Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe - Which Resource Is Better For Your Health?

By Summer Banks FNS, SPT on Jan 04, 2022

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe – can a lifestyle blog motivate you to get into the best shape of your life, or is a technology-powered health and wellness plan the solution to your dieting dilemmas? Today, we’re comparing Noom, the Millennial-approved weight-loss program, with The Fitness Tribe, a popular blog that focuses on physical and emotional well-being.

What is Noom?

Noom is a mobile app that helps you get moving and start making better dietary choices. The four-month Healthy Weight Program combines a virtual health coach, meal planning tool, support group, exercise tracker, and educational curriculum into one easy-to-use app available for iOS and Android phones.

What is The Fitness Tribe?

The Fitness Tribe is an online community of fitness and wellness enthusiasts who want to share their knowledge with the world. My Fitness Tribe provides information on popular products, weight loss plans, healthy recipes, workouts, and yoga.

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe Customer Testimonials
History

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe – History

Brief History of Noom

Noom became a household name upon the app’s release in 2016, but it got its start way back in 2008 as WorkSmart Labs.

WorkSmart Labs was created in New York City by Artem Petakov and Saeju Jeong. Petakov and Jeong commissioned the help of leading dietitians, physicians, nutritionists, and psychologists to develop a behavior-based weight-loss plan.

WorkSmart Labs was designed to be a smarter way to lose weight, but the name wasn’t catchy enough for Petakov and Jeong. Eventually, they agreed on the name “Noom.” Noom is a reverse spelling of the celestial body that orbits the Earth: the moon.

The moon has been a guiding light in the sky since the beginning of time. It has provided light for countless travelers who would otherwise be in the dark. Sometimes, when you’re trying to lose weight, it feels like you’re lost in the dark. You don’t know how or where to start. Artem Petakov and Saeju Jeong want Noom to be your light in the dark.

Once a name was officially chosen, Noom secured several successful funding rounds from big-name investors like Samsung Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

By 2018, Noom became the most-searched diet app on Google. The company opened offices in Korea and Japan and launched several new programs that focus on preventing cardiovascular issues and other health problems.

For a limited time, we’re working with the company to offer a Noom free trial offer to every Dietspotlight reader.

Brief History of The Fitness Tribe

The Fitness Tribe doesn’t have a large online footprint, so it was difficult for our team to find any information related to The Fitness Tribe’s history. The company’s Facebook page was created on July 25, 2017. There has been no activity on The Fitness Tribe’s social media accounts since 2018.

We know that The Fitness Tribe earns revenue through affiliates. The Fitness Tribe mentions products on its blog and earns a small commission when readers purchase it through the affiliate link.

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe – Who’s Behind the Plans?

Who Created Noom?

Saeju Jeong came from a long line of physicians with a passion for improving their patient’s quality of life. However, Saeju’s father felt that doctors were lacking when it came to an integral part of modern healthcare: disease prevention. He once told Saeju that preventing the onset of disease was as important as treating it.

Saeju Jeong studied and was later employed at Hongik University. The electrical engineer knew that technology could be an important weapon against obesity, but he wasn’t sure where to start.

After his father died, Jeong left the university and moved to the United States. Saeju met Artem Petakov at his cousin’s wedding reception, and the pieces fell together.

Artem Petakov is a Ukraine-born computer scientist with a passion for behavioral psychology. After working for Google and Microsoft, Petakov wanted to start his own business. His chance meeting with Saeju Jeong gave him the perfect opportunity to combine two of his favorite subjects: psychology and computer science.

Saeju Jeong and Artem Petakov started an eight-year journey that would lead to the creation of the app that has changed millions of lives with its psychological approach to weight loss.

Who Created The Fitness Tribe?

Brandon and Ashlee Nicholas created the Fitness Tribe. Robert Hyden is The Fitness Tribe’s wellness coach. No other information about the team behind The Fitness Tribe is provided.

Rules

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe – The Rules

Rules of Noom

There’s an evidence-based reason why Noom doesn’t have a defined set of rules. When you first start a new diet, you’re probably really motivated. You follow every rule, measure each portion perfectly, record your fluid intake, and give up all of the bad habits that you enjoyed. After a few weeks, you’re sick of your diet and its tedious rules. Eventually, you cheat on your super strict diet, and that one slip leads to a downward spiral. You give up on your diet and regain any weight that you lost.

