What if the best diet isn't even a diet? What if the diet game changer is actually a mobile app based on psychology?
Noom, an app that encourages daily behavioral changes for long-term weight loss, has made this audacious promise. I tried it for four weeks, not knowing that colored-coded food and a daily dive into eating psychology would help me lose seven pounds and teach me how to ride an elephant (more on that later).
Here's everything you need to know about Noom—and whether or not the program is right for you.
What Is Noom?
Noom, as an alternative to a traditional diet, is a mobile health app subscription service that encourages users to adopt behavioral adjustments in order to live a healthier life.
Advertisement
Noom isn't a new concept. It initially started in 2008 as a simple fitness and calorie tracker. However, by 2016, the program has included a psychology and behavioral change component, user support groups, and personal coaches.
Noom has a team of behavioral health professionals who have researched oncology, diabetes prevention and management, hypertension, and other topics to create a curriculum that addresses the fundamental causes of weight loss issues. Noom's goal is to assist people focus on their thinking before they focus on food. The company's idea is that "after you decide the things you're ready to work on, your attitude will help you establish new neural connections over time to modify your behaviors."
Advertisement
Today, losing weight the Noom way include assessing eating habits, managing food-related emotions, practicing accountability, and implementing lifestyle adjustments that can result in long-term weight loss.
How Does Noom Work?
Getting started with the Noom diet plan involves answering questions no diet plan has ever asked me before.
1. Take a quiz for a customized plan.
The first step in the program is a 10-minute online quiz that asks typical questions about your height, weight, gender, age and why you want to lose weight. It also asks how active you are, how often you eat and whether you’re at risk for certain health issues like diabetes, heart disease and depression.
Then questions like, “Have any life events led to weight gain in the last few years?” and, “Why are you uncertain about hitting your weight loss goals?” pop up to assess habits and behaviors.
2. Pay, then download the app to your smartphone and create a log-in.
Once you’ve decided to join the program and paid the fee, you must download the Noom app. It’s currently only available on IOS (12.4 or later) and Android (version 6 or later) smartphones. You can use it on iPad and Android tablets, but the functionality will be limited because tablets don’t typically come with motion sensors (Noom has a step counter). After you’ve installed the app, you’ll be asked to sign in using the email address you used to join the program.
Advertisement
3. Meet your coaches, commit to lessons and get your calorie budget.
Noom asks you to complete 10 mini-lessons in psychology and behavioral change in 16 weeks. You decide immediately if you want to spend a minimum of five minutes to a maximum of 16 minutes a day on the lessons. About two days in, you’ll be connected with a goal coach who will personally reach out about twice a week to check in, ask about your progress and send motivational messages.
A few more days into the program, you’ll be assigned a group coach and a peer group. The group coach moderates the peer group chat, posts weight loss tips and sometimes responds to individual posts. Both the goal coach and the group coach are trained in all things Noom and hold either a bachelor’s or associate’s degree, plus 2,000 hours of wellness experience.
Advertisement
Your calorie restrictions are based your information. For some obese and pre-diabetic people, Noom might recommend its diabetes prevention program—the first mobile health program to be recognized by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for delivering an evidence-based type 2 diabetes prevention program.
Your personalized plan assigns a daily calorie budget (the minimum calories you need to function each day) and requires you to record your meals and physical activity daily. You also decide if you want to commit two to 10 minutes a day to read short articles on positive thinking, mindful eating and stress relief.
On top of all of this, Noom has a step counter, so as long as your phone is on you all day, you’ll know just how many total steps you took. The app encourages you to log daily blood pressure readings, blood glucose levels and water intake.
Advertisement
The Noom plan is designed to last 16 weeks, but you’re encouraged to buy up to twelve months at a time for weight loss and maintenance. To meet my goal of a 12-pound weight loss, my calorie budget was 1,250 calories a day for 16 weeks. When I logged my foods, the app let me know how many calories I had left in each food category (see below) for the day. There was no admonishment when I went over my calorie budget, only encouraging messages to continue the plan and lessons to help me examine what triggered my bad food day (or week).
Advertisement
Is Noom Legit?
Created in 2008, Noom is a legitimate company with a rating of 3.9 out of 5 on Consumer Affairs (out of more than 2,600 reviews) and a rating of 4.3 out of 5 (out of more than 61,000 reviews) on TrustPilot.
What Foods Can You Eat on the Noom Diet?
