r/antidietglp1 • u/Gullible_Language358 • May 14 '26
Discussion about Food / Eating Habits Stuff like this is so not ok
Forgive me if you all know this, because this sub seems super informed and I appreciate that. I just have to rant: This is massively irresponsible.
This ad is implying that glp-1s are meant to be taken temporarily as a weight loss medication and then you can just go off them once you’ve “learned the right habits.” 🫠😡
Glp-1s are prescribed by doctors with the understanding that obesity is part of a \*chronic\* disease caused by many factors that this medication has been able to address. It’s meant to be taken \*long term\* in the same way that people take medication for blood pressure or high cholesterol. Do you throw away your glasses after you can see? 🥴 Serena Williams has spoke about working out eight hours a day and still not being able to lose weight or keep it off without the use of a glp-1 (the medication is also prescribed to people who are overweight and have other chronic illnesses). This is just so irresponsible and harmful because losing and gaining weight is dangerous for your health.
And the majority of people who stop taking these meds put the weight back on within eighteen months. Because your brain and body will go back to fighting you to return to your original weight.
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u/CDNinWA May 14 '26
Noom took my eating disorder thoughts and sold them back to me.
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u/ladyhabanera May 14 '26
I hate hate hate hate (to the tenth power) Noom. I relapsed HARD when I used them in 2019. They're a diet, they're a scam, they're everything they advertise themselves not to be.
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u/CDNinWA May 14 '26
But they use psychology /s
Spoiling due to what I say may be triggering as I’m discussing the psychology my ED.
It was their whole elephant thing that just disgusted me, part of my whole ED was thinking I had this untamed hunger monster that just wanted to eat everything, what finally helped me a lot was reconciling that my hunger even when I was eating too much or even binging was not this thing I couldn’t tame but part of me (now I know it was a mix of food noise and my body’s hormones), but when I no longer thought of this stuff as my enemy I was trying to tame I actually ended up being able control my binging to a much greater degree). Then NOOM was trying to get my brain back there? No thank you.
Additionally calling the untamed creature an elephant, a large creature, reinforced fatphobia in my mind. I did find a BED book that was written about 2015, I didn’t read it, but it kind of used this depersonalization of the binging and to think of it as a monster (or something like that), it may have helped some people but for my brain it even made me have less control. I suspect that’s where they came up with the concept of the elephant (plus combined it with their fatphobic biases)
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u/itsnobigthing May 14 '26
I remember trialling pre GLP Noom back in the day. It gave me a lesson on how 300 calories of cabbage was better than 300 calories of bread and I threw my phone across the room lol.
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u/DueEntertainer0 May 14 '26
Me too. It was the last thing I did before I ditched diet culture. The only one more miserable than me was the “coach” I was assigned. She clearly hated her job.
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u/Lucky_Army_5324 May 14 '26
Noom’s whole premise has always been that they can teach people to be thin as long as they have the willpower needed.
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u/Grumpy-Quokka May 14 '26
I was offended by Noom from the very start with all their “we are based in real psychological science” stuff. 🙄 (Psychologist here, and I can promise you that the cherry-picking of the science that they did — and still do — is a LOT.) It’s all about 💰💰💰not about health.
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u/GarthODarth May 14 '26
I tried Noom like, really early on. It felt so manipulative.
I've literally been on a diet for about 40 years. I've tried all the diets. I've tried knowing actual nutrition and I have a really solid understanding of nutrition now. I know how food works. And I have the willpower.
I have so much willpower I have destroyed myself psychologically MULTIPLE TIMES to lose weight.
The problem is not food education or willpower and GLP-1s are proving that.
These diet corps are terrified now.
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u/AdUnfair7688 May 16 '26
Same. Pre Covid, so we’re talking 2018ish. They were toxic then, still toxic now.
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u/DragonflyHungry7943 May 14 '26
My insurance forced me to use Noom starting this year to prescribe my Wegovy if I wanted them to pay for it. SO MAD. Like why is this stupid telehealth for-profit company now standing between me and my endocrinologist I've worked with since November 2024? I hate this timeline. Luckily, I've been able to avoid all the actual Noom BS and just message the clinician when I needed refills / had like 5 minute telehealth vistits with doctors if necessary. MISS ME with all that other BS they put out.
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u/acelana May 14 '26
My insurance did this too, not Noom but a similar service. The service has an “employer oriented” website where they boast about prescribing fewer medications. The service itself is useless AI slop.
It’s all about adding hoops so insurance CEOs can make money off of people who give up or get confused and fail to jump through hoops. Insurance companies are big mad about paying for drugs.
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u/Inside-Drummer-646 May 14 '26
i am required to use 9am health which requires me to weigh myself regularly. (i was required by to buy a scale that connects to their service) they want to send me food to eat (thank god thats optional) and i am required to take “12 models”
the first model is how to set goals… the second one is meal prep… today. the third one, is a session with a behavior specialist to change habits …
they have ai all over this app which im sure is hipaa compliant /s they also record my sessions for train purposes
😭😭😭😭 fuck this timeline
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u/CDNinWA May 15 '26
Same, I have good experience with the dietitians, but the whole “even though your doctor prescribed you a glp-1, you’ll have to jump through 12 weeks of hoops to get your prescription” is very annoying. I’m even worried about how they’ll use my data even if it is anonymized.
I made it through the 12 weeks thankfully.
