a coaching program. I respect much of what they are doing as I work through it, but as I posted above, it has some annoying non-keto emphases.

I think being mindful of calorie intake does have some benefit for those of us who have high insulin resistance. It is not enough for me to eat the good foods; I find I also need to be mindful of eating less. I have a lot of fat to burn!

All right, I hear crickets instead of Noomers. I’ll go on the Noom group and see if there are keto people there. Thought I’d try…

(Rebecca ) #8

I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about Noom.

#9

yea I checked them out when I saw adverts for them. I said NOPE real fast LOL

sorry can’t help on this either.

one thing is they are very heavy mind based like you mentioned but one key to changing our mindset is IF OUR bodies are more under control from our actual food plan…so if one is not ‘starving’ or ‘craving to the max’ and more, then our bodies being very sedate in that form means we also don’t have to ‘fight against mental mind games’ too much ya know, like we have that body support and then we can change our minds on our food as we don’t require it as demanding thru insulin surges and more…so it is a very tight rope of will psychology change my entire life and eating…no it will not :slight_smile:

start with the eating first, get the body balanced and healthier and in tune with hormones and sugar intake and all that jazz, then the mind can be change more easily as our bodies direct us.

I saw a commercial on tv for them and a guy was woofing his plate clean in a few shots, then he says, AHHH, after reading Noom, I was programmed by my parents to clean my plate…huh…well I get that for some but sure never resonated with me, lol…I was not that person or had that experience so…in other words, you don’t have to eat it all but in the end, if one eats the right foods in their eating plan, one never wants to eat it all except the foods that build up their bodies and become nutritionally and physically balanced so…

yea ain’t my bag at all, another marketing gimmicky type pay for eating plan to me personally

(Ruth E Holleran) #10

For future members who search the term “Noom”, an article by Noom that highlights the benefits of a keto diet:

(Stickin' with mammoth) #11

Same. There are an awful lot of complaints, negative reviews, and fact checking videos on You Tube.

(Ruth E Holleran) #12

C’mon guys. You are usually so encouraging. If you haven’t used it, and you feel you need to post, it wouldn’t hurt to encourage me to take what I can from it and let the rest go. As you see in my original post I am aware of its flaws. Having lived with it for a month I know it isn’t as bad as you think when it is dealing with the science of habit building, reframing thought distortion, and keeping the commitment. These are things about which we do not have an issue. I was just looking for kindred ketoers who had experience with Noom.

The money is already spent. I gotta say, implying I was foolish to do it isn’t helping! :wink:

#13

Hey cool Ruth. Thanks for presenting this. Definitely worth discussing.

I like these posts that provide different perspectives on low carb keto.

Noom looks really slick. It has polished marketing and powerful story telling from people who feel it has helped.

There seems to be something about the success story testimonials where the people talk about knowing more about nutrition and that helps them make better choices.

All good so far.

But, I think, you hit the key point that the programme is CICO and late 20th century nutrition science based, which considers restricting carbohydrates as a borderline, or actual, eating disorder.

If you are going to use it, use it safely, applying your ketogenic diet knowledge, and take the eating psychology benefits when they present, I reckon. Interesting to read that a programme based on eating psychology has triggers in it that have led you to less than optimal food choices. :triangular_flag_on_post:

My gut says that I would find the misinformation parts too distracting to forage for many benefits.

You are right. Take the benefits that are offered :slightly_smiling_face: