Noom Review

Reviewed by Shetho

As someone who has struggled with their weight for most of their adult life, I have tried many diets over the years with varied success, but the weight always goes back on. I had seen adverts for Noom, but didn’t know much about it before I started the trial. I have been on the programme for 5 weeks and can honestly say it has been a revelation for me. I have learned lots about my habits, good and bad and feel motivated to achieve my goal weight.

Noom is an online App based weight loss programme. It takes about 15-20 minutes to go through the initial set up questions which tailor the programme to suit you and then you are ready to start your learning. The Noom website says it ‘uses the latest proven behavioural science to empower people to take control of their health for good. Through a combination of psychology, technology, and human coaching, our platform has helped millions of our users meet their personal health and wellness goals.’

The Noom programme allows the user to evaluate their learned behaviours and encourages new healthier habits in a step by step way. There are daily tutorials which are broken into bite sized pieces (no pun intended). These are tailored to your preferred learning speed. They start by looking at what your goals are and help you to set realistic and achievable outcomes. The tutorials are enlightening and motivating, allowing you to explore why you over eat and guiding you to rethink established behavioural patterns and to make small changes.

The App helps you to track your progress by recording your meals each day. This function has an amazing library of foods with a variety of ways to measure calories per portion from grams to pounds and ounces and as the programme is American cups. Foods are divided into three categories, Green, Yellow and Red. You are allowed unlimited portions of green which includes most fruits and vegetables, oats and whole-grain bread, moderate portions of yellow which includes lean meat, chicken and pulses and smaller portions of red foods, red meat, bacon, sausage, burgers, pizza and cake. No food is off limits so you can still have your favourite treats occasionally. The App works out your daily calorie intake and allows you to plan meals. Because you are able to eat anything the plan is very flexible, you can eat the same food as the rest of the family and even eat out with a little planning so it fits easily into your own lifestyle. My tip is to weigh everything so you are able to accurately record what you eat.

In addition to food the App also monitors weight, steps walked, water intake and exercise. Quite unusually for a diet, the Noom programme encourages a daily weigh in. For me this is helpful as I like to see the numbers on the scales and it helps with motivation. Each day the tutorials build on knowledge and provide you with the tools needed to change your thinking around foods by encouraging mindfulness when eating, looking at food in healthier ways. Exercise is an ongoing topic which recognises individual levels of fitness with small goals to increase movement which fits into your lifestyle. The tutorials recognise that life can get in the way, but help you to see that small changes can make a big difference to eating and exercise habits.

After about a week of being on the programme I was assigned a coach. This is the person I can go to if I have any questions about the plan or if I am feeling I need of support. She encourages me to look at what I have learned and to focus on my progress so far. Psychology is a big part of the Noom programme and my coach use this to allow me to reflect on my perceptions and learned behaviours and question why I see food in certain ways. In addition to my personal coach I have been assigned to a group for further support. This is where other users share their progress with their eating and exercise and provide further motivation. I have not used this group very much. It appears that the other members are mainly based overseas and are on a different timeline so responses are out of sync. If there is a down side to the App it is that it can only be used on one device and isn’t available for iPad/tablet.

Overall I have found the Noom experience interesting, helpful and supportive. I feel motivated and have enjoyed the psychology and mindfulness techniques. Noom understands the ups and downs of everyday life and the most common pitfalls and provides the tools to overcome them. I have lost 9lbs in 5 weeks and my clothes are feeling much looser which I am delighted with.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £70 for 4 months

Website: https://www.noom.com/