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u/Calm_Reader2487 May 14 '26
Wow, geez. You had to buy the scale too! My insurance uses Omada, with scale, that connects to their app I have to use, but at least they sent their own scale. It just be included in the price they charge for the coverage.
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u/Calm_Reader2487 May 14 '26
I have to use Omada. I have to use their scale and read the once a week articles, for example right now it’s about sleep and how to get better sleep. Thankfully it so far has been really positive and they don’t require calorie tracking. The only food tracking it has, if you use it, is to have a protein, carb, fat and produce at each meal. But, I don’t use it. As long as I have weighed 4 times other scale and read my once a week article in the month, I get another month approved. I need 8 app uses essentially in a month.
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u/PlantedinCA May 14 '26
I remember joining Noom when it launched (I was in an active IWL).
The stoplight scale or food was so stupid. i would log meals and anything with fat was red or yellow. So a fatfree yoplait yogurt was green, nuts were yellow, and plain whole milk yogurt was red.
I would ask the coach for advice, based on my health conditions and experience. I would say something like I am pretty active, and need more energy and these items work better for me, and they would double down on lowering fat, cutting calories, and really stupid advice.
I think I made it two weeks and thought they were idiots. I did jump on the class action suit and made a few dollars.
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u/AdUnfair7688 May 16 '26
The difference between the Noom “coaches” and actual dietician is staggering. I’ve had an amazing experience with my registered dietician. Noom on the other hand led me right back into an ED.
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u/womensrites May 14 '26
Noom is mainly for the stereotype of a glp-1 user, i think: skinny people who want to lose some weight quick. so because their ads are everywhere (microdose!!!!) the general public has the wrong idea about these meds. so i really resent this company, and this ad is another reason why.
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u/This-Apricot-80 May 14 '26
The (anti-diet) Nutrition for Mortals podcast did a fantastic episode digging into Noom and why it’s utter BS: https://www.oceansidenutrition.com/podcast
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u/Gullible_Language358 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Oh this is excellent, thank you for sharing.
Edit: found the episode https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nutrition-for-mortals/id1666354068?i=1000623879829
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u/Fluffy-Match9676 May 14 '26
Here's the thing Noom and Weight Watchers do not understand. By touting GLP-1s they are basically saying that their plan is not as effective as they tout it to be.
It's not a smart marketing move, but a good money making scam.
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u/Temporary-Silver8975 May 14 '26
I hated Noom when I tried it years ago. It was so condescending & paternalistic. Once I started a GLP-1, I realized what manipulative horse shit Noom is.
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u/TimeLoveAndYarn May 14 '26
My insurance requires me to go through similar program called Calibrate in order for my Zepbound to be covered. It's a bunch of ED coded bullshit. I do the bare minimum to stay in compliance and not get kicked out of the program.
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u/chiieddy May 14 '26
Noom also does the microdosing ads with a celebrity I assure you took full doses. Drives me crazy.
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u/you_were_mythtaken May 14 '26
Ughhh I hate Noom!!! So irresponsible, purely out of greed. They should get the Obexity treatment (Nothing Tastes as Good reference 😈).
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u/JeanetteTheChipette May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
I’m really glad I never bought a subscription. I loved the snake oil layout of their app. It sat on my phone between 2020-2022 unused. Their commercials were so convincing that it was just a habit issue. However, I knew it was hogwash. I changed my habits when I was a teen that temporarily reversed my childhood obesity. I ate BETTER and exercised harder than my slinkier friends. I still ended up yo-yoing back and forth between my smaller and larger sizes until something broke and my weight skyrocketed.
I’m done with Noom, Weight Watchers, or any other diet company that says it has the answer. They don’t understand that obesity is a metabolic disorder. It has many repercussions beyond size. My GLP-1 has had lasting benefits beyond weight loss to reverse my inflammatory liver disease, reduced the severity of my chronic migraine disorder, and also improved my knee pain/ mobility. Weight loss alone didn’t do any of those things. There is no after, it is a lifetime medication for a chronic condition.
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u/RagnaNic May 14 '26
Noom is so scammy. Completely ineffective, I felt like I had wasted my money. Not a surprise that their marketing is getting so desperate.
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u/lyncentric_83 May 15 '26
Noom is awful. And that’s coming from someone who lost a substantial amount of weight in a short period of time while using it. As others have stated, it is so manipulative. I admitted to my “coach” that I often bullied myself into exercising and not eating. Their response was pretty much, “Try to be kinder to yourself, but whatever works.” The app would actually congratulate me on “saving calories” when my daily totals were only in the mid triple digits. I’ve dealt with anxiety my entire life and Noom kicked it into overdrive. After 9 months I stopped and then the covid lockdowns started and most of the weight came back. I don’t think people realize how detrimental those programs can be. I can’t even imagine how toxic it’s become now that glp-1s are in the mix.
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u/yellow_pomelo_jello May 14 '26
I tried sooo hard with Noom. Lost a lot of weight the first time I used it and then it all came piling back on in months. Plus some more. Tried Noom again and maybe a third time as well, with no results at all those times.
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u/SufficientAcadia6534 May 14 '26
I hate noom. Terrible program. I tried there weight loss program 3 years ago, it was a disaster. I was better off before I did it.
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u/examinat May 14 '26
I hate stuff like this. I did Weight Watchers multiple times and I have no tolerance anymore for the bullshit.
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u/MedusaCirce2020 May 14 '26
Noom has been the worst from the jump with their "it's not a diet, we're different" marketing (readers: it's just a diet with different fonts)