Noom vs. Modern Fit - Which Psychology-Based Program Is Better?

By Summer Banks FNS, SPT on Jan 19, 2023

Noom vs. Modern Fit – both programs claim to be based on psychology principles, but only one plan has thousands of positive reviews and clinical trials to support its claims. Can Modern Fit, a newcomer in the health and wellness world, compete with Noom, one of the web’s most searched diet plans?

What is Noom?

Noom is the 16-week program that uses psychology to help you make better choices in your life. Those better choices lead to weight loss and an overall healthier lifestyle.

Noom offers an array of tools to help you meet your goals:

  • Food logging
  • Exercise tracking
  • Mouthwatering recipes
  • Personal coaching
  • A hand-selected support group
  • Quick and easy lessons that change the way you think about food and meal planning

Noom doesn’t just promise to help you lose weight, either. By learning to make gradual changes to your diet, you’ll break old habits and create new ones. Once those new habits become permanent, you’ll find it much easier to maintain a healthy weight. It’s called sustainable weight loss.

Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll cover in your Noom Healthy Weight Program:

  • Week one – Meet your coach and the beloved “Noom Nerds.”
  • Week two – The foundations of weight loss.
  • Week three – Understanding Nutrition.
  • Week four – Incorporating new ideas into your diet.
  • Week five – Focusing on physical activity.
  • Week six – Healthy sleep habits.
  • Week seven – Coping with frustrations.
  • Week eight – Overcome your triggers.
  • Week nine – Dealing with thought distortions.
  • Week ten – Advanced dietary advice.
  • Week eleven- Dining out.
  • Week twelve – More physical activity.
  • Week thirteen – Stress management.
  • Week fourteen – Cognitive mindfulness.
  • Week fifteen – Motivation in the long term.
  • Week sixteen – Preparing for your future.

Check out the entire program for yourself with the Noom free trial offer for Dietspotlight readers.

What is Modern Fit?

At first glance, Modern Fit appears to be a diet and fitness blog. The Modern Fit website contains articles on multivitamins, foods for fertility, weight-loss exercises, and reviews of Modern Fit’s competitors.

Modern Fit also has an app that promises:

  • Personalized exercise routines.
  • Customized daily meal plans.
  • 6000 healthy recipes.
  • Unlimited access to a virtual personal trainer.
  • Streaming workouts.
  • Access to 500 virtual fitness programs.
  • Barcode-enabled diet tracking.
Noom vs. Modern Fit Customer Testimonials
History

Noom vs. Modern Fit – History

Brief History of Noom

Noom has been around since 2008, but the app wasn’t released until 2016. So, what took so long? Noom’s founders partnered with nutritionists, psychologists, and medical doctors to develop a new way to approach weight loss. The Noom app was then analyzed by researchers worldwide to ensure it was a safe and effective weight management program.

Noom participated in multiple funding rounds while the app was still in the research and development phase. Sequoia Capital, Samsung, and the founder of WhatsApp all jumped at the chance to invest in a promising startup.

Noom has come a long way since its humble beginnings in New York City. The company now has offices in the United States and Asia, and there are thousands of Noom employees spread across several continents.

Noom continues to add to its program offerings. 2019 saw the introduction of Noom’s Diabetes Prevention Program and the Prehypertension Program.

Brief History of Modern Fit

Modern Fit was founded on 12/27/2018, in Anaheim, California. Modern Fit’s first two years in business were rocky ones. The company racked up dozens of customer complaints and was given an “F” rating by the Better Business Bureau.

When users sign up for Modern Fit, they’re offered a seven-day trial with the stipulation that their credit card will be charged 1$ for verification purposes. What they aren’t told is how much their credit cards will be charged after the trial ends. Many Modern Fit customers were shocked to see charges ranging from $158 to $316 on their credit card statements.

Other Modern Fit clients claimed they never received their diet and workout plan, despite being charged $158 for the service.

Modern Fit claims the complaints stem from users who failed to read the company’s terms of service agreement. By authorizing the 1$ charge, users are consenting to pay the full program price. The Better Business Bureau disagrees with Modern Fit, but no refunds have been issued.

In 2019, Modern Fit claimed to have been featured in Business Insider, Women’s Health, Shape, and Wired. Modern Fit was never mentioned in any of these publications.

Modern Fit’s social media accounts have been inactive since late-February of 2020.

Noom vs. Modern Fit – Who’s Behind the Plans?

Who Created Noom?

