Does Noom Really Work for Weight Loss?

Does Noom Really Work for Weight Loss? 

We’re sure you’ve seen through the bombardment of social media ads about this newly repopularized weight loss app called NOON. The reason why we say repopularized is that the app has been on the market since 2012. It is only recently it has been gaining momentum and popularity. Thanks to the massive marketing campaigns.

Anyways, the noom app or noom, claims to fill the gaps of so many other quick-fix diets offering long-term weight loss results. They also claim to provide the much-needed guidance and motivation to attain a true lifestyle change. In addition, they position themselves as an anti-diet and wellness program instead of a traditional weight loss diet. In this article, we’ll see to what extent the claims made by this weight loss app are true and whether noom really works for weight loss or not. You can expect this article to be an all-you-need-to-know guide as well.

What is Noom Diet?

Noom diet, a trending weight loss plan, is a personalized meal planning service. It is available on the noom app and can be easily accessed on smartphones and tablets. Interestingly, this app is not going to tell you what to eat. The focal purpose of this app is to change habits, behavior patterns, and lifestyles via psychology. Different articles are provided daily to read during your paid subscription that reflects all the themes mentioned above.

Sustainability for long-term weight loss is another tenet of this app. ‘Behavior change over restriction’ is a whole selling point of nooms. In theory, it is indeed a good plan as research suggests that restricting calories through dieting often does more harm than good in the long run. By focusing on behavior rather than the result of just weight loss can undeniably be beneficial.

What Does the Noom App Provide its Users?

Upon downloading the app and setting up the account, the first thing it asks you is how much weight do you want to lose? Next, you get to pick which animal represents the weight loss speed you want to move. Your choices are either the turtle, rabbit or, cheetah. As mentioned earlier, this weight loss app offers a personalized health plan from an online health coach and 24/7 support and motivation from the virtual coaching team.

Like similar apps, it inspires you to log your meals and your exercise daily. However, unlike other apps, each day when you open noom, you’re met with a new platform filled with new articles and quizzes designed to kind of test your knowledge. These quizzes are based on portion control, calorie budgeting, eating less calorically dense foods, ways to hack your sweet tooth, breaking up with bad habits, and noom’s color system, aka a traffic light system for food.

Answering some questions that reflect your life will make this app personalized for you. For instance, questions about your weight, gender, height, age, etc., will help noom create a diet plan specifically designed to cater to your needs. This app has a biometric tracking system that will monitor your blood sugar levels and blood pressure levels via a biometric tracking system.

What Foods Should You Eat or Avoid?

As previously alluded, Noom uses a traffic light system to categorize food, which is what it sounds like. Red foods are the most calorie-dense and should be eaten less frequently and in smaller portions. Yellow foods have more calories and less healthy nutrients per serving than green foods and should be incorporated into your diet in moderate portions. Lastly, green foods are the least calorie-dense and should make up the bulk of your diet.

Unsurprisingly, red food includes red meats and desserts and things like full-fat dairy products, nuts, seeds, and their o=butters and oils. Yellow food includes lean meats, legumes, and low-fat dairy products. Lastly, green foods include things like vegetables, most fruits, and whole grains. Essentially, this system depends on quite a lot on chloric density to classify foods into their respective categories.

It can nevertheless be problematic if taken out of context. The app does specify that no foods are off-limit, and the light system is just there to help with recognizing which foods are more or less calorically dense. So, to put it simply, you can eat everything by restricting your calories intake. Essentially, the app encourages you to eat foods that are lower in calories but higher in nutrition.

Is Noom Actually a Good Tool for Weight Loss?

We get questions like how effective it is, does it work, and it is worth the money all the time. So, stick through; you'll get your answers. We'll discuss the pros and cons in this section so you judge the app for yourself.

PROS:

Why you should go for it, you might ask. Pros include daily accountability, feeling better about general health, convenience and portability, and a personalized plan. The daily accountability feature helps you open your mind to how much your calorie intake is. This meal plan encourages you to eat more nutrients and water-dense foods, which I'm sure many of you miss out on. So, having those vitamins and minerals affect your overall health positively. Signing up for this program is a user-friendly process, and since it's an app on the phone, you're taking your coaches and dieticians in your pocket. It's an all-encompassing, all-inclusive app that is quite extensive and intense. Personal questions are answered on this app which makes it worth a try.

CONS:

The cons of this product are the psychological aspect. When you first start on the program, it is about practical tips for eating mindfully and getting through a craving. But then it gets into so much of self-help and self-work that it gets to your nerves sometimes—and esp. during these trying times when we're stuck at homes. Delving into your own emotions is generally draining. And when you're trying to change your life habits and read up too much about self-help, it's almost certain it will get hard to deal with. Another con could be how slow the process is. Like you'd feel better with some of the diet changes, but then the actual weight is extremely slow coming off. So, it does get discouraging at times.

Conclusion

Our overall take on noom is don't be mistaken, folks. It's still a diet. If you've tried different restrictive weight loss diet plans in the past and they didn't work, well, chances are noom won't work either. Changing lifestyle by mindfully choosing your food could do the job without spending $200. We suggest you reach out to a health professional like a registered dietician who can understand and work on your unique emotional triggers and strategies.