There’ve been whispers around the weight-loss market about a system that has companies and experts in the weight-loss and tech industries taking notice. In the past year, our research team has tackled more than 300 diet products, plans and systems. The one that shines above all others is Noom. What is Noom and how can it help you lose weight.
Let’s take a closer look.
Noom can be purchased through their Official Site.
Frustrated With Dieting: This is Your Answer
Noom is the latest in weight-loss technology and, based on claims, the “last weight-loss program you’ll ever need.” The smartphone app, which works with nutrition, weight-loss and fitness, uses research-based lifestyle changes to help the user learn how best to eat to lose weight in a way that lasts for life.
The focus that makes Noom different is in the psychology of weight loss. The doctors who spent years creating the app understood that eating was just as much mental as it is physical. The mental and behavioral aspects of weight gain are where changes can be made so you learn how to live a lighter life.
These small behavior changes are supported by real-life human coaches – but what does having a human coach mean?
Does It Work?
- Relationship Between Age and Weight Loss in Noom: Quasi-Experimental Study — “older adults lose more weight from baseline to week 16, but they may benefit more compared with younger adults”
- The Most Popular Smartphone Apps for Weight Loss: A Quality Assessment — ” Noom Weight Loss Coach received the top ranking based on its overall score of 75.”
- Understanding Time Series Patterns of Weight and Meal History Reports in Mobile Weight Loss Intervention Programs: Data-Driven Analysis — “Although mobile technology has increased the convenience of self-reporting when dieting, it should be noted that technology itself is not the essence of weight loss.”
Noom Brings Personalized Coaching to Your Smartphone
Each Noom user is partnered with a human coach to contact and interact with during business hours via the app. The coach is there to answer questions, help the user work through problems, and offer any other lifestyle and program support needed to get the user on track and keep them on track to weight loss.
No two people are the same, so when we noticed Noom offers a personalized weight-loss program with human coaching, we knew this one was different. Other programs pull bits and pieces of proven tactics and throw them together in a companion app, but Noom is different.
Noom’s system IS an app. So that means no books, binders, point calculators – nothing.
Scroll below to read the bottom line.
The Details of the Noom App
What do you get when you download the Noom app? How about an extensive food database, exercise tracking, expert articles and resources, quizzes, a virtual community of people just like you, and so much more.
Let’s look at each element more closely.
Extensive Food Database
Noom offers one of the most extensive food databases we’ve ever seen. Unlike nearly every other food-tracking app, the program doesn’t allow just anyone to add foods and food facts to the database. The database is maintained by an in-house team of experts that includes registered dietitians and nutritionists who know food and know how food plays a critical role in reaching and maintaining weight-loss goals.
Food Logging
Food tracking in the specific way Noom does it is backed by significant science published in journals such as Journal of the American Dietary Association. The key is easy access, easy use and easy support – all of which is offered through its app.
Exercise Tracking
Noom believes in exercise as part of healthy lifestyle changes. The app recommends a moderate exercise regimen. At first only ten minutes a day to improve metabolism, increase the number of calories burned and promote overall health. With the Noom app, you get easy access to exercise tracking that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand.
Is Noom a Restrictive Diet?
With Noom there is NO RESTRICTIVE DIETING – period.
Noom helps people avoid “Yo-Yo dieting” and instead achieve long-term results through changes to behavior and habits. We noticed the app avoids restrictive diets, which are proven to fail time and again because they cause that “Yo-Yo” effect. You lose weight then gain more, then lose weight again, and gain even more.
Restrictive dieting has been shown to cause this rebound weight gain, which can actually increase your risk of certain health conditions. As a matter of fact, research has shown that long-term effects of restricted diets are modest, at best. (Obesity, Silver Spring)
With Noom, you don’t experience a “Yo-Yo” effect, so the weight you lose stays off for good.
How Exactly Does Noom Work?
Getting started with Noom is as simple as filling out answers to a few simple questions. These questions are tailored to you – your age, weight, activity level and other aspects so the program can be personalized to your needs.
After the initial questionnaire, you take a more comprehensive quiz that works to complete the personalization process. By the end of the question and answer section, your plan will be generated and, unlike any other program out there today, your program is unique to you, based on your life, how you live and where you want your journey to lead.
Noom works as a structure course. You learn small changes that build on top of one another over time. As you learn more and more small changes they add up to large, lifestyle modifications that promote weight loss.
Foods are logged based on a unique color system – red, yellow, green.
- Green foods are your fruits and vegetables – these foods provide fewer calories, but exemplary nutrition.
