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The simple fact, diet’s don’t always work for long-term weight loss results. In fact, studies show this to be true. UCLA researchers have found that while you can lose around 5 to 10% of your weight on a range of diets, the weight will come back [1].
The reason, diets are meant to end. Diet’s are inherently unsustainable. This is especially true the more you look at restrictive diets. The more restrictive a diet is, the more unsustainable it is for the average person to adhere to for a long period of time.
This is why Noom was created. Rather than being a diet company, it classifies itself as a ‘behavior change company.’ If you are looking to lose weight, you may be weighing your options. After all, there are plenty of diets that promise to help you achieve your weight loss goals.
The Ketogenic diet (Keto) is one of the most popular. In actuality, the Keto diet is one of the best ‘fad diets’ you can choose to follow. The principles it uses for weight loss make it an extremely effective way to lose weight so long as you can adhere to the diet’s inherently restrictive nature.
Below, we will be comparing Noom to the Keto diet to help you decide which one you should opt for on your next weight loss journey.
Keto vs Noom: How They Work
How Noom Works
Noom is essentially taking a “weight loss made easy” approach. They have developed a mobile app that takes a lot of the guesswork out of the traditional dieting approach. Rather than forcing a restrictive based diet on you, it looks to change the way you look at and think about foods.
Noom describes the app as having everything you could possibly need to assist in your weight loss efforts in a single place. This includes having a professional nutritionist, motivational coach, health coach, and a support group in a single app.
Within the app, you will be able to get an education on what foods you should be eating and what foods you should be avoiding. It uses a psychological approach by labeling specific foods with certain colors. Red is for avoidance and green signifies healthy foods.
The informative aspect offers educational reinforcement. After all, the more you know about what you are eating and how it impacts your goals, the more likely you are to make positive choices that move you towards hitting it.
What Makes Noom Appealing
- Psychological approach (labeling foods different colors)
- Positive reinforcement having a health coach and peers to talk to
- Educational approach (knowing why you are eating certain foods and avoiding others)
- It provides accountability
How the Keto Diet Works
The Keto diet is all about shifting the way you eat in order to make changes to the way your body processes fat. By avoiding giving your body its preferred energy source in the form of glucose by the way of carbohydrates, you effectively turn your body into a ‘fat-burning machine.’
By avoiding carbohydrates, your body is unable to convert it to glucose to generate energy. Instead, it is forced to produce ketones for energy.
This ends up forcing your body to utilize stored fat for energy which can help increase the rate at which your body is able to burn and metabolize fat.
What Makes The Keto Diet Appealing
- Fast results
- It’s more of a traditional diet (you feel like you are doing something to lose weight)
Which Diet is Easier to Follow?
Noom
Noom makes it incredibly easy for someone looking to lose weight. After all, the entire app was designed to make dieting more accessible and sustainable.
You download the application, you set your goals and information, and the app will automatically log everything from your exercise to what you eat throughout each day. It then tracks your weight loss and pumps out digestible graphs showcasing your progress.
It labels foods green, yellow, or red. The foods that are green are the foods that should make up the majority of your daily intake.Those that are yellow should be eaten in moderation, and the red foods should be left alone or avoided as much as possible.
The Keto Diet
The Keto diet is much more restrictive. Because of this, it is sort of easy to understand in theory, but very difficult to follow in practice. After all, with the Keto diet, you have to avoid many more foods that you are likely used to eating.
What’s worse, a lot of the foods that you have to avoid on the Keto diet are found in many meals. Therefore, you have to look for substitutes or complete Keto-friendly meals.
Due to the restrictive nature, adhering to the Keto diet for a long period of time can be very difficult for even the most dedicated people.
Can You Do Keto with Noom?
This is something that you could potentially do. There is nothing that would prohibit you from being able to combine both to create a much more sustainable approach to losing weight. There is no denying that the Keto diet can accelerate your weight loss goals. After all, studies have shown that the Keto diet can improve blood sugar levels in those with Type 2 diabetes and it can be used to accelerate weight loss efforts [2].
Therefore, it may be a diet approach that you want to take to really ramp up your fat-burning efforts for short term gains. However, not having a health plan in place for when you start scaling back on your restrictive eating habits can lead you right back to where you started.
By having a plan to adhere to the Noom approach afterward, you should be able to maximize your weight loss goals and sustain them as the Noom approach makes eating healthy easy.
Learn more about how to do Keto with Noom at their website.
Price Comparison: Is Noom Cheaper Than Keto?
Noom Pricing
Noom offers a free app with limited features. If you want the paid version which offers much more detailed analysis and better features and education, it starts at $59 per month. You can pay for additional months at a time to decrease the base monthly pricing.
Keto Diet Estimated Pricing
The Keto diet is inherently expensive. It is reliant on consuming a lot of meat-based protein which is expensive by itself. Also, if you want to continue to eat the same meals you love, you will have to purchase Keto substitutes including almond flour, coconut flour, and other niche items. These ingredients can get expensive. This is especially true if you want Keto snacks that have a premium price tag on them. If the Keto diet wasn’t sustainable for restrictive reasons, it may be unsustainable due to the high-cost nature of the diet itself.
Summary: Is Noom or Keto Better?
The bottom line is, if you want sustainable results, Noom is the better option. The Keto diet certainly works for short-term weight loss. However, it isn’t sustainable. The chances of you being able to sustain a Keto diet for any significant period of time is unrealistic. While some people do have success following a Keto diet over the long term, it isn’t necessarily the healthiest approach. After all, it is heavy on fatty and salty foods that can be unhealthy when relied on for long periods of time [2].
Because of this, either a combination of the two or a sole focus on the Noom approach would be a much better option. Not only is the Noom approach more sustainable, but it helps educate you and it completely changes the way you think about food and dieting. Because of this, it is the much more well-rounded option of the two and easily the more sustainable option.
You should choose Keto if…
- You only care about short term weight/fat loss
You should choose Noom if…
- You want to follow Keto with the help of pros
- You want sustainable weight loss and to live a healthy lifestyle
- You want motivation to help achieve your weight loss goals
- You want education on why you should be eating healthy