Instead of rules, Noom uses psychology to help you form new habits that will help you lose weight.

The Education Process

It takes about ten minutes to complete your daily Noom lessons. You’ll cover various topics with the help of the “Noom Nerds,” and you’ll take an occasional pop quiz. Don’t worry, you won’t be graded on your answers. It’s all about information retention.

Here’s a glimpse at some of the topics you’ll cover:

  • Calorie density
  • The basics of nutrition
  • Forming healthy habits
  • Coping with your frustrations
  • Staying on track when you dine out
  • Keeping your motivation
  • Preventing overeating because of boredom
  • Though distortions
  • Portion control
  • Controlling your inner elephant
  • Healthier sleep habits
  • Managing stress and stress eating
  • Advanced dietary advice
  • Desensitizing yourself to common triggers
  • Sensible food substitutions
  • Workouts for every ability level
  • Sustainability
  • Understanding how your psych affects your eating habits
  • Preparing for life after Noom

Logged and Categorized

Noom categorizes foods into three groups based on the food’s calorie density. Low-calorie density foods contain more water, so they have fewer calories and keep you full longer. Foods that have the lowest calorie density are labeled as green food by Noom. Foods that have a high-calorie density are labeled as red food. Foods in the middle are classified as yellow foods.

Your Noom diet will consist of:

  • 40% yellow foods
  • 25% – 45% green foods
  • 15% – 35% red foods

Take a look at which foods fall into each category. Noom’s database has millions of items, including prepackaged foods and menu items from popular restaurants, so these lists are just an example to help you understand Noom’s three food categories.

Green Foods

  • Vegetables
  • Most fruits
  • Non-fat dairy products
  • Whole grain bread
  • Horseradish
  • Egg whites
  • Canned tuna
  • Almond milk

Yellow Foods

  • Whole grain rice
  • Dairy (low-fat)
  • Fruit juices(no sugar added)
  • Chicken breast
  • Hummus
  • Turkey breast
  • Eggs (hard-boiled)
  • Pork (lean cuts)
  • Ultralight beers
  • Avocados
  • Smoothies (low-calorie)
  • Fruit cocktail
  • Figs

Red Foods

  • Protein bars
  • Trail mix
  • Mayo
  • Peanut butter
  • Bacon
  • Fried foods
  • Ranch dressing
  • Ham
  • Cookies
  • Chips
  • Cakes
  • Candy
  • Bagels
  • Pastries
  • Whole milk
  • White bread
  • Pizza
  • Granola
  • Pie
  • Burgers
  • Crackers

Workouts

Noom wants you to exercise more, so they’ll reward you with an increase in your daily calorie goal. People who burn more calories require a higher calorie intake, so Noom adds half of your expended calories to your calorie budget.

You can manually record your workouts, use Noom’s pedometer, or connect your favorite wearable technology.

Take a closer look at the lifestyle program with the Noom free trial offer available to Dietspotlight readers.

Rules of The Fitness Tribe

The Fitness Tribe is more of an informational resource than a diet plan, so there are no rules to follow. The Fitness Tribe offers six categories of articles for users to read: fitness, yoga, weight loss, healthy eating, recipes, and personal development.

We’ve provided examples of articles in each category to get a better feel for what the site offers.

Fitness

  • How To Do A Proper Upper Chest Set
  • The Best Back Exercises For Women
  • Should You Use A Sauna After Your Workout
  • The Benefits Of Jumping Jacks
  • Fasted Weight Training

Yoga

  • Yoga Poses For Relaxation
  • Incorporating Yoga Blocks Into Your Workout
  • The Beginners Yoga Guide
  • The Benefits Of Yoga

Weight Loss

  • Can I Still Drink Alcohol On My Diet?
  • Where Does Fat Go When You Lose It?
  • Why You Need To Drink Water
  • Debunking Seven Weight Loss Myths
  • Does Calorie Counting Work?