- Yellow foods have a few more calories, but they aren’t considered “unhealthy.”
- Red foods are packed with calories and little nutrition. You don’t have to eliminate these foods altogether, but eating the processed foods, sugars and other empty calories should be limited.
Do You Count Calories With Noom?
There is a purpose for calories with Noom, but you aren’t spending hours fretting over what you can and cannot eat. The green, yellow, red system guides you through each day’s meals helping you make the right choices, that just so happen to fit within your calorie goal, without realizing you’re “watching” calories at all.
Noom teaches you how to make great foods choices so you DON’T have to count calories, but a calorie total is included to help you stay within a weight-loss range, and to avoid creeping calories that can ruin your progress.
The Team Behind Noom
World-Class Experts: Medical experts and leading researchers work with Noom. These include Andreas Michaelides, PhD – Chief of Psychology; Youngin Paul Kim, MD – Medical Director; and Kitt Farr, MD, FACC, FNHI – Chief Medical Advisor.
Noom also works with dietitians and nutritionists to ensure the food database is updated regularly with proven nutrition facts and the latest in meal options.
Who’s Talking About Noom? (Hospitals, Health Plans and News Outlets)
People have taken notice of Noom because it works, but don’t take our word for it. Some of the biggest names in the business use the app to support weight loss and overall health.
Used by: Aetna, EmblemHealth, Aurora Health Care, New York – Presbyterian
The news outlets haven’t left Noom behind either. World-class news outlets have published fantastic support for this proven platform.
Featured in: Consumer Reports, Women’s Health, Shape, New York Times
Noom Weight Loss, Clinical Studies and Support
Scientific Reports: According to a Noom study, “Between October 2012 and April 2014 … a total of 35,921 participants were included in the analysis [of Noom], of whom 77.9% reported a decrease in body weight while they were using the app” over nine months.
BMJ Journals: Research into weight loss by Noom world-class experts shows human coaching plays a critical role in losing weight. “Our findings support the effectiveness of a uniquely mobile … intervention, producing weight loss comparable to studies with high engagement, with potential for scalable population health management.” In total, 64% of Noom users shed more than 5% of their body weight.
American Society for Nutrition: This health organization stands behind food logging as an essential part of lasting weight loss. According to the ASN, food journaling is a mindfulness tactic and, “Mindfulness can easily be translated to ‘awareness.’ In this case, it could be the awareness of what we are eating, how we are eating, why we are eating, and when we are eating?”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “In 2017, Noom received full recognition by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
University of Sydney Medical Center: “Using an app to support weight loss can be helpful for people who want to get a better idea of the amount of food and kilojoules they are eating each day.” The university named Noom the number one weight-loss program out of 800 reviewed.
Questions and Answers
Q: What comes with the Noom program?
A: The Noom program comes with food logging, meal feedback and analysis, virtual support group, nutritional tips and advice, daily challenges and quizzes, hundreds of original articles and one-on-one coaching.
Q: Does Noom really Work?
A: Yes, clinical research shows Noom works. Based on a Noom study with more than 35,000 participants that spanned two years, more than 75% of people reported weight loss while using the Noom app.
Q: How should Noom be used?
A: Noom should be used in conjunction with a regular exercise program, as approved by your doctor. Anyone with health or medical conditions will want to seek advice from a healthcare provider before making drastic changes to diet or activity level.
Noom is intended to use for weight loss AND weight maintenance, so you reach your goals and stay there for good!
Q: Will I feel deprived?
A: No, with Noom’s personalized diet plan, you won’t feel deprived. Food choices aren’t restricted, as they are with many weight-loss programs. You can eat the foods you love and still lose weight – guaranteed.
Q: Can I cancel my Noom subscription?
A: Yes, you can cancel your Noom app subscription at any time without question. Simply contact the customer service department and your subscription, and all future payments will be canceled.
Q: How can I buy Noom to give it a try?
A: For a limited time, Noom is offering a free trial to Dietspotlight readers for $1. You’ll find yourself tracking food, eating better and losing weight faster than you ever thought possible.
Foods to Eat & Avoid
Noom separates foods into a green, yellow, and red system based on their caloric and nutritional value. These foods are separated based on their “caloric density,” or the calories compared to the weight of the food. For example, one ounce of nuts has more calories than one ounce of apples, meaning these two foods would be in different color groups.
Green Foods
Green foods are the least calorie dense and contain the most nutrients. These foods should make up the majority of your diet. However, the green food group will make up 30% of the total calories you consume.
