Noom vs. Rise - Which App Is Most Effective For You?

Noom vs. Rise – Noom and Rise are both technology-based weight-loss plans. Neither program requires users to follow a strict diet, and both apps connect members with a personal coach to help them meet their goals. Noom and Rise may sound similar, but there are significant differences between the two.

Let’s see how these two popular weight-loss plans stack up against one another.

What is Noom?

Noom is a powerful weight-loss app that combines nutrition, exercise, psychology, and personal coaching to help users achieve sustainable weight loss. The program focuses on lifestyle changes that become permanent habits over time.

Noom doesn’t force users to follow any ridiculous rules. You won’t have to fast on the program, but you’ll eat a healthy number of calories each day.

You don’t have to eliminate any specific foods on the app, either. It’s okay to eat carbohydrates, gluten, and dairy if you enjoy those foods.

Noom also groups every food into one of three easy-to-understand food categories. This helps users identify their problem areas.

Using the principles of behavioral psychology, the program guides users to make better choices over time. By creating a positive association with nutritious foods and regular exercise, Noom promotes healthy behaviors that lead to a healthier and happier lifestyle.

The app has three tools: a fitness tracker, a meal logging tool, and educational materials. Noom users also have access to live support from their health and wellness coach.

It takes just minutes to download the Noom app for the free trial offer available today to Dietspotlight readers.

What is Rise?

Rise is a diet app that uses your camera to help you lose weight. Although the app doesn’t require you to take a bunch of embarrassing before and after photos, you will use the camera on your smartphone to take pictures of your snacks and meals.

After you upload your photos to the Rise app, your personal coach will rate your meals. This helps identify bad habits, and your coach can make suggestions to ensure your next meal is healthier. Over time, they claim this teaches users to make smart substitutes for the foods that prevent them from reaching their fitness goals.

You can also upload data from your favorite fitness tracker to the Rise app. Your coach will use this data to recommend exercises and workouts that best suit your lifestyle and current fitness level.

Rise is currently offering a 12-week Bootcamp. This program promises guaranteed weight loss, accountability, personal support, and an easy-to-use photo tracking tool.

Noom vs. Rise – History

Brief History of Noom

The foundation for Noom was laid in 2008 when Seaju Jeong and Artem Petakov founded WorkSmart Labs.

The concept for WorkSmart Labs was simple: an app that did all of the heavy lifting when it came to weight loss. Jeong and Petakov wanted to create an app that simplified the complicated calorie logging process, encouraged physical fitness, and provided the user with the educational resources they needed to succeed long after they stopped following the program.

Seaju and Artem didn’t want to launch a useless app that only existed to create ad revenue. There were enough of those apps on Google Play and Apple iTunes. Instead, the two entrepreneurs consulted with nutritionists, physical trainers, physicians, researchers, and psychologists to create a groundbreaking approach to weight loss.

WorkSmart Labs officially changed its name to Noom, a play on the word “moon,” during the research and development phase. After the app went through several successful funding rounds, it was launched in 2016.

Noom is now one of the web’s most searched weight loss apps. The company is headquartered in NYC. The app has offices in Seoul and Tokyo and is always expanding.

In early 2019, Noom partnered with Novo Nordisk, a leader in global healthcare, to fight obesity on an international level.

Brief History of Rise

Rise Labs was founded in 2014 after a successful $2.3 million fundraising round. Floodgate, Google Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, and Greylock all invested in the tech startup.

Rise Labs then partnered with Dr. Russ Phillips from Harvard Medical School, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and P90X founder Tony Horton to design a mobile weight loss app. They wanted to create an app that would act as a personal nutritionist that users could carry around in their pockets.

The app has since been featured by Glamour Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Today Show, Wired Magazine, Shape Magazine, and Oprah.

Noom vs. Rise – Who’s Behind the Plans?

Who Created Noom?

Noom was founded by a computer scientist and an electrical engineer. Seaju Jeong and Artem Petakov are both immigrants to the United States who share a passion for changing the world with technology.

Jeong is a graduate of Hongik University, and Petakov is a Princeton University alumni.

Who Created Rise?

Suneel Gupta and Stuart Parmenter founded Rise in 2014. Gupta was overweight for most of his adolescent life. He was bullied relentlessly as a teenager, and he knew he had to make a change before obesity affected his physical and mental health.

