Noom Diet Review: Pros, Cons AndHow It Works

What if the best diet isn’t a diet at all? What if the diet game changer is

actually a psychology-based mobile app?

That’s the daring promise by Noom—an app that encourages daily behavioral

changes for long-term weight loss. I tried it for four weeks, not knowing

colored-coded food and a daily dive into the psychology of eating would help

me lose 7 pounds and teach me how to ride an elephant (more on that later).

Here’s everything you need to know about Noom—and whether the program

might be a good fit for you.

What Is the Noom Diet—and How Does it Work?

Let’s lose the word diet for a second. Unlike a traditional diet, Noom is a

mobile health app subscription service that encourages people to make

behavioral changes to live healthier.

Noom isn’t new. It actually debuted in 2008 as a simple fitness and calorie

tracker. But by 2016, the app had added a psychology and behavioral change

component, user support groups and personal coaches.

Noom boasts a team of behavioral health experts who’ve researched

oncology, diabetes prevention and management, hypertension and more to

design a curriculum that gets at the cause of weight loss struggles. Noom

dieters learn to focus on their mindset before they focus on meals. The app’s

philosophy is, “once you determine the things you’re ready to work on, your

mindset will help you form new neural connections over time to change your

habits.”

Today, losing weight the Noom way means examining eating behaviors,

managing emotions related to food, practicing accountability and making

lifestyle changes that can result in sustained 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.

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.

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.

Get Your custom meal plan today

Noom

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.

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).

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.

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.

● 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.

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.

Pros of Noom

Psychological approach

There are four note cards pinned above my desk right now with

“Noomerisms”—nuggets of wisdom obtained by Noom daily log-ins. “You

might be facing waves, but you’re making them, too. Ride the wave.” Daily

affirmations like that make Noom much more than a weight loss tool. I can’t

think of another weight loss program where I’d learn dialectical behavioral

therapy (DBT) tips in one of my five- to nine-minute daily reads to help me

deal with the stress of a new job (and the mindless eating that comes with it).

Through DBT, which uses concepts of mindfulness, I became more aware of

why I was eating buttered popcorn with truffle salt while lamenting the past

instead of connecting my senses to at least one positive thing in the present.

Another three-minute read taught me about locus of control, a psychological

concept that examines whether you place control over events and outcomes

internally or externally. For example, an internal locus of control is if you find

yourself thinking, “I don’t have enough willpower to lose 5 pounds.” You’re

blaming yourself for not losing weight. However, if you think, “I can’t lose

weight because my spouse loves to eat out,” this is an external locus of

control, or the tendency to blame outside forces for outcomes.

The reason you have to read articles like this daily to progress through the

Noom diet plan is pretty simple: It works. When you’re forced to look at the

psychology behind why you overeat, continue to make poor food choices or

just can’t seem to make any diet stick, you become more self-aware and your

relationship with food changes … for the better.

Accountability and support

Noom encourages you to be accountable—not only for what you put in your

mouth, but the thoughts behind your choices. Certified health coaches check

in with you weekly to encourage you and celebrate your progress. The app

also connects you to other Noomers who are more than willing to share tips

and tricks for weight loss, staying hydrated and moving more throughout the

day. You can engage in the group chat through the app or if you meet one or

two people you really click with, you can exchange information and become

your own Noom squad.

Focus on long-term weight loss

Sustained weight loss comes from commitment, knowledge and

awareness—and Noom provides the tools for all three. The program doesn’t

offer any quick fixes, nor does it exclude foods or encourage eating windows.

The emphasis on eating whole foods and developing a healthy relationship

with them is a Noom principle it says will lead to long-term weight loss.

Noom

Cons of Noom

Expensive

While there are free trials and discounts, the monthly cost might be more than

what some are willing to spend on a weight loss program. After trying several

nationally known weight loss programs and buying their bars, shakes and

supplements, I found the cost pretty comparable.

Huge commitment

I always looked forward to the daily readings, but reporting everything you eat,

every day is daunting. Noom also asks you to weigh yourself daily and for

some people, that can be very difficult. The weekly check-in with a goal

counselor was a miss for me, too. The correspondence was too impersonal

and infrequent to be effective.

No specific meal plan and no prepared food delivery options

If you want an app to provide prepared food options or a specific meal plan,

Noom is not for you. Aside from the daily calorie budget and recommended

percentages of red, yellow and green foods, there are no food rules with

Noom. Some will flourish with this food freedom, while others used to

prescriptive ways of eating might be uncomfortable without the structure

they’re accustomed to.

Admittedly, some days I didn’t want to plan or cook a meal. Instead, I ate a

bowl of cereal for dinner because I was uninspired, had the calories in my

budget and Noom said I could.

Get Your custom meal plan today

Does the Noom Diet Work?

I lost 7 pounds in one month on Noom. It wasn’t easy, but it’s been my most

interesting and educational diet journey to date. Noom isn’t for everyone,

especially if you don’t want to be tethered to a phone. However, it worked for

me.

One of the lessons I learned on the Noom diet plan is that we all have an

elephant—it’s our impulsive, irrational, emotional side. When we tap into our

analytical, rational and controlled self, we can control the elephant. And these

days, I ride mine—right past the dessert table, or if I want, I stop and feed it a

cookie.

Get Your custom meal plan today