Noom’s co-founders met by chance at the wedding of a mutual friend in New York City. Saeju Jeong had recently moved to the states from Seoul, South Korea, and Artem Petakov was working in the city after leaving Google to branch out on his own.

Saeju Jeong had always wanted to change lives through technology. His father, a South Korean physician, believed preventing health issues was just as important as treating them. He’d instilled his beliefs in his son, and Saeju wanted to develop an app that helped prevent obesity-related conditions.

Artem Petakov was once known as the nine-year-old chess prodigy who taught himself to code. His parents moved to America when he was thirteen, allowing him to attend Princeton University. While studying at Princeton, Petakov took a psychology course that ignited his interest in behavioral psychology.

Petakov and Jeong combined their interests to create a company responsible for helping 50 million users take the first step towards a healthier life.

Who Created Modern Fit?

Daryl Henderson is listed as one of Modern Fit’s co-founders. Unfortunately, there is no information about Mr. Henderson, or the other founder(s) of Modern Fit, available at this time.

The Modern Fit website credits two medical doctors and a psychologist with developing the Modern Fit app. Dr. Shelley Carlson is the director of medical data. According to Modern Fit, Dr. Carlson attended Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Stanford. Strangely enough, our researchers found no information about Dr. Shelley Carlson online. We also failed to locate information about Dr. Samuel Youngjin Kim, the director of psychology, and Dr. Jackie Montgomery, the director of medicine.

Rules

Noom vs. Modern Fit – The Rules

Rules of Noom

Diets with a ton of rules rarely work. You might start out strong, but your motivation eventually fades, and you realize that you’re sick and tired of eating kale four times a day. Usually, when people fall off the diet wagon, they fall off hard. That’s why it’s so difficult to start over.

Noom wanted to break the cycle of unhealthy dieting. So, they came up with a three-pronged approach to a healthy and sustainable diet.

Learn more about the three-proonged approach with the Noom free trial offer for Dietspotlight readers. 

Red, Yellow, and Green

No, we’re not talking about traffic lights. Noom has a database that contains 4 million foods, and every food is either a red food, yellow food, or green food. The colors represent calorie density. Red foods have a high-calorie density, so you’ll want to use portion control whenever you’re eating red foods. Green foods have a low-calorie density. Foods with a low-calorie density contain more water and will keep you full longer. Yellow foods are somewhere in the middle.

Here are some examples in each category.

Green Foods

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

Yellow Foods

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

Red Foods

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

Take the Stairs

Noom encourages physical activity, even if it only means walking a few extra steps a day. Noom will help you calculate how many calories you burn each day and adjust your daily calorie goal accordingly. So, if you work out more, you’ll be able to eat more.

Get Smart

Here’s where the “Noom Nerds” come into play. Noom provides users with a lot of information, and the Noom Nerds make sure you retain that knowledge. The average Noom subscriber spends ten minutes a day participating in Noom lessons, and they gain the ability to make better choices, handle stress, and finally reach their target weight.

Rules of Modern Fit

Modern Fit is a pretty straightforward program. You sign up, answer a few questions, and the Modern Fit app makes suggestions based on your responses. Your personal coach will chime in with helpful advice along the way, and you can choose your meals from thousands of nutritious recipes. You’ll also have access to streaming workouts and exercise tutorials.

After you sign up for Modern Fit, you’ll receive an email that contains your low-fat, low-calorie meal plan and a recommended list of exercises. How closely you want to follow the program is up to you.

Eating Plans

Noom vs. Modern Fit – Eating Plans

The Noom Eating Plan

The Noom eating plan is whatever you want it to be. You’ll start by logging the foods you eat, and Noom will tell you what category each menu item belongs in. Noom also tells you how many calories you have left in each category to make meal planning less stressful. Noom will even recommend recipes that fit into your remaining calorie budget.

Noom assigns every member a calorie goal. So, let’s say your calorie goal is 1,200. Forty percent of your diet should come from yellow foods. That’s 480 calories. Thirty-five percent of your diet should come from green foods. That’s 420 calories. Twenty-five percent of your diet should come from red foods. That’s 300 calories.

Don’t worry, Noom keeps track of all the numbers for you. Your only job is to log the foods you eat. Noom does the rest. Eventually, you’ll start to recognize healthy foods and rely less on the app.

