What Is the Noom Diet App? Everything You Need to Know About Its Advantages, Disadvantages, and Effectiveness

Success with the Noom diet app requires not only attention to but also careful monitoring of what you eat, along with your exercise and weight.

We all know that fad diets, with their absurd restrictions and celebrity endorsements, come and go just like any other trend. And the extent to which they may (or may not) be successful is always a little questionable. (Remember that smoothie-based detox plan that was all the rage for a hot minute?) But with a plethora of diet plans flying around these days, it can be hard, if not daunting, to decide which approach is right for you.

The makers of Noom, a recent app-based diet trend, want you to know they've got you covered. By offering personal health coaching and a chat-based community, Noom eliminates the creeping fear we all face when starting a new diet: going it alone. With a personal coach and nutrition plan, the app provides motivation and professional guidance for users to make easy lifestyle changes on their own.

But some questions remain. Will it help you lose weight? What are its downsides? Are the nutritionists available 24/7, like when you need an emergency voice of reason to steer you clear of that oatmeal cookie? In this detailed guide, we answer all these questions and more.

What Exactly Is the ‘Noom’ Diet Anyway, and How Does It Work?

Noom is an app-driven diet plan. The Noom app, found in the App Store and Google Play, offers two monthly memberships: a “Healthy Weight Program” for $44.99 per month or a “Diabetes Prevention Program” for $89.99. There’s no free version of the app, but Noom does offer a 14-day free trial to test out.

Here’s how it works: After downloading the app, you’ll be asked a series of questions about your current weight, your weight or fitness goals, and what your past experiences with dieting and weight loss have been like. On the basis of this information, you’ll receive a 16-week nutrition plan as well as a certified “health coach” to help you reach your personal goals.

Over 16 weeks, you’ll be asked to document your fitness activities and food intake — normal weight loss app stuff. But Noom then takes its process to the next level by encouraging users to read daily nutrition and health articles (and take quizzes after) to promote lifestyle changes. It also helps users distinguish healthy foods from not-so-healthy foods by color-coding your food entries — “bad” foods are labeled with red, and “good” foods are labeled with green. Last, Noom connects you with all 47 million users on the app, so you’re able to chat with and support each other.

Noom programs are broken down into stages, and while different programs have different stages, each generally follows the same structure: a core phase where users work with coaches to build up the baseline skills they need, followed by a maintenance phase that involves refining those skills and integrating them in your daily routine.

Angela Lemond, RD, a dietitian based in Plano, Texas, says Noom is one of the newest weight loss approaches she’s seen. She likened Noom to WW (Weight Watchers) because of its personal coaching component. (WW offers in-person personal coaching, while Noom offers it virtually.) That similarity may be why Noom claims to be the “Weight Watchers for Millennials.”

   

Is Noom a Safe Approach if You’re Trying to Lose Weight?

Andreas Michaelides, PhD, chief of psychology at Noom, says Noom focuses on changing behaviors and developing new habits, so users can follow any diet plan that works for them.

“The program is built on the concept of teaching people correct information by trusted sources. It’s like you’re going to school for six months,” he says. “You learn the basics, go practice, and coaches trained in behavior change psychology help translates how those skills relate to everyday life.”

Convenience, anonymity and 24-hour accessibility to care are just a few reasons why telemedicine for weight loss is so popular. Web-based programs also help alleviate the strain that in-person treatment for obesity puts on the healthcare system.

But telemedicine has its downsides, too. Comparing digital and offline health interventions in overweight adults, a study published in January 2019 in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found improvements in short-term, but not long-term, weight loss. (1) Because of the high number of participants dropping out of digital interventions, the study also noted engagement can be a major issue with telemedicine for weight loss.

Lemond says she can’t speak to the safety ofNoom, but she points out that the app's “goal specialists” aren’t all registered dietitians, meaning that they haven’t followed Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education (CADE) standards, which require an undergraduate degree in nutrition, completion of a yearlong internship, and a passing grade on a standardized exam.

Instead, Noom's goal specialists complete custom training through what the company calls "Noomiversity." The National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) certifies the training program, which involves four weeks of lessons based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), a type of psychotherapy that can help people become more aware of their thinking and habit patterns. "By learning to identify the behavior chains (trigger, thought, action, consequence) behind their unhealthy habits, users gain a better understanding of where they struggle and where they can make positive change," say Michaelides and Meghan Wood, senior director of coaching for Noom.

Regardless, Lemond emphasizes the importance of clearing any weight loss program, including Noom, with your primary care provider before diving in.

Does Noom Work for Weight Loss? What Does the Research Say?

