With numerous weight loss programs available, finding one that aligns with your lifestyle and promotes lasting change can be challenging. Noom has emerged as a popular option, touting a psychology-based approach to weight management. This article delves into the Noom diet, exploring its features, benefits, drawbacks, and scientific evidence to help you determine if it's the right fit for you.
What is Noom?
Noom is a mobile app that focuses on behavior changes, positioning itself as a lifestyle program rather than a restrictive diet. It combines a diet and exercise community, expert support, and psychology to create a trifecta for long-term weight management. The program aims to change your behaviors so that you not only take off the weight, but maintain the weight loss long-term.
How Does Noom Work?
Noom works by addressing the psychological aspects of eating habits and promoting sustainable lifestyle changes. The app provides daily educational articles, tips, and activities that users can complete at their own pace. These lessons cover topics such as nutrition fundamentals, stress management, goal setting, and healthy habit formation.
Tracking Your Progress
Noom provides tools to track your progress, allowing you to log your meals, set up an exercise regimen, and track your body weight. To prevent overwhelm, Noom introduces new programs and sub-apps as you follow your daily lessons. Features include Noom 360 Body Scan, Noom Success Kit, Noom Vibe, and Noom Mood.
Color-Coded Food System
Noom relies on a color-coded system for tracking your consumption throughout the day. It encourages you to eat more "green" foods, which are typically vegetables and whole grains. These are the least calorie-dense and most nutrient-dense options. “Yellow” foods are foods Noom encourages in moderation. These include lean meats and starches. “Orange” foods, like desserts and red meat, are the most calorie-dense. Noom encourages you to eat these in smaller portions and less frequently.
Read also: The Noom Weight Loss Zone explained
Noom will deconstruct and group together green, yellow, and orange foods from your breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day. The color category classification is not solely based on calorie content, but also considers the overall health impact of the food. The same food could be categorized differently based on its preparation method, e.g., fried or sauteed with oil versus air-fried or steamed. Noom explains that some preparations typically require ingredients that can lower the color category, such as sugar, more salt, cream, or oil.
Virtual Coaching and Community Support
Noom guides and interest-based communities, known as Noom Communities, are meant to help you stay on track through video chats, phone calls, and in-app messaging. Individualized support with behavior change coaches is also available via phone and Zoom for an additional fee.
Biometric Tracking
These features help you monitor your blood sugar and blood pressure levels.
What Can You Eat on Noom?
Noom doesn't impose strict dietary restrictions, but rather encourages users to make informed food choices. Certain foods aren’t necessarily off-limits, but the company uses green, yellow, and orange color coding to let you know which ones may help or prevent you from reaching your weight loss goals. Green foods, like fruits and veggies, are the least calorie-dense and contain the highest concentration of healthy nutrients. Yellow foods have more calories, but aren’t necessarily bad for you. Orange foods, like processed foods and desserts, are the most calorie-dense, and the least nutrient-dense. You can still have foods from all categories, but under ideal circumstances, you should consume mostly green foods, moderate amounts of yellow foods, and small portions of orange foods, so you can stay within your daily calorie goal.
Examples of Foods in Each Category:
- Green Foods: Apples, bananas, berries, eggs, non-fat dairy products, bell peppers, quinoa, spinach, grilled chicken, salmon, lean ground beef, whole-grain wheat bread.
- Yellow Foods: Avocado, black beans, chickpeas, corn, mashed potatoes, whole grain tortilla, low-fat cheese, pasta salad, sushi, bacon, meatballs, sausage, rice, couscous.
- Orange Foods: Cake, french fries, full-fat milk, nuts, nut butters, olive oil, seeds, raisins, cream cheese, bagels, flour tortillas, muffins, waffles, potato chips.
While you can drink alcohol, be mindful that it’s calorie-dense and lacks essential nutrients. “It can contribute to weight gain and other health problems,” says Crystal Scott, RDN, a nutritionist with Top Nutrition Coaching.
Read also: Weight Loss with Noom
The Pros and Cons of Noom
Like any weight loss program, Noom has its advantages and disadvantages.
Pros:
- Science-backed approach: A 2023 survey study in Obesity Science & Practice found that on average, 65 percent of initial weight loss was maintained after a year, and 57 percent after two years in individuals who had lost at least 10 percent of their weight with Noom between six to 24 months beforehand. Another 2024 study in Nature looked at weight loss of 31 participants using Noom over 26 weeks who had completed breast cancer treatment 6 months before. The mean weight change was down 4.8 kilograms, or a little over 10 pounds.
- Accountability: Noom offers features like food logging and workout tools to help you stay on track.
- Specificity: Noom provides guidance on meal planning and exercise, which can be helpful for those who are unsure where to start.
- Beginner-friendly: The platform offers a wealth of guidance, making it ideal for individuals new to weight loss.
- Improved Eating Habits: Noom has helped some users to feel that the weight they're losing can be kept off for good while they also enjoy food. The color-coding system has made choosing what to eat less complicated and has helped some users to improve their eating habits.
- Effective Weight Loss Program: Noom is giving some users the confidence and motivation to lose weight. The articles are interesting and the app is extremely easy to use to log meals, hydration, exercise etc. There is so much information available:recipes, exercise, articles etc.
- Pleasant and Beneficial: NOOM is a surprisingly pleasant and beneficial weight management tool. Their platform is simplified for ease of use. The information regarding weight loss, GLP-1, health trackers, forums & more is bountiful and very motivating & insightful.
- Support: The support is phenomenal! The app is extremely easy to use and the system works! The app and support team is the best. They are there every step of the way. They really keep you motivated and on track.
- Effective Medication: Medication is very effective.