Here’s what an average person might eat on the Noom eating plan:

  • Breakfast: Steel-cut oats with fresh apples and cinnamon
  • Snack: Cotton candy seedless green grapes
  • Lunch: Turkey, lettuce, tomato, and reduced-fat mayo on whole-grain bread
  • Snack: Greek hummus with cucumber slices
  • Dinner: Steamed chicken, Brussel’s sprouts and potatoes
  • Snack: Watermelon

Noom will teach you how to satisfy your cravings healthily. Cotton candy grapes will keep your sweet tooth in check, and hummus is perfect for when you’re craving something savory. You don’t have to be miserable when you’re on a diet.

The Modern Fit Eating Plan

Your Modern Fit eating plan will be low in fat and calories. You can expect to eat about 1,200 calories a day for the duration of your 16-week Modern Fit diet.

Here’s an example of one week on the Modern Fit diet:

Monday

  • Breakfast: Rolled oats with a pinch of cinnamon
  • Lunch: Hard-boiled egg
  • Snack: Sliced cucumbers with lemon juice
  • Dinner: Baked sweet potatoes

Tuesday

  • Breakfast: Bran flakes with cinnamon
  • Lunch: Turkey pitas
  • Snack: Celery with peanut butter
  • Dinner: Broiled flounder

Wednesday

  • Breakfast: Rolled oats with blueberries
  • Lunch: Vegetarian vegetable soup
  • Snack: One apple
  • Dinner: Grilled chicken breast with spinach

Thursday

  • Breakfast: Bran flakes with blueberries
  • Lunch: Garden salad
  • Snack: 25 green grapes
  • Dinner: Steamed shrimp

Friday

  • Breakfast: Carnation Instant Breakfast with reduced-fat milk
  • Lunch: One cup of tomato soup
  • Snack: Homemade coleslaw
  • Dinner: Pork tenderloin and acorn squash

Saturday

  • Breakfast: Cheerios with fresh fruit
  • Lunch: Tuna pita
  • Snack: One banana
  • Dinner: Brown rice jambalaya

Sunday

  • Breakfast: One grapefruit
  • Lunch: Spinach salad
  • Snack: Whole grain avocado toast
  • Dinner: Veggie stir-fry

Noom vs. My Diet Meal Plan – Plan Duration

How Long Does Noom Last?

Noom’s main program lasts for 16-weeks, but you can continue your subscription for as long as you want. How much weight can you lose in 16 weeks? Check out the Noom free trial offer to find out. 

How Long Does Modern Fit Last?

Modern Fit is a 16-week program. After four months, you can renew your subscription for another 16 weeks.

Significant Differences Between Noom and Modern Fit

It seems like Modern Fit modeled its program after Noom. Modern Fit’s initial questionnaire is identical to Noom’s. Modern Fit claims to use psychology to support sustainable weight loss, just like Noom. Modern Fit even says their app was featured in Shape, Business Insider, and Wired. It wasn’t, but Noom’s was.

With these programs having so much in common, are there any significant differences between Noom and Modern Fit?

The Meal Plan

Noom is a lot more flexible than Modern Fit when it comes to what you’ll be eating. Modern Fit will send you a specific meal plan via email, and Noom allows you to log what you eat so you can make gradual changes.

Motivation and Support

Both Noom and Modern Fit provide users with a coach, but all Modern Fit users have the same coach, Sandra Nguyen. Noom matches users with a coach that fits their lifestyle. Noom also matches users with a support group for added motivation.

The Reviews

Noom has hundreds of thousands of positive reviews. It’s also a CDC recognized program for weight loss and positive lifestyle changes. Modern Fit’s reviews are mostly negative. Many former customers called the company a scam and claimed they never received their diet or exercise plan, despite being charged.

The Psychology

The “Noom Nerds” will introduce you to behavioral psychology basics and help you incorporate what you learn into your daily life. Noom wants you to understand the psychology of decision making so you can overcome your triggers and break your bad habits. Modern Fit has a blog, but it doesn’t offer any information on the connection between psychology and weight loss.

Streaming Workouts

One thing Modern Fit offers that Noom doesn’t are streaming workouts and exercise tutorials. Noom promotes increased physical activity, and you can track the calories you burn with the Noom app, but Noom doesn’t offer access to individual workouts.

Can You Follow Modern Fit on Noom?

There is no need to subscribe to both Modern Fit and Noom. Both programs claim to offer the same things. You’ll have to decide for yourself which plan better fits your needs.

Possible Side Effects of Noom vs. Modern Fit

The good news is that you won’t have to worry about side effects when you subscribe to Noom or Modern Fit. Changing your diet is one of the safest ways to lose weight, as long as you’re setting a healthy calorie goal.