Suneel Gupta’s parents hired a nutritionist to help their son lose weight. The nutritionist was the perfect match for Suneel. They had a lot in common, and the nutritionist’s South Asian background meant that he was familiar with the Gupta’s diet. He was able to steer Suneel in the right direction without interfering with his cultural connection to food.

Unfortunately, not everyone can afford a personal nutritionist, leading experts to charge upwards of $300 an hour. So, Suneel Gupta partnered with Stuart Parmenter to create an app that would make nutritionists accessible to everyone.

Noom vs. Rise – The Rules

Rules of Noom

Noom combines food logging, fitness tracking, and education to provide a well-rounded approach to weight loss.

Food Logging

Before apps like Noom came along, people had to write down every food they ate in a journal. They also had to figure out how many calories were in the foods they ate.

Noom makes food logging as simple as possible with a database that contains millions of foods. Click on the foods you ate or scan the package’s barcode with your phone. Noom will tally your calories, and your coach can provide valuable insight into your diet.

Fitness Tracking

Our calorie needs change daily. You’re going to need more calories on the day you jogged for five miles than you did on the day you spent watching Netflix from your couch. Noom considers this and adds half of the calories you burn to your daily calorie goal. You can eat more on days when you’re physically active.

Noom members can use this feature proactively. If you’re going out to eat with friends, you can hit the gym in the afternoon to enjoy a dessert with dinner.

Education

There’s a lot that we don’t know about our bodies and nutrition, which affects the way we lose weight. That’s why Noom provides an educational curriculum that teaches users why they should choose certain foods instead of telling them what to eat. The lessons only take ten minutes a day, and they can help you maintain a healthy weight for years to come.

With these lessons, you will learn about tons of topics, including how sleep affects weight, cortisol and belly fat, and the connection between cognition and food.

Take the Noom app for a test drive with the free trial offer available to you right now to see how these three elements work for lasting weight loss.

Rules of Rise

When you first sign up for Rise, you’ll fill out a questionnaire. The questions cover everything from your weight loss goals to your favorite hobbies.

You’ll then pick your coach from five registered nutritionists that Rise has selected for you. Rise recommends choosing the coach that you have the most in common with.

For instance, if you’re a busy mom trying to balance your family and career, choose a coach who has children. Your coach will understand that you don’t always have time to prepare gourmet meals.

Your Journal

Rise doesn’t count calories or offer nutrition facts for the foods you eat. Instead, you take a picture of the foods you eat and upload the photos to your journal.

Your Rise coach will see your pictures and leave feedback and might say something along the lines of “great work incorporating leafy greens into your lunch” or “chocolate cake isn’t a great choice for your dinner entree.” You can expect to receive feedback from your coach once every 24 hours.

Your Messages

You can always consult with your coach via the Rise Messenger. It works in the same way as Facebook Messenger or Twitter Direct Messages.

You can ask questions or check in with your coach at any time. The coach will offer substitution suggestions or even help you navigate a menu when you’re dining at a restaurant.

Wearables

Rise integrates with Fitbit and the Apple HealthKit. You can upload your data to your journal to give your coach more insight into your health and lifestyle.

Noom vs. Rise – Eating Plans

The Noom Eating Plan

The Noom eating plan is pretty straightforward – simply choose foods from the green list whenever you can, incorporate healthy portions of foods from the yellow list into your meals, and treat yourself with foods from the red list.

Here are some examples to give you a better idea of which foods belong in each group.

Green Foods

Green foods are great as meal ingredients or by themselves for a healthy snack. These include:

• Fruits: pears, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, tomato, blackberries, oranges, bananas, strawberries, apples, cherries, watermelon, and pineapple.
• Vegetables: Leafy greens, peas, carrots, onions, cucumbers, green beans, Brussel’s sprouts, zucchini, and corn.
• Grains and Starches: brown rice, whole grains, polenta, potatoes, and yams.
• Dairy/Non-Dairy: almond milk, non-fat dairy, and skim milk.

Yellow Foods

Yellow foods are going to be the bulk of your diet while you’re following the Noom eating plan. Practice portion control to avoid overeating yellow foods. Some of these include:

• Fruits: avocados, olives, and guacamole.
• Lean Meats: lean beef, lean lamb, lean pork, turkey, deli meats, salmon, tuna, chicken breast, and eggs.
• Alternative Protein: baked beans, black beans, pinto beans, seitan, tempeh, and tofu.
• Grains and Starches: Pita bread, English muffins, quinoa, and couscous.
• Dairy: low-fat Greek yogurt and low-fat dairy.

