Noom Review: Does This Popular Diet App Work?

Losing weight isn’t rocket science, but it is tricky to master.

Fortunately, advancements in technology have given us tools to assist the process. From calorie counting and macros tracking apps to personalized workout programs and meal plans, modern weight loss is a little easier to get to grips with than it was.

That said, there are now so many strategies to lose weight that it can be difficult to know where to begin. With multiple diets boasting multiple health claims, how do you decide which route to take? If you’re looking for an app-based program, you might have come across Noom.

This article brings you everything you need to know about the Noom diet.

What Is the Noom Diet?

The Noom diet is a health and wellness app designed to help people lose weight. It differs from other weight loss programs and dieting apps because it focuses on changing your mindset around food rather than strictly eliminating entire food groups. With a fresh attitude on how you eat, the idea is that you create healthy eating habits for sustained weight loss.

Noom’s psychology-based approach offers an innovative way to lose weight and lead a healthy lifestyle. The makers believe that a weight loss journey isn’t solely about what you eat but why you eat. It aims to help you build a healthy relationship with food and tackle bad eating habits.

The Noom diet plan is a subscription-based service, and the price point is very high. Once you have access, you can discover your eating patterns and how to make positive changes. For example, you can learn about triggers, stress eating, mindful eating, calorie-dense foods, and weight loss plateaus.

How Does Noom Work?

The Noom app works by generating a plan based on your personal information. To get started, you must answer questions about yourself, including your target weight, age, sex, height, and current body weight. Overall, it takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

The quiz also asks questions surrounding health conditions, like whether you have prediabetes, diabetes, or any eating disorders. It’s important to answer correctly to get the most relevant Noom diet plan with the most accurate recommended calorie budget.

After the quiz, you will receive a plan recommending how many calories you should eat daily. You are given access to daily lessons that educate you on your relationship with food in a bid to discover the root cause of your unhealthy eating and exercise habits.

The lessons are based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) – a type of talking therapy that aims to decrease symptoms of mental health disorders by modifying the way you think and behave. Personalized CBT can support long-term weight loss in patients with obesity.

Noom works by tracking your food intake. Food logging is a critical part of the Noom diet, and users must add what they have eaten each day. This helps you stay within your calorie range to promote a calorie deficit. You also gain a personal coach who you can reach out to at any time.

While there are no custom meal plans, Noom uses a food labeling system of green, yellow, and red to help you manage what you eat. Green products can be eaten without any restrictions, yellow-label foods have to be eaten in moderation, and red products should be avoided.

It centers around calorie reduction while maintaining a balance of foods categorized by calorie density to keep you full while on a low-calorie intake.

What Can You Eat on the Noom Diet?

Noom restricts calories but doesn’t restrict certain foods or food groups.

Instead, it uses a color-coding system that separates foods by calorie density and nutritional value, including green foods, yellow foods, and red foods. Nothing is off-limits, but Noom encourages mindfulness when making food choices to reach your goal weight.

Calorie density is the measure of calories in a food item concerning its weight or volume. Low-calorie-density foods are beneficial for losing weight because you can eat a larger portion without overconsuming calories. You can stay full for longer with fewer calories.

A low-energy-dense diet can improve appetite control and promote sustainable weight loss.

The categories are as follows:

• Green foods: These are highly-nutritious foods with a low-calorie density that make up the bulk of your diet. This category includes lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, which are great if you follow a vegan or plant-based diet. 
• Yellow foods: These foods are best eaten in moderation because they have more calories than the green variety. Examples include lean meats, fish, eggs, low-fat dairy products, and legumes.
• Red foods: Think of red foods as those to minimize in your diet. These are the most calorie-dense items with fewer nutrients. Examples include red meat, nuts, seeds, high-fat oils, full-fat dairy, and processed foods.

How Much Does Noom Cost?

The cost of Noom varies depending on the subscription plan you sign up for.

According to the official Noom website, most beginners start with the 4-month (16-week) membership at $39.75 per month. However, note that all plans are billed upfront as auto-renewing plans. Therefore, the 4-month option requires an upfront payment of $159.

Otherwise, the shortest period is the monthly plan for $59. Currently, you can select plans from 1–11 months or opt for an annual auto-renewing plan of $199.

Is Noom Worth It?

Noom is worth it if you’re willing to learn, analyze, and alter your dietary habits. If you want to make significant changes to your lifestyle that you can stick with for life, this app can definitely help. It offers a more mindful approach to eating and dieting.

On the other hand, if you want a program that offers you meal plans, recipes, and more controlled guidance, Noom is probably not worth your time.

