Noom Review 2024
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I first heard about Noom from friends and family members who had used it with varying degrees of success. Everyone mentioned the unique approach Noom takes to dieting and weight loss—using psychology and behavioral science to promote a healthier relationship with food, rather than focusing on calorie restriction. I thought it sounded interesting, so when I decided to try and lose a few pounds before officiating a friend’s wedding, I turned to Noom to see if it was legit. This article is my experience of trying it for 30 days.
What Is Noom?
Noom is a weight loss program that runs primarily through the Noom app, which is available on iOS and Android. Noom is unique among weight loss apps because it puts a big emphasis on developing healthy habits and a healthy relationship with food. You get daily lessons that cover basic psychology as it relates to your habits, particularly dieting and weight loss. Noom also puts a heavy emphasis on categorizing foods by caloric density, rather than trying to force you to avoid “bad” foods in favor of “good” ones.
Key Info
- Noom uses a psychology-based approach to dieting and losing weight.
- During your account set-up, you’ll take a short quiz that Noom will use to develop a unique diet plan based on your needs.
- Noom has different payment options, including a monthly auto-renewing plan ($70/month), an annual auto-renewing plan ($209/year) and a plan with a specific time frame based on your goal. (Mine was a three-month plan.)
- Noom usually offers only a one-week trial period, but during promotions, you may be able to access a longer trial.
- Noom uses a red, green and yellow food classification system, and doesn't require you to eliminate any foods.
- You’ll be connected with health coaches for as long as you use the Noom app.
- Noom has a disclaimer that it’s not designed to support a person with an active eating disorder. If you indicate that you do have one, Noom won’t allow you to finish the set-up process. If tracking calories, frequent weigh-ins or diet coaching are triggers for you, then you should avoid Noom.
How Does Noom Work?
Noom works by setting a calorie goal that should create a caloric deficit. The basic theory is that you should use more energy than you consume, which is a necessary part of weight loss. Noom sets the calorie goals for each user individually, using the Harris-Benedict equation. This equation estimates your basal metabolic rate (how many calories your body needs to perform basic, life-sustaining functions), and with this information estimates how many calories you should consume to lose weight without affecting these functions. The Harris-Benedict equation is much more accurate than other measurements, like BMI.
Food logging
Instead of a specific diet or meal plan, Noom uses a color coded system to log your food. The colors correspond to caloric density—how many calories you’re consuming versus how much of the food you eat. Foods that have a lot of calories in a small portion are red foods, those that have a moderate amount of calories in a moderate portion are yellow foods and foods with a low amount of calories in large portions are green foods.
Suggested recipes and foods
Even though Noom doesn’t have a set diet plan for weight loss, it has a database of suggested meals and recipes that are easy to make. Plus, you can get a grocery list of the ingredients you’ll need to make them. Most are basic, but if you like to cook, you should definitely explore the database.
Logging behaviors
You can log a lot of different kinds of data in the Noom app. Some are necessary for the program, and others are optional. I found that logging my daily activities and water intake were necessary to keep me accountable and track my progress. The app encourages you to weigh in daily, which I did for 30 days, but it isn’t necessary if seeing the number on the scale could discourage you.
Human coaching
The personal coaches are one part of the Noom app that I didn’t use much. There’s a section of the app for direct messaging, and you can get text encouragements from your coaches. Personally, I felt like some of these messages were too scripted, or even bot-generated. However, if you know you need regular encouragement, this can be a great feature.
My Experience with Noom
When I signed up for Noom, I set a goal to lose 15 pounds before the wedding I was officiating and a smaller goal of losing five pounds during the first 30 days for the sake of this review. I was a little skeptical, but at the end of 30 days, I lost almost exactly five pounds (4.8 according to my scale at home). Noom gave me a diet goal of 25 percent red foods, 35 percent yellow and 45 percent green foods. I didn’t always follow that, but I was able to stick pretty closely to my overall calorie goal for those 30 days.
The color code system was my favorite part of the Noom experience because it let me see where I was eating too many calories and where I could adjust to make sure I was still feeling full. For example, at one point I was going to eat a bowl of cereal as an afternoon snack (a red food), but when I measured how much I could eat without breaking my calories for the day, I decided to eat hummus and pita instead (both yellow foods) to get a lot more bang for my buck.
Here’s a closer breakdown of what I liked about the experience and what could be better:
What I Loved About Noom
Attainable goals
I wasn’t sure whether my goal of 15 pounds over three months was attainable because that works out to a little over one pound per week. What I found with Noom was a way to conceptualize my progress, even if I didn’t see the number on the scale go down immediately. I wound up hitting my five-pound goal during the 30 days, and my overall goal, as well. Bottom line: Noom is legit, and it worked for me.
Easy access
The Noom app is very easy to use. I used the iOS version, but from what I can tell, the Android version is the same. The interface is very intuitive, and you can also access your information on the Noom website.
Daily lessons
I'm not a huge fan of crash diets or other trendy things that overpromise and underdeliver. Part of me worried that Noom would fall into that category, but the daily lessons were the exact opposite. Each lesson is full of psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to help eliminate the barriers that keep you from enjoying healthy habits for long-term success.
Involved community
I can be a bit of a loner with things like exercise and losing weight. However, for the sake of this review, I dove into the Facebook page, Reddit threads and the community tab in the app. Noom’s community is very active and encouraging. If you depend on those factors for success, then I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.