Noom vs. South Beach Diet - How Do These Plans Compare?

Noom vs. South Beach Diet – Here we have a face-off between the latest in weight-loss research and tech and a low-carb plan turned meal delivery service. What do these two plans have in common, and can you follow the South Beach Diet on Noom?

Let’s check out what our researchers found when they dug through both weight-loss programs.

What is Noom?

Noom is a 16-week weight-loss program. It was developed using the idea that psychology plays a more significant part in weight loss than was once imagined. With the help of doctors, psychologists, nutritionists, and other healthcare, fitness, and nutrition professionals, Noom provides a unique solution to losing weight that research shows works.

What is the South Beach Diet?

The South Beach Diet started out as a low-carb eating plan – similar to the Atkins Diet. At the time, South Beach and Atkins were rivals in the low-carb space. Today, South Beach is a meal delivery service more akin to Nutrisystem. This is the first company, in our memory, that has moved from an eating plan to a physical meal delivery plan.

Noom vs. South Beach Diet – History

Brief History of Noom

It was 2008 when two friends decided to partner up to create Noom. The purpose was to give people access to a program that worked utterly different from any others out there – and that’s what happened. Noom went through quite a few changes and upgrades over the years until 2018 when people really started to notice. Google lists Noom as one of the top diet searches of 2018. Then, in 2019, to further the mission to fight worldwide obesity, Noom partnered with Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company.

Noom has also been honored by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) as a recognized lifestyle program.

Why not give the CDC-recognized lifestyle program a go with a free trial offer today!

Brief History of the South Beach Diet

The world was first widely introduced to the South Beach Diet in 2003 with the publication of “The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss.” The book, written by Dr. Arthur Agatston, addressed the effect of carbs on weight. The original plan can be considered a moderate-carb diet, rather than a low-carb diet because some higher-carb foods are acceptable.

Noom vs. South Beach Diet – Who’s Behind the Plans?

Who Created Noom?

Noom was created by Artem Petakov and Saeju Jeong. Jeong came up with the idea after having lived and worked in Korea for six years. When he first approached Petakov, Petakov wasn’t keen on the idea of leaving behind his job at Google to join a startup. But, he has an underlying interest in the psychology of decision making, which played well into the idea behind Noom. Eventually, the two came together, and Noom was released in 2008.

Who Created the South Beach Diet?

In 2003, Dr. Arthur Agatston created the South Beach Diet. It was first released as a book around the time that low-carb diets were trending. The diet is more akin to a moderate-carb diet than low-carb, but many of the rules are similar between the two. Probably the most significant difference is on South Beach you don’t count carbs.

Noom vs. South Beach Diet – The Rules

Rules of Noom

So, how do you follow Noom? There are no designated rules with Noom. You are provided with the platform you need for food logging, exercise tracking, and lifestyle and wellness lessons. The entire Noom program comes in a single app.

Food Logging: You’ll be logging your foods on Noom and watching your calorie intake. This is relatively common in weight-loss apps, but Noom doesn’t want you on the app forever, so the aim is to teach the individual how to work with food every day in a way that naturally supports weight loss. How do they do that? They categorize foods like a traffic light, so you know when to go, slow, and stop (most of the time).

• Green Foods: Green foods are the go foods on Noom. Here you’ll find your fruits, vegetables, and non-fat dairy. You may think the majority of your calories will come from green foods, but that’s not the case. Though highly nutritious, the low-calorie count of most green foods makes it nearly impossible to get enough calories sticking with just this category. About 30% of your daily calories will come from green foods.
• Yellow Foods: Yellow foods are nutritious and healthy, but they have more calories than green foods, so the serving sizes will be smaller (slow). Yellow foods include higher-sugar fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, and lean meats. Around 45% of your daily calories will come from yellow foods.
• Red Foods: Rounding out the food categories are red foods. Red foods are only to be consumed on occasion. Noom doesn’t prohibit any foods, but it does suggest keeping red foods to a minimum. As you’d expect foods like fast food, pizza, frozen fast-food alternatives and high-calorie, high-sugar, high-fat foods are on the red list. No more than 25% of total daily calories come from red foods.