Healthy Eating

  • Is Sugar Actually A Drug?
  • How To ReFeed
  • An Updated List Of Artificial Sweeteners
  • Ten Foods To Reduce Inflammation
  • Staples Of The Paleo Diet
  • The Best Cheat Meals

Recipes

  • Sugar-Free Banana Bread
  • Sugar-Free Strawberry Shortcake
  • Ten Keto Breakfast Treats

Personal Development

  • Should You Bulk Up Or Get Cut?
  • Deloaded Week
  • What Is A Decent 5k Time?
  • Improve Your Emotional Intelligence
  • Home Remedies For Dry And Cracked Feet
Eating Plans

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe – Eating Plans

The Noom Eating Plan

Noom doesn’t want to tell you exactly what to eat. For your first few days of the Noom program, you’ll log the foods you eat, see which category each item belongs in, and get feedback from your Noom coach. This helps both you and your coach determine where your problem areas are.

In the following weeks, Noom will help you break old habits and form better ones. Maybe you skip breakfast every day. By eating fruit or low-fat yogurt in the morning, you’ll stay full longer and prevent overeating at lunch. Gradual changes help you meet your main goal: To eat better and live a healthier lifestyle.

Noom calculates your daily caloric requirements to assign you a calorie budget. Over time, you’ll learn that eating healthier foods leaves more room in your calorie budget. Eating 100 calories from vegetables keeps you full much longer than eating 100 calories from chocolate chip cookies. Noom retrains your brain and creates new reward pathways that make losing weight easy, even after completing the Noom program.

The Noom program also utilizes portion control so you can enjoy your favorite snacks. There are no “bad foods” in the Noom eating plan. Sometimes, it’s easier to give in to a craving than to spend an entire miserable day trying to fight it. Everybody experiences small setbacks when they’re trying to lose weight. Noom teaches you that one dietary mistake doesn’t destroy your chances for success.

The Fitness Tribe Eating Plan

The Fitness Tribe doesn’t offer an eating plan, but they do offer recipes. In total, The Fitness Tribe has a database of 17 recipes. All recipes are for healthy snack alternatives.

The Fitness Tribe recipes include:

  • Sugar-free carrot cake
  • Sugar-free cheesecake
  • Double-stacked sugar-free kiwi cookies
  • Sugar-free red velvet cake
  • Sugar-free zesty orange cake
  • Homemade sugar-free bread
  • Sugar-free pumpkin spice cookies
  • Sugar-free buttercream frosting

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe – Plan Duration

How Long Does Noom Last?

Noom’s signature Healthy Weight Program lasts for 16-weeks. After you complete any noon program, you can continue to use the free version of the app to log your meals and physical activity. You can also continue with your paid subscription if you still want access to your personal coach, group coach, and virtual support group.

How Long Does The Fitness Tribe Last?

You can always use The Fitness Tribe as an educational resource. There are no memberships and no time constraints.

Significant Differences Between Noom and The Fitness Tribe

The Fitness Tribe and Noom offer entirely different takes on weight loss. Both provide educational resources, but that is where the similarities stop.

Keeping Track of What You Eat

All Noom programs include a food tracking tool that helps you identify problem areas and keep your diet on track. The Fitness Tribe does not offer any similar features.

Accountability

Research proves that mobile apps increase accountability when used for weight management purposes. Out of the two programs, only Noom offers a mobile app.

Physical Fitness

The Fitness Tribe encourages exercise, but Noom helps you track your workouts. Noom even recalculates your daily calorie goal based on the number of calories you burn in every workout to ensure you’re getting the proper amount of daily nutrition.

Support

Unfortunately, The Fitness Tribe doesn’t provide support to its users. We’re not talking about tech support. We’re referring to Noom’s individual coaches, group coaches, and hand-selected virtual support groups.

Eating Plans

Noom gives users to ability to eat what they want or request a detailed meal plan. When it comes to losing weight, the method that works for one person may not work for another. That’s why it’s important to have options. The Fitness Tribe doesn’t provide any sort of eating plan.

Accessibility

You can access The Fitness Tribe anywhere you have an internet connection, but Noom offers all of its features in a convenient app. You can log your workouts and meals on the go, and your favorite articles are always at your fingertips.

Clinical Research

Our researchers noticed that The Fitness tribe doesn’t offer sources to back up the claims made in its blog posts. Noom was developed by medical professionals and always supported its claims with evidence from clinical trials.

Can You Follow The Fitness Tribe on Noom?

So, can you follow The Fitness Tribe on Noom? Absolutely. Noom encourages members to learn about nutrition to make healthy choices, and The Fitness Tribe offers educational resources for anyone interested in health and wellness.

Possible Side Effects of Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe

You won’t have to worry about ill effects with either program. Noom and The Fitness Tribe are both safe to use.