Examples of foods in this group include:
- Fruits: Bananas, apples, strawberries, watermelon, cherries, peaches, blueberries, pineapple, pears, oranges
- Vegetables: Cucumbers, salad greens, carrots, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, zucchini, brussels sprouts
- Dairy: Almond milk, cashew milk, non-fat yogurt, skim milk
- Grains: Oatmeal, brown rice, whole grain bread, whole grain tortillas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, polenta
Yellow Foods
Yellow foods have more calories and less nutrients than green foods. They can be incorporated in your diet in moderate amounts and will make up about 45% of your daily caloric intake.
Some examples of these foods include:
- Meat: Grilled chicken, tuna, lean meat, deli meats, eggs, salmon, turkey breast
- Dairy: Cottage cheese, low-fat milk, low-fat cheeses, greek yogurt
- Drinks: Diet soda, beer
- Grain Products: Pita bread, couscous, quinoa, white bread, white pasta, English muffins
- Legumes and Beans: Black beans, baked beans, lentils
Red Foods
Red foods are the ones that have the most calories and are the least nutritionally dense. You should incorporate these foods into their diet in small amounts and less frequently than green and yellow foods. The red food group will make up 25% of total caloric intake.
Some of these include:
- Meat: Ham, red meat, hamburgers, sausage, salami, fried meats
- Desserts: Cake, chocolate, chocolate chip cookies
- Snacks: Energy bars, potato chips, hot dogs, pizza, french fries
- Other Foods: Butter, mayonnaise, feta cheese, nut butters, honey, wine, orange juice
One Week Sample Menu
So, what does a week on the Noom diet look like? Although everyone’s meal plan will be different based on their individual goals, here is what one might eat in a week on the Noom diet:
Monday
- Breakfast: Overnight Oats
- Lunch: Hummus and Greek Salad
- Dinner: Vegetarian Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
- Snack: Coconut Energy Balls
Tuesday
- Breakfast: Egg Cups
- Lunch: Tex Mex Pasta Salad
- Dinner: Kung Pao Chicken Zoodles
- Snack: Hummus and Veggies
Wednesday
- Breakfast: Bacon, Egg, and Kale Breakfast Salad
- Lunch: Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Dinner: Southwestern Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Snack: Edamame
Thursday
- Breakfast: Protein Pancakes
- Lunch: Turkey Avocado Spring Rolls
- Dinner: Honey Mustard Salmon with Mango Quinoa
- Snack: Hard Boiled Egg and Fruit
Friday
- Breakfast: Vegan Breakfast Brushetta
- Lunch: Southern BBQ Bowl
- Dinner: Italian Chicken Skillet
- Snack: Apple Slices and Almond Butter
Saturday
- Breakfast: Tropical Superfood Smoothie
- Lunch: Spinach and Goat Cheese Salad with Walnuts
- Dinner: Parmesan Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp
- Snack: Dark Chocolate
Sunday
- Breakfast: Chocolate Chip Sweet Potato Muffins
- Lunch: Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Dinner: Turkey Meatballs with Zoodles
- Snack: Greek Yogurt and Berries
Let’s Hear a Drum Roll …
What are we thinking? After digging into Noom for hours, we can’t find a single hiccup in the app. Every feature we could want is packed into this program, which has been shown to promote:
- Eating whole foods and nutrient-dense meals.
- Tracking meals for ultimate success.
- Exercising to your personal level and growing from there.
- Personal interaction with a community of goal setters.
- Real-time community chat and support.
Bottom Line: Yes, Noom Beats the Competition
We’re so confident Noom works that we’ve decided to partner with the company so our readers can take advantage of a Risk Free trial.
Our readers get instant, full access to all Noom features, including a personalized diet plan, food tracking, exercise tracking, health articles and contact with a human coach who’s dedicated to helping you reach your weight-loss goals.
Click here if you’re ready to give Noom, and the expert support, a try today.
Order Noom Today!
Mike Evans (Verified Purchase)
It really works. I was skeptical at first, but now I tell everyone about it.
Charlotte Michano
Hi…how do I go about canceling my subscription?
Hello Charlotte. On the app, it is best to chat with your Goal Specialist to get more information about subscription options.
Katherine Schmidt
I do not have a smart phone. Can the app. be used with a lap top computer?
osman
is this app available in french langage ? it would be great if yes
and nice review
Thank you Osman! The app is available in french.
how does it work
Noom is an easy-to-use program that offers a personalized diet plan, food tracking, exercise tracking, health articles and contact with a human coach who’s dedicated to helping you reach your weight-loss goals. To learn more, click the link in our bottom line!