WEBVTT - Episode Five: Just Don’t Call it A Diet 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.080 So I really don't like the word diet. That word, 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.520 to me is just so negative and it's just, you know, 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:11.160 the thoughts that come with that word are like deprivation, starving, 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:15.080 and just not getting to have anything. That was the 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:20.000 voice of a YouTuber named Stephanie Rose. Stephanie posts this 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:24.520 video almost four years ago about how she lost fifty 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.960 pounds in five months, and pretty early on in the 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:34.800 video she has basically a disclaimer about her weight lost story. 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.280 Stephanie goes on to say that even though she lost weight, 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.120 she didn't really diet. I like to use the word 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:46.279 journey because for me, this wasn't really a diet. I 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:51.280 didn't really diet. This was more of a lifestyle change 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.840 and a journey to become healthy overall, just saying, you know, 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.400 I like the word journey. The word diet is very little, 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.240 very don't like dieting. Stephanie sa is that to lose weight, 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.959 she started eating healthier, but she still didn't want to 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:10.880 call that a diet. Even though eating healthier is part 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:18.080 of dieting. Still, dieting sounded bad to her. Negative. It 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.560 reminded her of suffering, and she didn't want to deprive 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.559 herself or starve herself. She just wanted to lose weight 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:34.320 and feel confident again. And Stephanie is not the only 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.640 person fed up with diets. It's this funny trend I 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:44.319 noticed recently. People aren't really using the word diet anymore, 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:50.960 even when what they're talking about is definitely dieting. Like 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:55.760 this British personal trainer named James Smith. He writes this 0:01:55.920 --> 0:02:00.320 whole book called Not a Diet Book. It was alish 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:05.960 in early on his website. Jam Smith calls himself a 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:11.040 disruptor of the billion dollar diet industry, but he also 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.120 says that among the things the book will help people 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:19.160 do is change bad habits and lose fat. It's called 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.959 not diet books. It's not. It's more of an empowering book, 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:26.440 an education book, a liberation book to you fully understand 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:28.720 the things that you need to so the rather you 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.840 work in with your diet, your diet works for you. 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.800 What I'm hearing here is the not a diet book 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:40.600 is actually a diet book. One more example. There's another 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:45.320 personal trainer. This one is a woman named Lucy Bergen. 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.480 She gained some weight during the pandemic, like a lot 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:54.200 of us did. Then she starts working out intensely for 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:58.200 a competition, and as part of that, she takes a 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:04.000 photo of herself every single day. Lucy ends up putting 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.480 all the photos together in a video. She's wearing the 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.960 same outfit in each photo. It's sort of a rust 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:16.840 colored bikini, and there's a calendar in the background with 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:21.040 exces over the dates. In the video, you can see 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.679 the ex's stack up on the calendar as time passes. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:30.160 Six months of weight loss fly by in about thirty seconds, 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:35.640 and sure enough, as that happens, you can also see 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:41.720 Lucy's body changing over time. She drops about thirty pounds. 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.560 In the beginning of the video, Lucy looks unhappy, she's 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.600 grabbing her stomach and shooting the camera a thumbs down. 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.200 By the end, she looks thinner. She's also dyed her 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.920 hair at some point from brown to blonde. It makes 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:02.000 her look almost like a different person. The whole video 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.480 is kind of like a live action before and after photo, 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:11.160 and people love before and after photos, so maybe you 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.240 can guess what happened when Lucy posted the video on 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.800 the internet this morning on Take It Off Today, an 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.920 incredible transformation On TikTok her weight loss video went viral 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.680 with twelve million views. The Today Show has Lucy on 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.040 as a guest. They asked her what were you thinking 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.080 when you took these photos each day? And she says, 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:34.560 I just get to find myself. That it was a 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.400 short term goal. It wasn't a diet. It was a 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.360 lifestyle change and that's what's so important. And I loved 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:46.159 you hear that it wasn't a diet. Lucy last weight 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:50.800 by working out and changing what she ate, but not 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:56.560 a diet, a lifestyle change. I reached out to Stephanie 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:01.080 James and Lucy about all this, but they didn't provide 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:05.839 any comment for this episode. There's a reason everyone is 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:10.720 shying away from using the word diet lately. After hundreds 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:14.880 of years of dieting, people have suddenly grown tired of it. 