Diet Culture and everything that propagates it is a machine fuelled entirely by the financial value of our insecurities. When viewed fiscally women are priceless — each individual wracking up countless pennies’ worth of shame toward their bodies.
This isn’t new. While the image of the “ideal” female body morphs with each decade/generation, the lofty standards it imposes are usually an equal level of unattainable. Female bodies are rarely the perfect ratio, and this fact alone is a big fatka-ching! to both weight loss and media conglomerates alike. Especially because, aside from the money that is made off beauty products and clothing, the bulk of revenue that these corporations make off an insecure woman is entirely related to her weight.
Sustaining this desire to lose pounds (and the deep shame that accompanies it), is the statistic stating the average BMI of women in the United States to be 29.6. In turn, the average BMI of the “ideal” female body type is significantly less than that. So of courseweight loss makes up the biggest portion of media perpetuated bullshit. Its a whole culture.
☆I’m being personally attacked by Noom (or at least that’s how it feels).☆
Let me start by disclaiming that I have no real clue what Noom is. All I know is that about 2 weeks ago advertisements for this “program” started popping up everywhere.
On TV, my Tumblr feed, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
All day, every day. “I feel like I’ve been dieting my whole life.” “Once I gave up bread entirely…for a day.” “I counted points, followed the rules…and it didn’t help me long term.”
Blah blah blah.
These statements, each heavy with implications of acute inadequacy and lack of discipline, were all followed up with claims that Noom changed their life and helped them lose the weight “for good.”
“I lost 30 pounds!” “Noom just works for me.” “I can eat what I want, and still lose weight!”
Yesterday afternoon I finally caved to my piqued curiosity and searched the Noom website, wanting to find out if there was any actual value to the company that has been flinging such lofty claims at me for weeks now. Did I find anything, you ask?
Nope. Because you have to pay for it.
Which I didn’t, so I’m writing a little blind here. For all I know maybe this program really is a emotionally and physically healthy solution for those who are struggling to lose weight. And if that’s the case, fantastic! I’d love to hear about it.
However, I’m under the impression that this is just another Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Atkins, South Beach, Nutrisystem…
Blah blah blah.
Because again, you have to pay for it.
☆These companies are getting clever.☆
A new trend has been on the rise among these diet companies where they “re-brand” themselves, which is essentially just a fancy way of saying they were re-named. From a business vantage it is an incredibly smart move. In the UK alone, the total market forecast for the bulk of the weight loss industry is set to increase 2.6% annually through 2023.
This movement to re-brand is based entirely off our increasing awareness that 99.9% of diet chatter is total and utter bullshit.
Weight Watchers is now just WW. ThinkThin is now Think!, and has been pushing ads about empowered individuals chanting “I think I can!” while they power through a mundane struggle. The whole media-based diet conglomerate has re-branded itself as a “wellness” industry, trying to cater to the millennial and gen-z generations by hiding behind the mask of health, rather than straight weight loss.
And yet its all composed of the same products, and the same ultimate goals. They’re just wrapped in a more PC package.
Noom does they same. In their ads, they claim to be based in cognitive behavioral re-structuring and that there are no “bad foods.” Again, if that is truly the case than I’m thrilled! There is nothing better or healthier than learning to love your body at its natural and healthy set point, without restriction and in tune with intuitive eating habits.
But the very fact that one has to buy a subscription to even see what the program really is does not bode well for the Noom name. Because again, it translates to one thing: This company is trying to make money off insecure people struggling with their weight.
“At its core, ‘wellness’ is about weight loss. The diet industry is a virus, and viruses are smart. It has survived all these decades by adapting, but it’s as dangerous as ever. In 2021, dieting presents itself as wellness and clean eating, duping modern feminists to participate under the guise of health.” — Jessica Knoll
I hope I’m wrong, honestly. Its not my intention to tear down Noom based solely off the impression I’ve gotten from their advertising… or from the fact that no information about the actual program is provided unless one blindly forks over a subscription fee.
But I digress.
What I beg of any woman (or person) who wants to lose weight, who might participate in these programs, and/or who looks in the mirror and feels shame toward their body, is that you take it all with a grain of salt.
There are no magic fixes, no simple set of rules that will make the weight loss snap into place for you.
Each body is different, and each individual needs to tailor their journey to better health through experience, trial and error, and intuition.
And most importantly, ask yourself where that shame really branches from. Is it really you who feels shame over your weight, or is it just a mind conditioned by the media to think that all bodies should look a certain way?
Think about it, and decide for yourself. But try not to feed the diet industry beast by buying into it (literally).