Research

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe– The Research

Clinical Research on Noom

The most exciting clinical trial involving Noom studied 35,921 adults while following Noom’s groundbreaking Diabetes Prevention Program. An impressive 77.9% of the participants lost a noteworthy amount of weight. The research, which was first reviewed in Nature (Scientific Reports), found that the most successful Noom users were the ones who remembered to log dinner every night.

Another Noom study, first published in The British Medical Journal, followed 43 patients who were recently diagnosed with prediabetes while they attempted to lose weight with the Noom Diabetes Prevention Program. By the end of the 24-week study, most participants had lost more than 5% of their total body weight.

Give the Noom free trial offer a go to see how much weight you can lose in just 16 weeks.

Clinical Research on The Fitness Tribe

The Fitness Tribe is a wealth of knowledge for fitness enthusiasts. According to research reviewed in Social Science and Medicine, people who attain a higher education level are less likely to suffer from obesity.

Obviously, The Fitness Tribe is not a substitute for higher education. Still, the study is based on the premise that people who better understand nutrition are more likely to make healthy dietary choices. Learning about nutrition and exercise can increase your self-awareness and your ability to choose healthier foods.

Quick Facts

The Facts About Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe

Quick Facts on Noom

  • Noom offers 16 and 24-week weight loss programs.
  • Noom uses behavioral psychology to change your brain’s reward pathways and form new habits.
  • Noom helps users break old habits and overcome the triggers that cause them to overeat.
  • Noom is backed by dozens of clinical trials.
  • Noom is the go-to weight-loss app for Millennials.
  • The CDC recognizes Noom is a behavioral program that reinforces positive behaviors.
  • You can try Noom for free to decide if the program is right for you.

Quick Facts on The Fitness Tribe

  • The Fitness Tribe is a lifestyle blog that promotes healthy living
  • The Fitness Tribe earns revenue through affiliate links.
  • All of The Fitness Tribe’s articles are available free of charge.
  • The Fitness Tribe offers an array of healthy snack recipes.
  • There isn’t much information available about The Fitness Tribe’s history or founders.
  • The Fitness Tribe does not have an app.
  • The Fitness Tribe does not offer diet or fitness tracking tools.
Bottom Line

The Bottom Line on Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe

The Fitness Tribe offers some interesting articles, but reading a blog isn’t going to help you lose weight. If you want to shed those extra pounds, you’ll need to start making lifestyle changes. Noom is a well-rounded program that prepares users for permanent weight loss. That’s why many Noom users report experiencing more energy and feeling better about their overall health after completing their program.

In the battle between Noom and The Fitness Tribe, Noom is the obvious champion.

If you are ready to give this clinically-backed program a go, then you’re in luck. Noom is giving all Dietspotlight readers a free trial offer.

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe Ingredients
Questions

Noom vs. The Fitness Tribe Questions and Answers

Q: What is the Noom diet all about?

A: Noom is a weight-loss program that uses psychological tactics to help its users make better choices and maintain a healthy weight.

Q: How long is the Noom program?

A: The Noom program lasts for 16 weeks, though you can always choose to continue with the program after that.

Q: What can you eat on Noom?

A: You can eat anything on the Noom diet.

Q: What foods are prohibited on Noom?

A: No foods are prohibited on the Noom program.

Q: Are Noom coaches bots?

A: The coaches at Noom are not bots, but actual humans ready to help you.

Q: Does Noom work for weight loss?

A: Yes – Noom’s effectiveness for weight loss has been proven in multiple clinical studies.

Q: What is the Noom app and how much does it cost?

A: The Noom program is available only through its mobile app. Although you can download the app for free, you will need to purchase the $59 monthly plan to gain access to the program itself.

Q: What is the cost of a Noom subscription?

A: A Noom subscription costs about $59 per month, though there are cheaper options available when multiple months are paid for at once.

Q: How do I cancel my Noom account?

A: You will need to contact your Goal Specialist through the app to start the cancellation process.

Q: Does Noom really work?

A: Noom has been proven to be effective through years of clinical research published in top scientific journals.

About the Author:

Summer Banks has researched over 5000 weight-loss programs, pills, shakes and diet plans. Previously, she managed 15 supplement brands, worked with professionals in the weight loss industry and completed coursework in nutrition at Stanford University.

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