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.680 Diets are a drag and they don't work so well, 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:25.280 so we're questioning them more than ever. Dieting has become 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:33.400 kind of a bad word, the d word. But somehow, 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.120 no matter how hard we try to ban it from 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:40.160 our collective vocabularies, we still can't seem to get away 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.640 from dieting. We're still trying to lose weight and show 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.039 off our before and after photos and tell people our 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.560 secrets to success. We're just following a non diet to 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.080 do it and refusing to fuss up that it is 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:01.240 actually a diet. Company is are getting in on the 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:06.159 action too. One of the most prominent examples is now, 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.039 a popular new weight loss app that's been called weight 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:15.239 Watchers for millennials. Newon says it uses psychology to help 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:20.839 people build new, healthier habits. But that's not why we're 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:25.120 talking about Noon right now. We're talking about Noon because 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:30.440 new actually describes itself in its ads as you guessed, 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.400 it not a diet. It's different. It's something that I 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.280 can actually live with if I wouldn't even call it 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:38.320 a diet. In this episode, I'm going to get into 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:43.280 why people are so done with diets, or at least 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:49.040 done with calling them diets anyway. The diet backlash starts 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:54.760 with one simple fact diets aren't fun. But there's more 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:58.599 going on here too. I'm also going to look at 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:03.200 how companies in the huge and very profitable diet industry 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:09.800 are responding, like new which is selling dieting without actually 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:16.280 calling it dieting. Are they just tricking us? I'm Bloomberg 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.560 News Health reporter em A Court and from the Prognosis podcast, 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:35.600 this is losing. So the word diet has gotten a 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:40.480 bad reputation. Twenty years ago, the South Beach Diet became 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:45.600 a multi platform, multimillion dollar phenomenon with a book that 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:51.080 had the word diet on it in huge block letters. Today, 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:56.000 fewer people are buying diet books, and fewer diet books 0:07:56.040 --> 0:08:00.080 are making bestseller lists, according to data from NPD E 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:04.880 Book Scan and USA Today company is selling weight loss meanwhile, 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.680 are working over time to assure people that they are 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:14.480 anything but a diet. If you're counting calories, or cutting carbs, 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.200 or generally changing how you eat to lose weight, that's 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.760 a diet. And there are lots of reasons to take 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:27.680 issue with dieting, especially the fact that most people really 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:33.160 can't maintain weight loss long term. But the word diet, 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:39.000 that's not exactly the issue. So I don't people want 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.320 to diet anymore? I put the question to Darren Cipher, 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.240 who is a food and beverage industry analysts for the 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.559 Market Research Company and p D Group. Well, simply put, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:53.559 dieting is not fun and eating is Darren's right. Dieting 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:55.800 is not fun. And in many cases it could drive 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.400 you crazy and not literally, but yeah, I could do 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.880 some interesting things with your moods. People think of dieting 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:06.600 now and they think of punishment, like our YouTuber Stephanie 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:12.120 Rose said earlier, But dieting used to be well, maybe 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:17.120 not fun, but trendy. People used to all go on 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:21.600 the same diets and complain about them at parties. It 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.880 was like a group activity. Somewhere along the line, though, 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:32.000 things shifted. NPD group has found that interest in dieting 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:37.680 has been declining of American adults say they're on a 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:45.720 diet today compared with and at one point about a 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:50.280 decade ago, as few as twenty of people were dieting, 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:54.760 and Darren says people aren't just interested in how their 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:59.440 bodies look anymore, they're also interested in how they feel. 