The purpose of the traffic-light system is to teach the individual to recognize food categories when they shop and prepare food. Once you learn how much of each food category works for you, you won’t have to count another calorie.

Exercise Tracking: In addition to logging your food intake, you will be logging exercise on Noom. Logging exercise is a clinically-proven way of improving your weight-loss outcome – and that’s fantastic – but Noom wants you to exercise for you. As an incentive to exercise, when you track your activity, 50% of the calories you burn will be added back into your calorie total. If you started the day with 1500 calories to spend and you workout and burn 500 calories, you now have 1750 calories to spend.

Lessons and Quizzes: One of the most influential aspects of the Noom program is the lessons/quizzes you receive each day. You take just 10 minutes to read and learn about health, wellness, mental health, stress, and more.

You can give Noom exercise tracking a try today thanks to a free trial offer for Dietspotlight readers.

Rules of the South Beach Diet

The original South Beach Diet limited carbohydrate intake and took the individual through several phases of adding back in certain foods based on where the follower was in their weight-loss journey. That’s the South Beach Diet most people are familiar with.

Today, the South Beach Diet is a meal delivery service. Based on the information on the official website, you choose from three plans – Gold, Silver, and Platinum. All plans come with breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Snacks and shakes are included in higher-priced plans.

The South Beach Diet remains a low-carb plan – but now they are choosing to call it a keto-friendly plan. Keto is a trendy type of very-low-carb diet.

Just like Nutrisystem, and other meal delivery weight-loss plans, you incorporate the South Beach meals with foods you buy from the store to complete your menu. For instance, one example shared on the SB website showed for breakfast the individual would have a South Beach Diet Just Add Eggs Tuscan-Inspired Scramble and half an avocado (that you are responsible for adding to the meal). Your mid-morning snack may be yogurt with fresh fruit (your buy) or a South Beach snack.

You also have the opportunity to eat out and cook meals at home – DIY meals as they’re called by the South Beach Diet.

Noom vs. South Beach Diet – Eating Plans

What can you eat on Noom and South Beach? Both plans offer guidance on what types of foods to eat – they just have a different take on what’s “best.”

The Noom Eating Plan

On Noom, you will be consuming whole foods in abundance. Cooking healthy meals at home is encouraged because you know exactly what you’re adding to the dish. You will be watching calorie intake for a while, which also makes it a bit easier to follow Noom if you are preparing your own meals.

However, there are no limits with Noom. You can choose prepared meals and snacks, meal delivery services, or other options and still fit in the Noom weight-loss program.

The South Beach Diet Eating Plan

The South Beach Diet eating plan consists of three meals and two snacks a day. Not all the details are available to the outsider who hasn’t signed up for the program, but from experience and research, we believe there is also the option to add in additional low-calorie snacks depending on your calorie goal. As of May 2020, the meals listed on the South Beach Diet eating plan are:

“Breakfasts

Canadian Style Turkey Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffin
Just Add Eggs Tuscan-Inspired Scramble
Vegetable Frittata
High Protein Pancake Mix
Tropical Coconut Almond Bar

Lunches

Italian-Style Sausage & Peppers
Margherita Pizza
Chicken with Apricot Glaze
Chockful of Veggie Chili
Peanut Butter Chocolate Entrée Bar

Dinners

Red Curry Seasoned Chicken
Sesame-Glazed Beef & Veggie Bowl
Tilapia Cacciatore
Chicken Roma
Cheeseburger Soup

Snacks

Cheddar Cheese Crisps
Garlic Parmesan Multigrain Chips
Sweet & Tangy Meat Snack Stick
Salted Caramel Protein Puffs
Fudgy Graham Crumble Bar”

This is the complete list of available meals and snacks. Not all meals and snacks are available on all plans.