Red Foods

Red foods don’t offer much in nutritional value, but they do contain excessive amounts of calories, added sugars, and fat. Here are some of the key items on the red food list:

• Red meat
• Bacon
• Ham
• Fried chicken
• French fries
• Pizza
• Hot dogs
• Hamburgers
• Chocolate
• Red and White Wine
• Honey
• Candy
• Cakes
• Fudge
• Ice cream
• Potato chips
• Nachos
• Ranch dressing

The Rise Eating Plan

When you first start using Rise, you won’t change the way you eat. Once your coach gets a feeling for your dietary habits, they’ll start making suggestions to nudge you towards a healthier eating plan.

Here are some examples of the suggestions your Rise coach may make:

• Craving salt? Skip the potato chips and have tuna on whole-grain crackers.
• Spread smashed avocado on your toast instead of jam.
• Enjoy whole-grain English muffins in place of your morning bagel.
• Satisfy your sweet tooth with berries and melon instead of candy.
• Dark chocolate is healthier than milk chocolate.
• Drink a Bloody Mary at brunch in place of a mimosa.
• Put your burrito ingredients in a bowl instead of a tortilla.
• Hummus is a delicious substitute for mayo.
• Order a side salad instead of french fries.
• Goat cheese is healthier than low-fat cheese.
• Grass-fed beef has fewer calories than traditional beef.
• Make your noodles from spaghetti squash.
• Order sashimi instead of sushi to cut down on calories.
• Riced cauliflower is an excellent substitute for white rice.
• Greek yogurt replaces sour cream.

Noom vs. Rise – Plan Duration

How Long Does Noom Last?

You can choose from two Noom programs:

1. The four-month Healthy Weight Program
2. The eight-month Diabetes Prevention Program

Research shows that Noom is also effective for weight maintenance. Noom users can continue to use the Noom app for support and guidance for as long as they need it. Remember, this program is about making changes that will last a lifetime.

How Long Does Rise Last?

Rise offers a 12-week Bootcamp program to jump start the weight-loss process, but you can continue using Rise as long as you want. Most successful users subscribe to the app for at least six months.

Significant Differences Between Noom and Rise

The most significant difference between Noom and Rise is the way the apps log what you eat. Noom has a database of over 3 million foods where users can scan the barcode of a food package or log their meals manually. Rise users take a picture of the meals they eat.

Obviously, Noom’s approach is more accurate. It’s difficult to know the portion size, seasonings, and cooking methods from looking at pictures, but some users may prefer Rise’s approach when they’re in a rush.

The Noom app has a built-in fitness tracker while the Rise app does not. Noom even adds half of your daily physical activity to your calorie goal, allowing you to eat more on the days you exercise.

The Rise protocol is more open-ended. Rise users don’t have a calorie goal, and they aren’t able to calculate their caloric intake with the app. Without quantitative nutrient and calorie tracking, Rise users may not feel as informed as Noom users.

Rise does not provide the educational curriculum that Noom users enjoy either. Noom’s developers believe that knowledge is a major contributing factor to how successful any weight management program will be.

Can You Follow Rise on Noom?

Noom and Rise both promote behavior changes for sustainable weight loss, but they do so in different ways. A Rise user may want to use Noom for food logging, fitness tracking, and educational resources, but we don’t see why a Noom user would need to subscribe to Rise.

Possible Side Effects of Noom vs. Rise

When you healthily approach weight loss, you don’t have to worry about suffering any adverse reactions. Both Noom and Rise are free from side effects.

With no side effects to be concerned about with Noom, you can concentrate on losing weight and adopting healthier lifestyle changes. Check out the free trial offer today!

Noom vs. Rise – The Research

Clinical Research on Noom

Noom was developed by scientists, researchers, and medical professionals. They spent countless hours investigating the app’s effectiveness, and that research is well documented in several peer-reviewed clinical studies.

The most extensive clinical study concerning Noom tracked tens of thousands of participants over nine months while following the Noom diet. The study, formally published in Scientific Reports, found that more than two-thirds of participants lost weight by the nine-month mark.