- Easy to Use: Noom is a motivating eating & exercise plan that helps you take baby steps to improve your health. The app. is easy to use and packed with helpful information. It's fun to do with a friend so you can help to keep one another on track. The noom app was easy to use and made sense. It was pretty simple.
- Comprehensive Program: The educational programs are well done and accurate. The food logging system is user friendly. The dosing guidelines for the GLP-1 drugs are clear and detailed. There is a medical professional to assist you if needed.
- Confidence and Motivation: Noom is giving some users the confidence and motivation to lose weight.
- Effective Support: Wonderful support, effective education for users to reach their health goals.
- Personalized Health Report: The body scan is actually a part of the personalized health report. It goes several layers deep into what is happening with the body as progress is made in the journey. Not only does it scan the body and provide very accurate measurements, but it also tells the basal metabolic rate, body fat mass, lean mass, and weight-to-height ratio. Food is looked at differently when one is able to look at the statistics about their body more in-depth; the education is helping.
- Tools to Help Achieve Goals: Noom helps to keep users grounded and provide good tools to help them achieve their goals. Articles are excellent and help users understand alot of their issues.
- Quick and Easy: Noom is quick and easy and has helped some users get their life back.
- Reward System: Noom offers an in-app reward system called Noomcoin, designed to increase motivation to help you complete your daily tasks.
Cons:
- Cost: Noom Weight costs $17.42 per month for a 12-month plan, while Noom Med and Noom HRT RX start at $69, not including the price of the medication.
- Requires Initiative: The app isn’t going to head to the grocery store and cook for you (or drive you to the gym), so you have to take some initiative to actually follow through with the healthy habits suggested.
- Emotional Challenges: Identifying the reasons why your weight might be higher can bring up unresolved feelings that require a higher level of support.
- Limited Personalized Coaching: Noom does have limited personalized coaching services, but they are not necessarily provided by a registered dietitian or healthcare professional.
- Potential for Disordered Eating: The color-coded foods can trigger an unhealthy relationship with food.
- Cancellation Issues: Some people have reported issues with canceling. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has received complaints from people who say they canceled their trial offer, but were billed for several months of subscription service.
Who is Noom Best Suited For?
Noom may be a good option for people who:
- Are trying to lose weight but are unsure how to get started.
- Need extra motivation from coaches or peers to stay on track.
- Are looking to build healthy habits and seeking a more sustainable alternative to fad diets and other short-term solutions.
- Have a busy lifestyle and enjoy virtual support and accountability.
However, Noom might not be suitable for people who:
- Regularly cook homemade meals, since logging each individual ingredient may feel tedious or inconvenient.
- Enjoy cuisines from a variety of cultures or use ingredients in their cooking that are less common in the United States, as the selection of foods available on the app is somewhat limited.
- Are very active or have increased calorie needs, as Noom provides very low calorie recommendations.
- Have a medical condition like polycystic ovarian syndrome, insulin resistance, thyroid problems, or hormone imbalances.
- Have struggled with the psychological side of weight loss in the past or have a history of eating disorders or disordered eating.
Scientific Evidence
Several studies have investigated the effectiveness of Noom for weight loss. A 2023 study found that most overweight Noom users experienced lasting weight maintenance for 1 or even 2 years after leveraging a digital commercial behavior change program. A 2016 study involving nearly 36,000 Noom users found that nearly 78% experienced weight loss while using the app for an average of 9 months, with 23% experiencing more than a 10% loss compared with their starting weight. Additionally, a 2020 study including 225 adults with binge eating disorder found Noom to be more effective at reducing the number of days participants engaged in binge eating over 52 weeks compared with standard care offerings.
It’s important to note that some studies were partially funded by Noom, and several authors have conflicts of interest because they’re employed by or own Noom. Overall, more comprehensive research on the program is needed.
Read also: Is Noom Right for You?
Noom Plans
Noom offers several plans to cater to different needs:
- Noom Weight: This is their classic program, which offers personalized daily lessons, food and activity tracking, coaching and peer support, GLP-1 companion tools, body scan and health insights, and workouts.
- Noom Med: It offers the same tools as Noom Weight, but also connects you with a medical pro who can prescribe a GLP-1 for you to take, if you qualify for it.
- Noom + HRT RX: It also includes the same tools as Noom Weight, but this plan additionally provides clinician access to offer hormone replacement therapy for women trying to lose weight in menopause (again, if you qualify).
Cost of Noom
Noom offers various subscription plans:
- Monthly auto-renewing plan: $70
- 2-month auto-renewing plan: $129
- 3-month auto-renewing plan: $159
- 4-month auto-renewing plan: $169
- 5-month auto-renewing plan: $174
- 6-month auto-renewing plan: $179
- 7-month auto-renewing plan: $184
- 8-month auto-renewing plan: $189
- 9-month auto-renewing plan: $195
- 10-month auto-renewing plan: $199
- 11-month auto-renewing plan: $205
- Annual auto-renewing plan: $209
Noom also offers discounts frequently throughout the year. Note: Noom Med - Noom’s weight loss medication service that provides GLP-1 drugs - costs an additional $49 per month. This does not include the cost of any medications prescribed to support your weight loss journey.
Getting Started with Noom
If you’re ready to try Noom, here are the steps you can take to get started:
- Sign up and take the quiz: The app asks for details about your current diet, activity levels, and any habits or behaviors that may affect your health.
- Set your goals: The app uses information from the online quiz to create a custom plan and provide a realistic timeline for reaching your goals.
- Start using the app: Noom requires users to spend just a few minutes per day on the app. The app provides daily educational articles, tips, and activities that users can complete at their own pace.