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.760 This notion of just feeling like your well is becoming 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.040 much stronger and much more important with consumers because it's 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.720 not just about the physical anymore. It's also about the mental. Wealthy, 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.679 and it's not just the dieting isn't fun. Ideas about 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.559 what people's bodies should look like are becoming a bit 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:23.320 more inclusive, especially for women. I've always been battling this 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.520 idea that if I was skinnier, if I looked exactly 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.480 the way I wanted to look, then so many of 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.040 my problems would go away and I would just be happier. 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:37.320 When the ideal body is portrayed as skinny, people try 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.160 to lose weight. But the bodies we see are changing 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.400 at least a little. People in bigger bodies are getting 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:50.080 featured on the covers of magazines, in TV shows, on 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.480 social media, and even on some high fashion runways where 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.560 ultra thin models have long been the norm. The early 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.960 Internet played a big role here, helping activists in the 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.200 fat acceptance movement get the word out about their cause 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.679 and use tools like blogging to build communities of like 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.720 minded people. It's called the body positive movement. Body except 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:14.840 in stemmed out of that, and it kind of widens 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:20.880 the scope to um people of all racist gender expressions 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:25.840 sizes wildly. Eventually, culture started to catch up. In two 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:30.600 thousand four, for example, the soap brand Dove made huge 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.760 waves with its campaign for Real Beauty. One of its 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.880 most well known ads featured an artist drawing women, first 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.040 based only on how they described themselves, and then based 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:49.160 on another person's description. When the sketches were displayed side 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.120 by side, it showed that the women didn't see themselves 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:58.640 very accurately. Do you think you're more beautiful than you? Say? Yeah? 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:03.520 Companies began realizing they might actually sell more products to people, 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:09.120 especially women, by casting models and bigger bodies and expanding 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.080 the sizes they carry, and media has been changing too. 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:16.480 She's already the first curving model to land the cover 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.080 of the Sports Illustrated Swim Student issue, and now it 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.760 seems she's ready for world domination she being the model 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:29.160 Ashley Graham. This happened in TV shows like Girls recast 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:33.160 the archetype of a female lead, with Lena Dunham sporting 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.880 crop tops alongside what she herself has described as belly rolls. 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:43.240 Platforms with no gatekeepers like TikTok and YouTube have throw 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:47.880 us even more types of bodies into the spotlight. Today, 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.440 celebrities look a little less like the celebrities many of 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:55.320 us grew up seeing, and some of them, like the 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.880 actress Jamila Jamil, are even making names for themselves by 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.200 calling out diet culture for being toxic. The diet industry 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.040 can just off, I'm going off to the diet and 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:11.880 details industry, and it doesn't exist anymore. Despite all this change, 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.199 much of popular culture still looks the same in lots 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:20.000 of ways. The thin ideal remains incredibly prevalent. But we 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.400 are seeing bigger butts and underwear ads and even stretch 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.079 marks and plus size models on the covers of magazines. 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:32.480 We're all perfectly imperfect. Body positivity always and forever. The 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.800 authentic and real us focus on how you feel. Forget 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.920 what other people say. You are enough, exactly as you are. 