Many participants claimed that the weight loss felt almost effortless and planned to continue following the Noom diet after the completion of the study.

It’s clear that Noom helps users lose weight, but can they keep the weight off? Research published in a journal called Metabolic Syndromes and Related Disorders suggests that it can. The study followed participants who had lost weight with Noom for two years. These formerly obese patients maintained their weight loss for the duration of the study.

Clinical Research on Rise

The science surrounding Rise’s approach to weight loss is conflicting. There are some positive aspects to the program as well as some negative ones.

Research reviewed in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition demonstrates that a calorie deficit is needed for weight loss. Rise doesn’t count calories or track exercise, so they’re leaving their members in the dark when it comes to creating a calorie deficit.

Rise promotes gradual weight loss without imposing strict dietary requirements. According to research published in Healthcare (Basel), the most effective diets are the diets that participants can adhere to indefinitely. Anyone can lose weight by eating nothing but lettuce and water, but such a restrictive diet isn’t sustainable in the long term. Rise users appear to have no problem following the Rise eating plan indefinitely.

The Facts About Noom vs. Rise

Quick Facts on Noom

• Noom offers two structured plans: The Healthy Weight Program and the Diabetes Prevention program.
• A Noom subscription gives you access to a personal coach, food logging tool, fitness tracker, and educational materials.
• Noom users can request a customized diet plan.
• Noom is backed by multiple clinical trials.
• Noom offers a free trial to new users.

Quick Facts on Rise

• Rise matches all users with a personal nutritionist
• Users upload photos of the foods they eat.
• Rise nutritionists give feedback on the photos they view.
• Rise does not log calories or physical activity.
• Rise is compatible with several wearables.

Bottom line on Noom vs. Rise

There are dozens of different diets that are effective for weight loss, but they all work in the same way: by creating a calorie deficit. With Rise, it’s impossible to know whether you’re creating a calorie deficit, so we’re declaring Noom the obvious winner.

Rise can help you adopt healthier eating habits, but so can Noom, and Noom is designed for safe and permanent weight loss.

Noom makes weight loss feel easy because it slowly changes the way your brain sees food. Plus, the Noom has tons more features most other apps don’t have. For that reason, we recommend Noom over Rise.

Because research so strongly supports Noom, we’ve partnered with the company to offer our readers a free trial offer. It’s only available for a limited time though, so take advantage while you still can!

Noom vs. Rise Questions and Answers

What is Noom?

Noom is an app-based weight-loss program based out of New York. The plan uses calorie density and psychology to change dietary and lifestyle habits to promote weight loss.

How does Noom work?

The Noom process comes with two main parts: food logging and lessons. Food logging uses calorie density to show users what foods they should eat more of, and vice versa. Lessons, based on the psychology of weight loss, are used to change how you think about food and exercise, teach the best lifestyle changes for lasting weight loss, and more.

Why does Noom use psychology for weight loss?

It has been clinically proven that weight loss is both a physical and mental process. Nearly all programs available today focus on the physical side of things, but Noom is different. They’ve taken the psychological aspect of retraining the brain and used it to teach people how to live in the real world with real-life experiences and stresses and still lose weight.

What do you eat on Noom?

On Noom, you’re allowed to eat any food you like. Foods are categorized based on calorie density – low-calorie density foods are green, moderate are yellow, and high are red. Calorie density refers to the number of calories based on serving size. So, broccoli is less calorie-dense than rice because one cup of broccoli is about 30 calories, while one cup of rice can be more than 200 calories.

Do you count calories on Noom?

Yes, calories are taken into consideration on the program. Noom will designate a calorie goal and deduct from that goal as you log foods.

Has anyone lost weight on Noom?

Based on a large-scale clinical study, nearly 80% of people who use the Noom app lose weight.

What does Noom cost?

The cost of Noom is structured as a recurring payment plan. You’ll pay $59 a month – on a month-to-month basis. You can also choose from several longer, recurring plans to save on the monthly cost.

2-month recurring: $99
3-month recurring: $129
4-month recurring: $139
5-month recurring: $149
6-month recurring: $159
7-month recurring: $169
8-month recurring: $179
12-month recurring: $199

How can I cancel my Noom trial?

If you’ve decided to cancel your Noom trial, send a message to your coach. Your coach will handle the cancellation and confirm your choice via message. You will also receive an email confirmation.