Here’s a breakdown of what you receive with each of the South Beach Diet plans.

Silver: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner (5 days a week)

Gold: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks (5 days a week)

Platinum: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and keto-friendly shakes.

As it stands, it looks like on the South Beach Diet you still have to prepare six meals and four snacks a week.

These are just the base foods that come with the South Beach Diet. You will need to grocery shop for fresh foods quite often, especially during the times of the year when fresh foods aren’t in season.

Noom vs. South Beach Diet – Plan Duration

How Long Does Noom Last?

Noom lasts 16 weeks or about four months. This is the active weight-loss period. If you have more weight to lose than can be safely reached in 16 weeks, you can stay on the program as long as needed. Then, after you’ve reached your goals, you can choose to maintain a relationship with your coach and community for continued support.

How Long Does the South Beach Diet Last?

According to the FAQ for the South Beach Diet, after reaching your weight-loss goal, the company will work with the individual to choose the best South Beach Success plan. The Success plan is like a weight maintenance program, from what we gathered.

Significant Differences Between Noom and the South Beach Diet

The glaring difference between Noom and the South Beach Diet is that Noom is a weight-loss app, and South Beach is a meal-delivery service. With that being said, South Beach is restrictive because it’s keto-friendly, which means carbs are limited. Noom does not encourage food restrictions of this type.

Can You Follow the South Beach Diet on Noom?

Yes, we find no reason why you can’t order food from the South Beach Diet and follow the Noom weight-loss program. The food database includes a wealth of commercial meals, and if you can’t find your South Beach meal listed in the food database, you can add it to your day with a few clicks.

Possible Side Effects of Noom vs. South Beach Diet

We were unable to find any side effects associated with either the Noom weight-loss plan or the South Beach Diet.

Noom vs. South Beach Diet – The Research

These companies can make claims all day, but without research to support the claims, the claims are nothing but talk. What does science have to say about Noom and South Beach?

Clinical Research on Noom

The first study we found on Noom was pretty spectacular. Based on research, including more than 35,000 men and women, Noom helps 77.9% of people lose weight. The research also showed that participants who logged dinner each night tended to lose more weight. As the journal Scientific Reports shared, “This study demonstrated the clinical utility of an app for successful weight reduction in the majority of the app users; the effects were more significant for individuals who monitored their weight and diet more frequently.”

In another study, this time in the journal Metabolic Syndromes and Related Disorders, using Noom resulted in better weight management than in participants who’d lost weight but didn’t use the program.Use of the app “showed a clinically-significant weight-loss effect…at the end of the 15-week program, and at a 52-week follow-up, a weight-loss effect…was maintained.”

Clinical Research on the South Beach Diet

There is absolutely no research into the currently available South Beach Diet program, and the old program is only mentioned in a small few current studies.

If we jump back to the original version of the South Beach Diet, we do find some research, but it’s not always supportive.

One specific study that caught our attention was completed explicitly on the South Beach Diet. The “claims” in the book were measured against current literature to see just how trustworthy the advice would be. Based on the researcher’s accounts, “Consumers obtain nutrition information from diet books. We found that over 67% of nutrition facts in a best-seller diet book may not be supported in the peer-reviewed literature.” What’s most important about the study, which was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, is that “A panel of expert reviewers adjudicated the findings.”

We also found some research from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, when studying popular diet plan, noted “the 2-week introduction phase was not included because it did not represent the long-term lifestyle encouraged by this weight-loss plan.”

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism studied the big three limited-carb diets in 2004. Researchers claimed, “Popular low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets are being fervently embraced as an alternative to challenging modifications in lifestyle and intentional calorie reduction. Current data do not support such unbridled enthusiasm for these diets, particularly in relationship to high-fiber, high-carbohydrate diets emphasizing intake of fresh vegetables and fruits.”