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.199 You don't need to change. And this may sound like 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:48.040 some kind of motivational speech, but it's actually an ad 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:54.800 part of the underwear company aries body positivity campaign. Underwear 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:59.160 companies used to be practically the CEO of wanting us 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:03.640 to change our bodies, but these days they've got a 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:08.920 new line, except yourself the way you are. Maybe some 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.440 of this is an increasing recognition that dieting doesn't work 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:17.040 so well, especially among younger people, people like me who 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.200 saw their parents diet and diet and diet some more 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:24.920 without ever really getting anywhere. We're also a lot more 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:29.080 aware of the dangers of diets these days, dangers like 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.160 eating disorders. Today we're talking about body image. According to 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.560 the National Institute of Mental Health, one in five women 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:41.600 struggle with an eating disorder or disordered. Eating. Restricting how 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.560 much food you eat is actually a very common risk 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:49.440 factor for developing and eating disorder. People are talking much 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:54.720 more about these things than they used to, so there's 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.760 a lot at play here. We've finally realized that dieting 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:04.520 isn't fun. People want to feel good instead and be healthy, 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.040 which is more than a number on a scale. Body 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:13.280 ideals are changing, becoming a bit more inclusive, and there's 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:17.200 way more awareness about eating disorders, which are a risk 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:23.120 of dieting. All this stuff sounds good, right, positive, We're 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.640 turning away from diets and more towards feeling good and 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:31.360 being healthy. But the diet industry had an answer for that, 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:39.400 and it was wellness. Diets are out and wellness is in. 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.520 In the same way that people used to all go 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.480 on the South Beach diet together, Now they're meditating and 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:50.960 taking over priced vitamins, sporting apple watches, browsing Goop's website, 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.920 maybe even drinking those weird wellness shops they sell by 0:15:54.920 --> 0:16:00.520 the checkout at Whole Foods. Dieting is restrictive by its 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:07.480 very nature, but wellness. Wellness means pursuing good health, and 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:13.480 that's pretty vague. Wellness can be anything, anything you want 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:19.000 it to mean, or more realistically, anything marketers want it 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:25.160 to mean. Wellness can even mean dieting. Tried now and 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.480 I lost ten pounds, which to me was huge. Remember now, 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.080 the weight loss app I mentioned earlier now very much 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:39.160 fits into this trend. Here's how it works. New maps 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.280 out how many weeks or months it will take to 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:46.280 reach your goal weight, and then new tries to use 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:51.920 psychology and wellness concepts like mindfulness to help you eat 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:56.720 differently and also change the way you approach eating. When 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.080 I went to the doctors, it was just a very 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.520 cut and dry move more eat less, that's it. Noon 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.159 taught me. It was more about why I was eating. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.000 That helped me take the first few steps and find 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.840 that new path. You log your meals on the app, 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.600 and it teaches you to recognize and eat less caloric foods. 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.480 But Noon is not a diet, or at least that's 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:25.640 what it says. Here's how NEWM advertises itself online. These 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.320 are all direct quotes, by the way, But now stop 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:35.080 the yoyo dining. Now stop dining get lifelong results. I'm 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.000 focusing on Noon here because it's a high profile window 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:44.040 into this trend. Noon and other companies understand that the 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:49.000 culture has changed. Surviving as a weight loss company in 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.720 a world that at least wants to be done with 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:56.480 diets means taking a new approach. To understand how Noom 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.320 got here, we have to start at the very beginning. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:05.400 For now, that's two thousand eight, Ardem Pakov and S. J. Jong, 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.920 who are now the company's president and CEO. We're very 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:15.639 interested in helping people get healthier. The first product they built, 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.879 in fact, wasn't a weight loss program, but technology for 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:29.680 an exercise bike. Get Ready one week, Put the bike 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:34.920 and other early approaches looked promising at first, but then 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:40.680 Artem and say you realized most people don't really exercise consistently, 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:46.040 so how many people could their bike really help anyway? 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.560 And it seemed like a broader issue that people don't 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.639 really make the kinds of changes that would improve their health. 