There have been several studies published on whether Noom works for weight loss. For a study published in November 2017 in the journal Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, researchers studied 104 adults ages 20 to 60, and found that the more participants logged their meals and exercise, the more successful they were at losing weight and keeping it off. (2) After 15 weeks of using Noom, participants lost an average of 7.5 percent of their body fat, and at a 52-week follow-up, they maintained about 5.2 percent of body fat loss on average. Researchers also found that participants were able to improve their blood sugar control over the study period.

Likewise, in a study published in March 2017 in the Journal of Health Communications, researchers studied a random sample of 384 users who each completed an online survey of their experience using the Noom app for six months. (3) To analyze the behavior and weight changes of users, researchers also assessed Noom’s in-app user activity. The study found both food logging and group participation in the app promoted weight loss — users who were the most goal-oriented were more engaged in logging food, keeping their eating habits in check, and using the app’s resources. Social support through the Noom group networks was also a big motivator in food logging and encouraging weight loss, but researchers found that “only actual behavior changes led to weight loss success” — social support and diligent food logging were not necessarily enough to trigger a change in behavior.

Another 15-month pilot study published in May 2018 in the Journal of Medical Internet Research supports the idea that the more participants complete their Noom lessons, the more bodyweight they tend to shed. (4) Researchers followed 140 people with prediabetes and observed that the mean weight loss in starters who read one or more lessons per week on four or more core weeks — the phase of the program where users learn baseline skills — was 6.15 percent. Completing the program and reading nine or more lessons per week on core weeks resulted in 7.36 percent lost body weight. And those who completed the maintenance phase of the approach — the phase where users practice and refine skills developed during core weeks — and performed any action in the post-core weeks, lost 8.98 percent of their body weight.

Namely, researchers noted, the weight loss results aligned with the goal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), which calls for losing at least 5 percent of your body weight in one year to help prevent prediabetes from progressing to type 2 diabetes. In the study, researchers found that after 24 weeks, participants lost an average of 16.8 pounds (lbs), and at 65 weeks, they lost an average of 19.3 lbs.

The study was a follow-up to a study published in November 2016 in Scientific Reports that examined 35,921 Noom users and also found that those who were most diligent about tracking their weight, activity, and meals (especially dinner) were most likely to whittle their waistlines. (5) According to the Noom website, this study suggests that of the 45 million users who tried the app over a median of nine months, about 78 percent found they lost weight.

The takeaway is that Noom doesn’t appear to work if you aren’t motivated. Because Noom is based on making lifestyle changes, it requires you to put in daily work and continue those changes even after the 16 weeks — whether that means documenting your every morsel or reading up on (and studying) nutrition tips. Also, your health coach is only available during business hours, so you’ll have to face down those midnight munchies on your own.

What Are the Potential Downsides of Noom?

When it comes to logging, Noom categorizes each food item into green, yellow, and red categories according to calorie density — or calories per serving divided by grams per serving. You can read more about the calorie densities by color on Noom’s support page.

Is this the most effective way to measure how much you’re eating? Lemond argues that when it comes to health and weight loss, calories are only one piece of the puzzle. “Calories and quality (nutrient density plus wholesomeness) all play a part in determining if a food is an ‘always’ or a ‘sometimes’ choice,” she says.

Amy Gorin, RDN, a dietitian based in New York City, agrees that categorizing foods into “good” and “bad” choices may not be the best way to moderate food consumption. “I’m a believer that most foods in moderation can fit into a healthy diet plan,” Gorin says. “I wouldn’t want a client to feel bad about having, say, an occasional cappuccino made with whole-fat milk if it fits into an overall balanced diet for that individual.”

Carolyn Williams, PhD, RD, a dietitian based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, tested the Noom app for about a month in 2018, and was surprised at how well it compared with well-established diet plans like WW. Ease of use, personalized programs and the emphasis on the psychology behind forming healthy habits were some of the appeals for Dr. Williams, but she says the app’s weakness is in the food guidance program.

She says people who want to lose weight generally need a bit more direction than the green, yellow, and red categories provide, and the database for logging food was also limited.

“Technically it’s a diet program, but food was one of the least emphasized areas,” Williams says. “As a consumer, if I truly had significant weight to lose I’d want a little more guidance with what to eat.”

All Right, So What’s the Verdict on Noom? Should You Try It?

Overall, Noom’s personalized and community-based app gets major points for the educational value it brings to the table. It’s also great for people seeking a diabetes-friendly diet. So if you’re interested in learning about health as a way to achieve weight loss (aka reading articles, understanding nutritional values, and getting serious about making real changes), then this could be the perfect app to help you get started.