The Facts About Noom vs. South Beach Diet

Let’s take a quick look at some fast facts on Noom and the South Beach Diet.

Quick Facts on Noom

• Noom lasts for an initial period of 16 weeks, which can be extended for added weight loss and weight maintenance.
• All foods are allowed on the eating plan.
• You are not encouraged to eliminate food groups.
• The traffic-light style food categories teach how to visualize proper nutrition.
• Individuals are encouraged to exercise.
• 50% of the calories you burn in exercise are added into your daily calories.
• Clinical research proves Noom works for weight loss and weight maintenance.
• The longer the subscription you purchase, the less you pay per month.

Quick Facts on the South Beach Diet

• The South Beach Diet has changed from a moderate-carb plan to a meal delivery service.
• South Beach is keto-friendly.
• The meal delivery plan has no clinical support.
• You must continue to restrict carbs with meals and snacks you prepare.
• More than 65% of the “claims” in the original SB book may not be accurate.

The Final Take on Noom vs. South Beach Diet

There’s really no comparison between today’s South Beach Diet and Noom – other than the fact that you can use the meal delivery service with the Noom program. The old South Beach was restrictive, so there aren’t many similarities there, either.

What really stood out to us is that Noom is clinically proven, and the South Beach Diet isn’t – plain and simple.

We’re thrilled to offer our readers a free trial offer of Noom for a limited time, so you can see what the latest technology in weight loss looks like.

Noom vs. South Beach Diet Questions and Answers

What exactly is Noom?

Noom is a weight-loss app that uses the latest technology and psychology to teach healthier habits that lead to lasting weight loss. In addition to the traditional food logging and exercise tracking, which Noom takes to an entirely new level, there are lessons and quizzes to teach new information and help the user develop healthy habits.

How long does Noom last?

The entire Noom program lasts 16 weeks. If you have more weight to lose than can be safely lost in four months, you can continue on the plan as long as needed. Noom also works to help the individual keep the weight off after reaching their goal.

Is there a free version of Noom?

The Noom app is free to download, and you can access a free trial offer to see it in action.

How many calories does Noom allow?

Your calorie goal will be calculated based upon your body measurements and other personal data. Users are not assigned a random number of calories.

How do you log food on Noom?

To log food on Noom, tap the button on the main page to log your meals. Then choose which meal you are ready to log and enter your foods there.

Has anyone lost weight with Noom?

Yes, in a clinical study of more than 35,000 participants, 77.9% of people reported weight loss – as per Scientific Reports.

How much is Noom after the trial?

The price for Noom is $59.99/month if you pay month to month. Since the program is four months, Noom offers subscription plans that drastically reduce the monthly cost. The longer the subscription, the smaller the monthly fee. The prices are estimated as subscribers are charged for the full subscription at the time of the order. For instance, you’ll pay the entire (approx) $100 for the 2-month plan when you sign up.

• 2-month plan: $50/month
• 4-month plan: $33/month
• 6-month plan: $25/month
• 8-month plan: $20/month
• 12-month plan: $17/month

The best way to find out the subscription for you is to conservatively estimate how many months to reach your goal at a weight-loss rate of one to two pounds a week.

Is Noom easy to cancel?

Yes. You can cancel your Noom subscription from within the app. Send a message to your personal coach, letting them know that you’re ready to end your subscription. The coach will process your request, and you’ll receive a confirmation by email once the subscription is canceled.

Is Noom really worth it?

Based on weight-loss results from multiple clinical studies, and real-life user reviews, Noom is worth it. Major healthcare companies like Novo Nordisk have partnered with the company, and the CDC recognizes Noom as a lifestyle program.

Why is it called Noom?

The name Noom has an interesting, but simple meaning. The word Noom spelled backward is Moon. The Moon is said to be the guiding light in times of darkness. Noom, on the other hand, may be considered the guiding light in times of weight loss.