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.800 One thing seemed like the exceptions that rule. Though. That's right, 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.800 weight loss people just don't act if you say, hey, 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.800 let's get you healthier, but they do. However, when the 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.840 question is how do I lose this weight. You can 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.640 practically see the gears and Artem and Sager's minds turning 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.440 weight loss. Weight loss is their way in, it's their 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.040 business opportunity, and that gets you then to start caring 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.239 about what you're eating, what you're exercising. You know how 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.679 you're exercising, whether you're sleeping right, stressing right. Many of 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.440 the things that help people lose weight are also good 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.679 for them in other words, of course, that isn't always true, 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.119 and before you know it, that sort of becomes to 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.879 all consuming thing that really helps people get healthier Holistically, 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.560 Artem likes to call weight loss trojan horse, if you will, 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.760 to people's health. What he means is that weight loss 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:54.119 can get people to care about their health. Weight Loss, 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.800 in his mind, isn't the goal. It's a means to 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:02.600 an end. In the end is being healthier overall, not 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:07.200 just thinner. Of course, we also know from research that 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:12.000 people can improve their health without getting thinner, but this 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.879 is how Artem thinks about it. It's worth pointing out 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:21.480 too that his background is actually in software engineering. He's 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:26.080 not a doctor or anything. In fact, newm is kind 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.879 of a classic Silicon Valley story these days. Of tech 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:35.280 entrepreneurs trying to disrupt the health care space. But remember 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.840 there are tons of weight loss programs out there. Newm 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:46.040 saw an opportunity to set itself apart with psychology, the 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:50.280 why and how of losing weight. Most diets are lacking 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:55.560 what what they really lack are the actual mechanism, the how. 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.320 They're telling you what to do, but they're not telling 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.159 you how to do it. And that's just like having 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:06.280 a car without wheels, where it won't go anywhere. Because 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.920 the hard part is the how Noon launched their weight 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:15.840 loss app in and what Artom just described. It's an 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:19.800 approach that has really worked for now the app has 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:25.760 become really popular. How popular well, Noon told us that 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.960 it has millions of users, but they wouldn't be any 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:35.480 more specific. A little tidbit about that name. It's actually 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:41.159 moon spelled backwards. Artem says. It's because the moon is 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:45.560 there at night, shining like a guiding light when your 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:50.600 willpower is running low. And it sounded very calm and 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.879 peaceful and sort of psychologically oriented, so we wanted to 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:56.000 people to come in and sort of have this more 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:58.879 calming effects, sort of like an ulm, right, or the 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:05.639 moon indeed, maybe you're wondering how new works in practice. 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.679 Each time you open up the app, Noon gives you 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.840 little articles to read and quizzes to do. That's supposed 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.840 to be how you learn and change your habits. I 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.080 actually tried new Mount for this episode. So as an 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:23.160 example today, the app had me set a shorter term 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:27.080 weight loss goal that would actually be achievable. Here's a 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.080 little snippet of that lesson. So your short term smart 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.679 goal could be to limit yourself to a dessert every 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:36.080 other day. There was another lesson about making your calorie 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:41.440 budget last. It's simple planning. The easiest way to stay 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:44.719 within your calorie budget without going hungry is to plan ahead. 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:47.960 Shall we design you a plan to tap below to 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:52.040 get started planning, like thinking about whether you prefer large 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:55.639 meals or snacking that kind of thing, and then break 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.840 down your calories on a per meal and per snack basis. 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:02.800 Then I took another lesson about how to prioritize your 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:07.399 goals based on what's actually realistic. The final one was 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:10.399 about how to buy yourself more calories to eat in 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:13.960 a day. Did you know you can increase your calorie 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:18.960 budget every single day? It's not magic. It's exercise, but 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:21.199 do please let us know if you have found a 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:25.320 magical way to burn calories. Remember how Artem said earlier 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:28.960 that diets tell you to eat differently, but they don't 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:31.919 tell you how, and so without that, it's like a 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:35.440 car without wheels. There's a car, but you cannot drive 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:40.600 it anywhere without it having wheels. These lessons plus things 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.760 like tracking food weigh ins and working with new coaches, 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:49.359 these are the how part the car wheels that are 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:53.760 supposed to help get you moving. You might have noticed 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:55.919 when we were going through the lessons before that the 0:23:55.960 --> 0:24:00.240 tone of new is friendly, virgin on goofy person. Really, 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:03.680 I found the tone a bit condescending. It came off 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:07.000 like pop psychology. Like one of the questions at the 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:10.439 beginning asked what do you need to succeed in weight loss? 