Furthermore, it is not ideal for those who struggle to manage their diet without careful guidance. While many people love the no-food-is-off-limits approach, some might find it difficult to get the weight off without a firm set of rules regarding what to eat and avoid.

4 Key Benefits of Noom

So, are you still torn over whether to try Noom? If yes, keep reading to discover some key benefits of choosing Noom to aid your fat loss journey. Whatever your personal health goals, you can benefit from certain features in this wellness app.

Here are the top 4 pros of Noom:

#1 Focused on a healthy lifestyle

Noom goes beyond just getting the weight off fast. It’s about making several behavioral changes to better support your weight loss efforts.

It provides users with the knowledge to keep a healthy lifestyle, promoting good habits they can sustain. The healthy weight program supports sustained weight loss, unlike many other diets that cause you to gain weight quickly once you return to your old ways.

#2 Educational content

The educational approach to health and wellness offers a more sustainable introduction to losing weight. With the proper understanding of dietary choices, Noom helps you build habits that you can continue long after you finish the program, which helps to prevent weight gain.

The content contains weight loss tips and tricks to equip you on your journey. Furthermore, you can continue to learn from your Noom health coach and other users in the Noom community if you have questions about your diet, fitness regime, or food choices.

#3 Not very restrictive

Noom is restrictive regarding calorie counting, but it is not very restrictive when it comes to what you actually eat. Most popular diets significantly reduce your intake of certain food groups. Low-carb diets, like the ketogenic diet, drastically limit your daily carb consumption.

With Noom, you can eat all macronutrients. Although you are encouraged to concentrate on green foods with plenty of healthy nutrients, there is nothing that you must avoid.

#4 Ability to adjust goals easily

The Noom diet is generally a 16-week program, but the length can vary depending on your personal goals and how much weight you want to lose. Whether you want to lose 5 pounds in a month or 100 pounds overall, you can easily adjust your goals in the app as you progress.

As Noom is not a fad diet, the idea is that you complete it and continue to eat mindfully for life-long results.

Cons of Noom

Like anything, there is always an upside and a downside. There might be many reasons why Noom is not the best fit for your journey, but here are 3 potential drawbacks to consider.

#1 Expensive

Noom is pretty expensive, especially as it requires an upfront payment.

According to Noom, the pricing mimics the cost of other wellness investments, like gym memberships or running shoes. While this might be true of some memberships and fitness attire, there are cheaper apps available that offer similar features, if not more, than Noom.

#2 Time-consuming food log

Noom requires users to input all food intake. You can do this each time you eat or at the end of the day, depending on your preferences. Whichever way you do it, logging your entire diet for the day can consume a lot of time, especially for those not particularly tech-savvy.

It also encourages you to log other information, such as water intake, blood pressure, and blood sugar readings – again, these requests demand time and effort.

#3 This is a low-calorie diet

Some people might consider Noom easy because it doesn’t tell you what you can and can’t eat. What people forget, however, is that Noom is a low-calorie diet.

Low-calorie diets, like the 1,000-calorie diet, can be highly restrictive and difficult to sustain if you are unsure how to prepare meals without guidance. Moreover, continuously counting your calories and tracking everything you eat can cause disordered eating in some people.

FAQs

Comparison Table

How We Tested

Testing and carefully analyzing a product is the best way to confirm its suitability. Keep reading to find out how we tested this app.

Quality 8/10

The Noom app is a high-quality tool to help people lose weight. The content and educational approach is based on proven techniques used in cognitive behavioral therapy to help you edit your behavior. The entire concept is well-researched and backed by scientific evidence.

Effectiveness 8/10

If you’re willing to look deeper into your relationship with food, you will likely find this app very effective. There are many positive reviews from customers who claim to have found Noom a beneficial tool for taking control of their dietary patterns and achieving fat loss.

Price 5/10

The price point is perhaps the biggest obstacle with Noom. At $60 per month, it’s an expensive app to use in the long term, especially if your plan exceeds the general 16-week program. Fortunately, Noom does offer a free one-week trial, so you can decide before you commit.

Brand reputation 8/10

Noom is a digital health company with a loyal following. The company uses behavioral science in a bid to empower people to take control of their health and wellness in the long term. It appears to be an established brand with many health coaches to support users.

A Word From Our RD

Conclusion

Noom may help you reach a healthy weight as it recommends low-calorie, nutrient-rich eating without any harsh restrictions. Based on the cost, however, we’re not convinced that this app is value for money as it doesn’t offer as many features as other health programs.You can get more bang for your buck with apps such as DoFasting.