Research

Noom vs. Modern Fit– The Research

Clinical Research on Noom

Scientific Reports published a clinical trial that followed tens of thousands of Noom users over nine months. Almost 80% of the study participants reached their target weight with Noom. The study also revealed that users who logged dinner every night were more likely to succeed in the program.

We mentioned that Noom is all about sustainability. MSRS published clinical research that demonstrates how Noom puts an end to Yo-Yo dieting. Adults who lost weight with Noom kept the weight off for two years following the completion of their Noom program.

Clinical Research on Modern Fit

Modern Fit provides a detailed diet plan for users to follow, but that’s not exactly a modern take on dieting. Research published in the Internal Journal of Preventative Medicine found that calorie shifting is a more effective weight management strategy than calorie restriction. Calorie shifting, sometimes call calorie cycling, gives dieters more control over what they eat.

Clinical research reviewed in Healthcare (Basal) shows that people are less likely to follow a restrictive diet for more than a few days.

A study on smartphone applications and weight loss found that using an app increases accountability. Increasing accountability can help your chances of losing weight, as per the study published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine.

Quick Facts

The Facts About Noom vs. Modern Fit

Quick Facts on Noom

  • Noom offers 4-month and eight-month weight loss programs.
  • Noom provides specialized meal plans for users with certain health conditions.
  • All Noom programs undergo extensive testing in a clinical setting.
  • Noom’s unique educational curriculum helps users deal with the situations that sabotage their diets.
  • Noom is great for people who live a plant-based lifestyle.
  • You can give Noom a chance with a free two-week membership.

Quick Facts on Modern Fit

  • Modern Fit is a personal health coaching app.
  • Modern Fit offers streaming workouts and a fixed meal plan.
  • Modern Fit lasts for 16 weeks.
  • The Modern Fit diet plan is based on a low-fat, low-calorie diet.
  • Modern Fit also offers blogs on a variety of subjects.
  • Modern Fit is the subject of a Better Business Bureau investigation.
  • Some Modern Fit users are calling the company a scam.
Bottom Line

Bottom Line on Noom vs. Modern Fit

We’re not sold on Modern Fit. In fact, we have a sneaking suspicion that the company may be a scam. Modern Fit doesn’t back up its claims with clinical research, they mislead consumers into purchasing services that they didn’t want, and we found reviews calling Modern Fit “a bad Noom knockoff.”

In the battle between Noom and Modern Fit, we choose Noom: The transparent company with fantastic reviews and the clinical trials to support its claims.

If you are ready to try Noom, the company is offering all Dietspotlight readers a free trial offer for a limited time.

Noom vs. Modern Fit Ingredients
Questions

Noom vs. Modern Fit Questions and Answers

Q: What is the Noom diet?

A: Noom is a weight-loss program that focuses on educational lessons, personalized meal plans, extensive tracking tools, and human coaches.

Q: What is Noom like?

A: Noom uses tactics and tools based on clinical research and psychology to help its users learn more about their own eating behaviors and make better lifestyle choices.

Q: What are green foods?

A: Green foods are ones that are less calorie-dense. These foods will make up most of your diet and are usually filled with lots of nutrition.

Q: What are yellow foods?

A: Yellow foods are considered more calorie-dense, but they still have some nutrients. These kinds of foods will make up a moderate portion of your diet.

Q: What are red foods?

A: Red foods are the least healthy foods with few nutrients. These foods will be consumed less frequently

Q: Does Noom send you food?

A: Noom does not send you food, but they do offer customized meal plans.

Q: Who owns Noom?

A: Noom was founded by two individuals in 2008, Artem Petakov and Saeju Jeong. The Noom program itself was not released until a few years later.

Q: How much is the Noom app?

A: It doesn’t cost anything to download the Noom app. However, you will have to pay for a subscription to use the actual program.

Q: How much does Noom cost monthly?

A: Noom costs about $59 a month for full access to their weight-loss program.

Q: How long is the Noom program?

A: The Noom program lasts for about 16 weeks. However, you can always continue to use Noom after that.

Noom vs. Modern Fit

Q:
Is Modern Fit compatible with the Noom?
A:

Yes, Modern Fit is compatible with Noom as it allows users to integrate their Noom data into the Modern Fit app. It also provides a personalized experience by recommending tailored workouts and meal plans based on the user’s progress and goals.

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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