Weight loss is rarely easy. It invariably involves eating less of the foods you love, and more of the foods that you know you should but don’t particularly enjoy. For a lot of people, this means a diet. Unfortunately, in most cases, diets are short term fixes that fail to produce long term results.
Noom is an app you can use on your phone or tablet that is designed to make weight loss easier. More of a lifestyle than a diet, in this Noom review, we’re going to explore this popular weight loss product so you can determine if it’s right for you.
Noom Diet Plan Review
How does Noom Work?
Noom works like any other diet plan – it creates a calorie deficit. When you consume fewer calories than you need, your body has to burn fat for fuel. Do this for long enough, and your fat reserves will decrease, and you’ll lose weight.
Noom uses a unique algorithm to calculate how many calories you need to eat per day to lose weight. They call this your calorie budget. Your calorie budget is based on your gender, age, weight, height, activity levels, and how fast you want to reach your target weight.
Unlike a lot of diets, Noom is designed for long-term use. There are no crash diets here! To avoid malnutrition or trying to lose weight too quickly, Noom won’t allow a calorie budget of less than 1,200 calories for women and 1,400 calories for men.
This means you won’t be able to starve yourself thinner, and as starvation diets usually result in weight regain, this is a very welcome feature.
Once you have your calorie budget, users are meant to log their meals, snacks, and drinks to hit their Noom-determined target. Daily weigh-ins are also recommended. Keeping a food diary and regular weigh-ins have been shown to increase dietary adherence because they promote accountability.
Noom Diet Plan
One of the reasons that diets are often so hard to stick to is that they are very limiting. Certain foods and even entire food groups are often banned. This is a common trigger for cravings as it’s human nature to want what you cannot have.
Noom takes a different approach. Instead of providing you with a strict (and unpleasant) diet to follow, no food is off-limits, and instead, the emphasis is on what Noom call nutrient density. Nutrient density refers to the amount of beneficial nutrients in a food compared to the number of calories. For example, a candy bar has very low nutrient density – it provides a lot of calories but next to no vitamins or minerals. In contrast, vegetables have a high nutrient density – a whole lot of vitamins and minerals for very low calories. The Noom way means eating more high nutrient density foods and fewer low nutrient density foods.
To simplify this process, Noom has categorized foods as red, yellow, and green based on calorie content and nutrient density. The app recommended that users get 45% of their calories from green foods, 30% from yellow foods, and 25% from reds.
Examples of foods per color group include:
Green
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Starchy vegetables
- Full fat dairy and dairy alternatives
- Whole grains
- Unsweetened tea and coffee
Yellow
- Lean meats
- Seafood
- Low-fat dairy
- Legumes and seeds
- Grains and grain products
- Diet soda
Red
- Red meat
- Nuts and nut butters
- Desserts and sweets
- Snack foods
- Alcoholic beverages
- Fruit juice
Noom provides diet plans to follow, as well as Noom-approved recipes. Users can also just track whatever food they eat and modify their intake over the day to hit their calorie budget and food group targets. Because no food is off limit, if you want to treat yourself with some red foods, you simply adjust the rest of your day’s intake to balance your calorie intake. Alternatively, if you skip the treats, you’ll have more calories to spend on bigger, more nutrient-dense meals.
Does Noom work for Weight loss?
Providing you hit your daily calorie budget, you should lose weight with Noom. In fact, after answering some basic questions, Noom even estimates when you’ll reach your target weight.
The nutrition advice is tailored according to your responses to a barrage of yes/no questions. Where you live, your marital status, stress levels, goals, current health and stress levels, and how fast you want to lose weight provide Noom with all the information to tailor your eating plan to your needs.
Once you have answered all the questions and either paid for a subscription or signed up for a 14-day free trial, you will receive a report that clearly outlines what you should expect over the coming weeks and how you are going to achieve your goals.
All that’s left for you to do is follow the instructions from Noom and hit your calorie budget targets. Noom will adjust your plan according to your progress to help keep you on track.
Everything about Noom is proven to be effective for weight loss, from the emphasis on high nutrient density but low-calorie foods, to not banning treats to increasing accountability by tracking meals and your weight. Studies have shown that these tools help eliminate bad habits and teach the psychological skills required for weight loss and long-term weight management. In short, Noom will help you lose weight and then keep it off.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Noom
Used correctly, Noom should help you lose weight. All you need to do is follow the guidance of the app. Still, there are advantages and disadvantages you should consider before starting Noom.
Noom Advantages
- Free 14-day trial – try before you buy
- No food is off-limits
- Very flexible eating plans
- Virtual nutrition coaching and advice
- 24/7 access via smartphone or tablet
- Noom is a lifestyle, and not just a diet
- Increases accountability and develops healthy nutrition habits
- Easy to use
- Personalized nutrition and exercise advice based on your responses to the initial questionnaire
- Quick and easy to set up
Noom Disadvantages
- Ongoing cost – Noom is a subscription service
- Accessibility – you need to be able to download and access the app
- Virtual support – no face to face contact
- You still need to do the work – Noom only works if you do
How Much Does the Noom Diet Plan cost?
After submitting your information, Noom will suggest a plan based on your needs and goals. 
That could be one month if you only have a few pounds to lose, or four months if you want to drop 50 pounds or more. Prices vary according to the length of the plan you choose.
A monthly plan starts at $59.00, whereas a 6-month program comes in at $149. You can also extend your current plan if you don’t hit your weight loss target. An annual membership to Noom costs $199. You may also be able to find discount codes for Noom, and some third-party websites may also offer reduced rates.
Is Noom Worth it?
Noom has everything you need to help you lose weight and keep it off. It’s not an unsustainable crash diet. Instead, it’s a collection of tools and systems designed to equip you with all the skills you need to lose weight and then keep it off. A large percentage of Noom users reach their target weight and then maintain it, something very few crash diets can report.
Noom can seem expensive, but you can buy an annual membership for less than $1 per day. The 14-day free trial also means you can try before you buy, providing you with the opportunity to decide if Noom is right for you. Just remember to cancel your subscription before the end of the free trial. Otherwise, you will be billed automatically after 14 days.
Bottom Line
Noom isn’t a magical solution to weight loss. Instead, it’s an app based on tried and tested methods that not only reduce your food intake but also teach you how to eat healthily long into the future. Because it’s an app, you have access to it 24/7, which means you have no excuse for not making the most of this weight loss tool.
Packed with features designed to motivate and boost your willpower, as well as track your meals, weight and progress, Noom is a complete weight loss support system, complete with personalized, virtual dietary and lifestyle support in the form of SMS messages.
Noom isn’t the cheapest weight loss app around. Some are actually free. But you do get a lot for your money. The 14-day trial means you can sign up with confidence and see for yourself whether Noom is right for you.
In summary, Noom is designed to not just help you lose weight but keep it off too. It’s an immensely popular app that’s been around since 2008. In an industry dominated by flash-in-the-pan products that fail soon after launching, that longevity can mean only one thing: Noom really works.
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Patrick Dale is an ex-British Royal Marine and owner and lecturer for a fitness qualifications company. In addition to training prospective personal trainers, Patrick has also authored three fitness and exercise books, dozens of e-books, thousands of articles, and several fitness videos.
