Noom is a subscription weight-loss app that tracks food intake and exercise habits.
Unlike other weight management and weight loss apps out there, what sets Noom apart is the fact that the app puts focus on mental wellbeing and changing behavior over time.
Noom uses personalization to help you lose weight, get fit, and reach your physical and mental health goals whilst using science and psychology to improve your relationship with food, teach you how to eat mindfully, and understand your habits.
With more than 45 million users worldwide, Noom is an incredibly popular weight loss and health tracking app, and I’m keen to take a closer look at it to see if it really is as powerful and useful as it is made out to be.
If you’re thinking of purchasing a subscription to Noom or you’re also wanting to know more about the app, check out my full Noom review below.
Photo by Lifehacker Guy
What is Noom?
Noom definitely looks like an impressive and interesting app. The Noom website itself (not the app), is packed with information about the app, the visuals are great, and the branding is superb!
The app itself is easy to use, the one-on-one coaching looks interesting, the support groups seem beneficial, and the fact that you can choose from different “SOS” plans seems great.
I’m definitely impressed by Noom on first impressions, so I’m looking forward to taking a closer look at it.
Background on Noom
Noom was founded in 2008 by former Google software engineer, Artem Petakov, and businessman Saeju Jeong. The app launched in 2016.
The pair wanted to combine technology with psychology to help people reach better levels of health and wellbeing.
Noom is based in New York and last year (in 2020), research shows that the company made $400 million in revenue. The company hires more than 3,000 people, of which 90% are health coaches.
Noom Benefits
Noom suggests that, unlike other weight loss apps, tracking calorie intake and exercise habits on the app helps you lose weight and get fit indefinitely, hence its motto, “Stop dieting. Get life long results”.
The brand suggests that this is due to the fact that it teaches healthy behavior and focuses on psychology to improve the user’s attitude to health and eating.
What Does Noom Offer?
When you sign up to the Noom, after completing a personalization quiz, the app offers several personalized features.
The app includes features such as daily lessons, one-on-one coaching, SOS plans, calorie tracking lists, exercise habit trackers, and support groups with other app users.
Additionally, alongside the Noom weight loss service, Noom also provides a diabetes prevention program and a stress-relieving service.
How Does Noom Work?
The concept of Noom is quite simple – it provides you with trackers for both the food you eat and the exercise you do, as well as one-on-one coaching and peer support groups.
However, in order to specifically provide benefits to the consumer, the app personalizes all of these features.
When you join the app you have to take a thorough quiz that asks you a variety of questions, including information about your current biometrics, your family history, your relationship with exercise and food, and your weight loss or fitness goals.
After you complete this quiz, Noom tells you how long it will be until you get to your goal weight and then creates a plan for you – this can be anywhere between 1 month to 1 year depending on your personal situation.
Does Noom Work?
Whether or not Noom works really depends on whether you think it would work for you and if you would actually stick to the suggestions of the app.
Noom can tell you to reduce your calorie intake, remind you to exercise, and provide you with valuable information through lessons about diet and movement, but if you’re not going to take action and implement these things into your life, you will not see change.
However, research has shown that 77% of the people who use Noom see weight loss over a 2 year period of using the app.
How much you change whilst you use Noom will make the difference of the app working to provide results and it not.
Noom Reviews
There are reviews of Noom on Consumer Affairs.com that we can take a look at.
The app has 522 reviews and scores an overall rating of 3.2 stars out of 5 stars.
So, let’s take a look at some of these reviews!
I started Noom through a trial offer through my doctor and have learned so much that I decided to purchase a year to keep learning, growing, changing and finally understanding how to think about food and myself. Life changing, mind changing and lifestyle change that has made me proud of myself. I thought I knew it and tried it all. Try Noom, it will change your relationship with how you think about what and how you eat and think of yourself. Almost 30 lbs gone and more to go but now I feel like it is possible.5-star review
Noom is a fun program that uses Psychology to teach better eating habits. If you’re easily influenced by the power of suggestion the program will work for you. I enjoyed the daily readings. The advice is good and well written. I lost several pounds. The program wasn’t really enough for me to stay with and lose the thirty pounds I needed to lose. I was very successful with a keto diet though. Your own determination will decide what works for you.3-star review
Noom is dangerous. And I cannot recommend this for anyone who is struggling with low self esteem or has in the past showed tendencies for disordered eating (orthorexia, anorexia, bulimia). They categorize foods into good and bad using the red, yellow, green rating. This is a big no for anyone prone to eating disorders and it is the gateway for people that do not have an eating disorder to adapt one. Foods should never be categorized this way. This program favors diet products. Like non-fat yoghurt. Or other fat reduced foods. You get immediately rated red if you choose the natural state of the product with all fat included. Which is also very dangerous as diet products are often overly processed and do not maintain all the nutrients needed.
1-star review
Money-Back Guarantee / Returns Policy
Noom does not offer a money-back guarantee, but you can do a 14 day free trial of the app to see if it suits you before committing to the paid version.
How To Access Noom
You can simply access Noom at Noom.com and download the app from either the App Store or from Google Play.
Is It Worth The Price?
Noom’s pricing is a little bit complicated! When you sign up, after the personalization quiz, the app suggests a plan for you to follow.
Since this plan is different for everyone (from one month to one year), the pricing differs from person to person.
However, a monthly plan costs $59 (or more), and the annual plan costs $199 (or more).
The reason that I’ve added “or more” is because there are in-app purchases, and auto-recurring fees are charged.
For example, a 2-month auto-recurring plan costs $150, and a 6-month auto-recurring plan is $360.
This app is pretty pricey if you are using it for a while, especially because there are extra hidden fees within the app.
However, if you really want to use it, you have the budget for it, and you think it will truly benefit you, it may be worth the price.
The Bottom Line
Overall, Noom is an intriguing app that may or may not benefit you.
The app certainly has a lot of positives and it’s great that it focuses on mental health and wellbeing, whilst supporting weight loss from a psychology-based point of view.
However, Noom is expensive and unless you actually change your lifestyle the way that app tells you to, it won’t make a difference to you.
After all, if you don’t follow the advice and teachings of the app, you won’t change your weight or fitness level.
If you’re seriously intent on using the app though, go for it!