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Losing weight has never been easy, but it’s simpler than ever thanks to advances in new technology. Diet apps can give people the tools they need to plan and stick to a healthy diet.
With that said, researchers have found that only a small percentage of apps provide accurate weight loss information [1]. It’s essential to use a diet app that’s research-based and proven to be effective.
With over 45 million users, Noom is one of the most popular weight loss apps in the world. It’s also incredibly effective. Noom was designed by behavioral psychologists and works to help users lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way.
It’s a high-quality diet program that will help you to lose weight and keep it off.
What is Noom?
Noom is a subscription-based diet app that is designed to help people make healthy lifestyle changes. While restrictive crash diets usually fail, Noom will help you lose weight the right way. With Noom, you can change the way you think about food.
The Noom app provides users with a wide range of tools and resources, including:
- Exercise, weight, blood sugar, and blood pressure logging
- Food tracker and database
- Personalized diet plan
- Searchable recipes
- One-on-one coaching
- Quizzes and articles
The goal of the app is to provide you with more information about the food you’re eating while tricking you into developing healthier habits.
Noom works because it doesn’t overload you with rules. Instead, it teaches you how to pick the right foods for your body.
What helps to differentiate Noom from other diet apps is that it considers the psychology behind food choices. Noom doesn’t tell you what to eat.
Instead, it helps you to understand why you reach for certain types of foods. It also gives you valuable information about the nutritional value of foods so that you can make better decisions about what you eat.
How Noom Works
The Noom diet app is personalized for each individual user. After purchasing a subscription, users will be asked a series of questions. The Noom app will use that information to design a healthy weight loss plan that addresses that user’s needs and weight loss goals.
Noom also pairs users with a health coach.
The health coach will be available to provide support and answer questions during business hours. Having a coach can be a great source of motivation, and it can also be an excellent source of accountability.
Noom also has a massive food database that’s designed to help you choose healthy foods. When you’re logging foods or deciding what to eat, you can either search for foods or scan barcodes for more information. The app will allow you to get instant feedback on foods so that you can make better decisions about what you want to eat.
While Noom always takes a personalized approach, it offers two separate programs so that users can get the type of support they need.
The Healthy Weight program is targeted at users that are interested in weight loss. The Diabetes Management Program is designed to help people with diabetes manage their diet.
Both programs use the same color-coded system, but foods are categorized differently based on the program chosen. The Healthy Weight program is designed to help you choose foods with a lower calorie density.
The Diabetes Management program looks at the carbohydrate density of foods. Although the Healthy Weight program is the more popular of the two, both programs are easy to follow and highly effective.
Noom Food List: Green, Yellow, Red Foods (+ PDF)
Noom’s database contains more than 700,000 foods, and new foods are added to the database all the time.
All of the foods on the list are divided into three categories: green, yellow, and red. Green foods are low in calories but have plenty of nutritional value. These are the foods that should make up the bulk of your diet.
Green Foods
Examples of green foods include:
- Green beans
- Spinach
- Apples
- Bananas
- Oatmeal
- Brown rice
- Tofu
- Polenta
- Pears
- Onion
- Pineapple
- Sweet potatoes
- Non-fat yogurt
- Almond milk
- Whole-grain cereal
Yellow foods have a higher calorie density than green foods. These foods contain some healthy nutrients, but don’t offer the same benefits that green foods do. These foods can and should be a part of your diet, but should be eaten in more moderate portions.
Yellow Foods
Examples of yellow foods include:
- Tuna
- Grilled chicken
- Salmon
- Eggs
- White rice
- Black beans
- Deli meat
- Hummus
- Turkey breast
- Greek yogurt
- Avocado
- Guacamole
- Tempeh
- Diet soda
- Couscous
Red Foods
Noom doesn’t require you to give up the foods you love. However, you should be cautious around red foods. These foods tend to be high in calories and have little nutritional value. Ideally, these foods should be once-in-a-while treats.
Examples of red foods include:
- Fried meats
- Pizza
- French fries
- Ranch dressing
- Hot dogs
- Hamburgers
- Peanut butter
- Whole milk
- Potato chips
- Wine
- Sugar
- Juice
- Pancakes
- Bacon
- Cookies
Noom Pros & Cons
Pros
Backed by Science
One of the biggest pros of Noom is that it’s evidence-based. The tips and guidance that you’ll receive in the app have been tested and are proven to work.
Learn Healthy Habits for Life
Noom regularly provides users with articles and cited studies so that they can learn more about healthy weight loss.
