Diet or Mind Control?
Have I joined The Noomies?
My BMI is actually off the scale.
For the last 10-15 years I’ve been unhappy with my weight. For my height I should be between 46.2kg and 62.4kg (according to NHS calculations).
At the end of June I started on my journey back to a healthy weight. The last time I weighed myself I was 85kg. But it was in the middle of winter lockdown. I knew I’d put on some weight because I stopped doing my daily walks.
I usually try to walk at least 5km every day.
Weight Loss
My first weigh day was Monday 28th June 2021 (82.2kg if you are interested). The app reckons I’ll be 60kg by the end of November. Fingers crossed.
Noom is basically a psychology exercise. It doesn’t force you to eat certain foods or do ridiculous amounts of physical exercise. It just gives you information and asks you to set targets. But it asks you to drink a lot of water and log every meal. Also, you need to weigh yourself every day, on the same scale at the same time… I must have some mild form of OCD because I really like logging my meals and drinking my water and just doing whatever the app tells me to do, haha.
Before Noom, my diet was pretty poor. I used to drink about 10 cups of coffee a day. Every meal was a ready meal or a Tesco sandwich meal deal. For a treat, I’d go to McDonalds and Get a Big Mac Meal, but that treat was becoming a regular thing and every Sunday breakfast was becoming a Sausage & Egg McMuffin Meal.
Weighing yourself every day is one of the major parts of the Noom plan. Some people have scale fear. If they see their weight rise, they automatically believe they have failed and they give up their weight loss plan. But Noom arms you with a bit of information. Your body weight can naturally rise and fall by up to a kilo or more a day and weighing yourself every day you get to see this in real life. Your weight might rise a couple of times, but that’s what happens. It’s no big deal.
In the first two weeks, I actually gained weight. I assume that water retention and a bit of constipation caused this. I pressed on and by week three; I started seeing results.
Calorie counting is another big part of the “diet”. Noom recommends a calorie intake level based on lots of factors, including your age, gender, height, weight, exercise level and target weight. It counts your steps via the app or you can connect it to a smart watch. For every 2 calories you burn through exercise, Noom will give you one calorie back towards your daily intake target. So, in theory, I could walk to McDonalds for my Big Mac and walk back and the calories would cancel out. But I have found that I am eating less than the recommend calories anyway, and I’m not hungry when I go to bed.
It teaches you about Calorific Density of food, which is so obvious when it is explained to you, you wonder why nobody else has made this the centre of a diet plan before now. Or maybe they have? They use the example of a handful of raisins and a bunch of grapes. They both have the same calorific value, but the grapes will fill you up. The raisins are so dense that they still leave you feeling you need more food to fill you up. And that’s basically how it works. You keep your belly full and you don’t feel hungry.
Now I’m eating more than I ever have. I have cut white bread from my diet completely. I now have one slice of Hovis Wholemeal Nimble a day. A loaf can last me two weeks. Rice cakes and Humus or No-Fat Cottage cheese, Strawberries Raspberries and Grapes have replaced crisps as my snacking food of choice. I have one coffee a day now, and I struggle to finish that. My main meals are all home cooked. Salmon, chicken & eggs are my staples bulked up with lots of salad, veggies and baked potatoes. Another upside is that my food tastes better. You can eat all your “bad” foods too, but as long as you are sensible and don’t overindulge, you should be ok.
The key thing that Noom provides is knowledge. You get to know why you crave foods, why you give up diets and why they don’t work for you.
I don’t crave foods now. I know I’ll never sit down and polish off two packets of chocolate chip cookies because I’m bored. I’m literally never hungry anymore. I’m full of energy now and now my walks have gone from 5km a day to between 7 and 10km and sometimes more.
But the biggest payoff has been the change in my sleep pattern.
My normal nights ‘sleep’ was;
Bed at 11pm
Lie awake until half past 1 or 2 am
Sleep until 4.30am
Lie in bed until the radio alarm comes on at 6.30am
Listen to the radio until 7.30am
Get up at 8 am.
Now my sleep pattern is this;
Bed at 11pm
Sleep from 11.05pmWake at 6.30am to turn the alarm off.
Instantly fall asleep until 8.00am.
Get Up.
Noom is working for me. I feel healthier now and have so much more energy. Seeing my weight decrease along with my fat belly is making me happier and I love discovering new healthier foods.