This is the first plan I’ve ever tried that didn’t rule out any particular foods or food groups. Any restrictions are self-imposed. While Noom does provide options for those who follow vegan, gluten-free or low-carb diets, it never labels foods as bad or off-limits.
Advertisement
The folks at Noom believe that food weight, not calories, determines how full you feel; therefore, they use a color-coded food system that prioritizes food by caloric density (CD). The more water a food has, the lower its CD. Consequently, eating foods with low CD makes you fuller faster, with fewer calories.
Green Foods: Fruits, vegetables and whole grains are all low calorie dense foods, which means they’re higher in water content and provide the highest concentration of nutrients.
Yellow Foods: Lean meats, legumes and low-fat dairy foods should be eaten in moderation because they have more calories and less nutrients than green foods.
Advertisement
Red Foods: Red meats, processed foods and full-fat cheese are the most calorie-dense foods with the least amount of healthy nutrients. One-fourth to one-half cup servings of these foods make up 25% of your daily calories.
The Noom diet plan never says you can’t have “red” foods, it simply encourages you to be mindful of how many you eat. Every time you log a food, Noom instantly classifies it according to a color, which allows you to visualize the areas of your diet that need improvement.
If you’re struggling to wrap your mind around this way of eating, let me help. To lose 12 pounds in 16 weeks, Noom decided I needed about 1,250 calories a day to function. It suggested I limit “red” foods to 300 calories, consume 540 calories of “yellow” foods and use my remaining 410 calories eating “green” foods. So if I had a glazed doughnut for breakfast at 260 calories, I’d consumed my red food for the day. But I still had 990 calories to divide between “yellow” and “green” foods. A light salad with grilled chicken for lunch? Why not? Shrimp and grilled veggies for dinner? Absolutely. Guilt over the doughnut? None whatsoever.
Advertisement
How Much Does Noom Cost?
While Noom does advertise a free one-week trial, a subscription costs up to $59 a month. Each plan is individualized, and the recommended duration of the program is based on the amount of weight you want to lose. I wanted to lose 12 pounds, so a four-month plan was suggested. After hunting for discount codes, I paid $26.00 a month. Had I signed up for a year, my monthly cost would’ve been about $16.00. Because you’re quoted prices based on your personal goals, there’s no advertised price associated with losing five, 10 or 15 pounds. However, it’s clear the more months you sign up for Noom, the deeper the monthly discount.
Advertisement
Does Noom Come With Recipes?
One of Noom’s premium features is a recipe database sourced directly from Rodale, Inc., a publisher of health websites including Prevention, Women’s Health and Men’s Health, among others. According to the company, this database has over 1,100 recipes that are conveniently divided into breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack categories.
Who Is Noom Good For?
Noom may be good for people who have tried other commercial diet plans and haven’t felt successful. Because Noom is more focused on behavioral change, it may also be good for individuals who are looking for answers to questions such as: What triggers you to eat when you’re not hungry? And how to pick nutritional foods that still satisfy you.
Advertisement
Because of the educational aspect and the coaching aspect, Noom may also be good for people who do better when externally motivated by others.
How Much Weight Does the Average Person Lose on Noom?
According to Noom, when individuals consistently eat closer to the lower end of their Weight Loss Zone, which is the range of calories one needs to eat to create a caloric deficit, they can expect to lose about two pounds a week. If someone is eating at the higher end of their Weight Loss Zone, they can expect to lose about half a pound a week, according to the company.
Advertisement
Does Noom Work for Vegans, Vegetarians and Plant-based Diets?
Noom’s weight loss plan can work for vegetarians, vegans and other types of plant-based diets, according to the company. Plant-based recipes are part of Noom’s premium features, and the company explains that their coaches are available to help subscribers transition to a more plant-forward diet, if they desire.
Does the Noom Diet Work? Conclusion
Noom helped me lose 7 pounds in one month. It wasn't simple, but it was the most interesting and enlightening diet adventure I've ever undertaken. Noom isn't for everyone, particularly if you don't want to be tied to your phone. It did, however, work for me.
Advertisement
One of the things I learnt from the Noom diet plan is that we all have an elephant in our midst—our impulsive, irrational, emotional side. We can control the elephant if we use our analytical, rational, and controlled selves. And these days, I ride it right past the dessert table, or I stop and feed it a cookie if I want.
Disclaimer: The above is a sponsored post, the views expressed are those of the sponsor/author and do not represent the stand and views of Outlook Editorial.