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:14.520 It was a multiple choice format and I chose exercise 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:19.760 for thirty minutes a day. Nope, the right answer. Simply 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:23.879 believe I was selling some friends about it over dinner 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:27.000 one day. Pizza Noom's app would call it a red 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:31.320 food and salad a green food. My friends I am 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:35.160 called it the goop of weight loss. It kind of 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:40.760 is down to the made up sounding name Goop, which 0:24:40.840 --> 0:24:45.159 is the actress Gwyneth Paltrow's wellness company is known for 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:51.640 making questionable claims about their products having health benefits. Back 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:56.640 to Noon. Behind all the psychology, nom is kind of 0:24:56.680 --> 0:25:01.080 your typical weight loss app. New has a food log 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:06.640 with a calorie budget. NEWM breaks food down into red, yellow, 0:25:06.800 --> 0:25:12.359 and green categories. Yes, like traffic light colors. And you 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:15.679 can use the app to track things like exercise and 0:25:15.760 --> 0:25:21.159 your weight. But somehow though it's not a diet. I 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:24.680 put that question directly to artem Pedacough. There's a big 0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:29.000 difference between a typical diet and a weight loss program. 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:32.400 I'm listening a lot of the diets that we're talking about, 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:35.000 and then people have experience with our things that are 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:39.520 short term that are fads, you know, something like raspberry 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:45.840 keytones or cabbage soup or and our prescriptive eat this, 0:25:46.000 --> 0:25:49.840 not that, And NEWM doesn't believe in any of those things. 0:25:49.880 --> 0:25:52.800 So when they say new isn't a diet, what they 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:58.480 really mean is NEWM isn't a fad diet. But that's 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:02.119 not what the marketing copy says. It says not a 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:06.520 diet period. Everyone who goes on NOUM goes on it 0:26:06.600 --> 0:26:10.120 to lose weight, that's what it's for. This is Tracy Mann, 0:26:10.359 --> 0:26:13.159 a psychologist who runs a health and eating lab at 0:26:13.200 --> 0:26:16.320 the University of Minnesota. I think people who go on it, 0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:22.720 I believe that it's using different, sort of more scientific methods, 0:26:22.760 --> 0:26:26.800 but that doesn't mean that you'll lose the weight and 0:26:26.880 --> 0:26:30.240 keep it off. When I asked NOM about evidence of 0:26:30.320 --> 0:26:34.639 its long term weight loss results, a spokeswoman pointed me 0:26:34.680 --> 0:26:38.640 to studies showing people can lose about five of their 0:26:38.680 --> 0:26:43.760 body weight or more, a medically significant amount. Those were 0:26:43.800 --> 0:26:47.679 only a year long, though. NEUM is also working on 0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:51.320 a two year study that should finish next year, and 0:26:51.359 --> 0:26:54.760 it says that its methods have been studied and it's 0:26:54.800 --> 0:26:57.919 always trying to find the best way to help people 0:26:59.080 --> 0:27:02.480 back to the non die a trend. Tracy says that 0:27:02.560 --> 0:27:05.840 this is the biggest change she's seen in the almost 0:27:05.960 --> 0:27:10.400 thirty years she's been working in this area. She believes 0:27:10.440 --> 0:27:14.080 that people are finally waking up to the problems with dieting. 0:27:14.760 --> 0:27:19.560 Something has sort of seeped into people's minds about diets 0:27:19.600 --> 0:27:23.680 not working. But again, people are not exactly giving up 0:27:23.680 --> 0:27:27.159 on weight loss here and so The change isn't to 0:27:27.280 --> 0:27:30.440 not diet changes that people change how they talk about 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:34.679 dieting and don't use that word. This isn't exactly the 0:27:34.800 --> 0:27:38.639 kind of change Tracy wants to see happen. She actually 0:27:38.640 --> 0:27:43.679 finds it really frustrating to completely superficial rebranding. It's almost 0:27:43.680 --> 0:27:46.639 a trick that brings me to another point about what 0:27:46.800 --> 0:27:49.879 NEWM is trying to do here. Artam told me that 0:27:50.000 --> 0:27:53.280 NEWMS started off in wheat loss because they believe that's 0:27:53.320 --> 0:27:55.800 how you get people to play an active role in 0:27:55.840 --> 0:27:59.520 their health. But if health is really the goal of 0:27:59.600 --> 0:28:04.920 new why track calories at all? Why put food into 0:28:04.960 --> 0:28:10.480 categories like red, which everyone knows means stop. Here's what 0:28:10.640 --> 0:28:15.720 Andreas Michaelidis Nemes chief of psychology, had to say about that. 0:28:16.359 --> 0:28:20.560 Andreas is a psychologist. Things like our our calorie trackers, 0:28:20.560 --> 0:28:24.320 and uh, you know those are meant to Those are 0:28:24.320 --> 0:28:28.120 meant to just increase your awareness of your daily habits, 0:28:28.440 --> 0:28:31.919 increase your awareness of of what you're eating. It's you 0:28:31.920 --> 0:28:35.359 don't have to log every single meal to be in 0:28:35.400 --> 0:28:38.959 the program. It's not a mandatory log or you know, 0:28:39.000 --> 0:28:41.000 that's it. It's not about the food that you love 0:28:41.400 --> 0:28:43.600 is what I'm trying to say, because that screams to 0:28:43.640 --> 0:28:47.600 me just like diet. Okay, But Newmes app does encourage 0:28:47.600 --> 0:28:50.120 you to log your food, Like when I pull it 0:28:50.200 --> 0:28:53.000 up right now, it's telling me you haven't logged any 0:28:53.000 --> 0:28:56.600