Noom also makes it easy for users to make smart food choices. The app doesn’t encourage restrictive eating and allows users to pick the foods they want to eat.
Food List is Easy to Understand and Follow
However, the color-coded food list makes it easy to evaluate different foods and decide what you want to eat throughout the day. If you know you want to have a red food, like pizza later, you can make a point of eating green foods throughout the day.
Syncs with Popular Fitness Trackers
If you use a fitness tracker, you’ll be glad to know that Noom syncs with popular trackers like Fitbit and iHealth.
Noom doesn’t have to be the only weight loss tool you use. You can use it alongside other tools for better results.
Cons
What are the downsides to Noom?
Although Noom offers plenty of features, it’s likely you won’t find all these features to be useful. If you’re not much of a reader, you may not be interested in Noom’s behavioral modification articles. If you’re an introvert, you might not want to take advantage of Noom’s group chat feature.
Thankfully, since Noom offers a variety of features, you should still be able to get your money’s worth.
It’s also less than ideal for people that want more guidance and support. Noom puts you in the driver’s seat and lets you choose what you want to eat.
Noom will provide you with more information about food, and it offers a variety of recipes, but it won’t be preparing your meals for you. If you’re hoping to have meals sent to your house, you’ll want to explore other diet plans.
Noom is a subscription-based service, which means you won’t be using this app permanently. When you sign up for Noom, your program will be designed to last for a pre-determined number of weeks.
If you decide you want to continue with Noom, you’ll be billed again when your program ends. If you decide you want to stop using Noom, you can contact your coach to cancel.
This has both positives and negatives. It’s great that you have full control over how long you use Noom. However, when you end your subscription, you’ll lose access to Noom’s food database, tracking tools, and the other resources that Noom provides.
What Are Real Customers Saying?
Noom has an “Excellent” rating on Trustpilot and has received rave reviews from real customers. “I’ve lost over 14 pounds,” says one user. “Noom is just what I needed,” says another.
Users appreciate that the app isn’t focused on restrictive eating and helps people to modify the behaviors that caused them to gain weight.
Many users are impressed by how much Noom teaches them about nutrition and healthy eating. “The information and daily articles are great,” reads one review. Another reviewer says that she is “learning lifelong lessons.”
Although some reviewers say that there is too much reading, everyone seems to agree that Noom is a fantastic teaching tool.
Users also really seem to appreciate the coaching aspect of Noom. Real users have said that having an individual and group coach makes it easier for them to stay on track. “The coaches are super helpful,” raves one reviewer. Users also appreciate how easy it is to customize your Noom experience.
Noom Complaints: Bad Reviews?
Noom has plenty of positive feedback, but not all comments are positive. Some users are dissatisfied with the coaches that are assigned to them.
A number of reviews mention that the coaches sound “robotic” and aren’t a great source of support.
Another common criticism is that Noom is targeted towards users in the United States. Reviews say that many European food products aren’t in the database.
Thankfully, since Noom adds new foods to the database regularly, it’s possible that this complaint will be addressed in the future.
Even though users appreciate the articles and information that Noom provides, some people say that there’s too much of a good thing. Several reviews say that there’s an “information overload” and that they simply don’t have time to read all of the articles that Noom says them.
Noom does allow you to save articles to read later, but even so, some users say that it can be difficult to keep up with the app. More than one review describes the app as “overwhelming.”
Some users say that they were able to cancel Noom by contacting their coach, but other users describe canceling as a “nightmare.”
If you decide to take advantage of Noom’s free trial, or if you know you want to cancel when your plan is finished, it’s best to start the cancellation process sooner rather than later.
Review Summary
Noom is an easy-to-use app that provides users with tons of valuable resources. The coaching system gives users the motivation and accountability they need to push through plateaus.
Best of all, the app is a genuinely effective weight loss tool. According to Scientific Reports, 78% of Noom’s users were able to lose weight and keep it off for nine months or more. (shorturl.at/ilIOS)
While many people want to lose weight, it can be difficult to break bad habits and change behaviors. Noom was created with that in mind. The behavioral psychologists behind the app understand why diets frequently fail.
This is an app built for real, sustainable weight loss. With Noom, you won’t just lose weight. You’ll be able to keep weight off and improve your health.
Noom isn’t perfect, and it’s not the right app for everyone. Some people won’t be able to afford Noom’s subscription fees.
Other people might prefer programs that provide ready-made meals. Still, it’s hard to deny that Noom delivers results. This research-based weight loss app deserves a closer look.