Have you heard of Noom?
My first introduction was through my aunt, who told me it was sort of like Weight Watchers, but not really.
A good friend of mine, trying to lose weight for her wedding, said she signed up out of desperation, and the hope that it really worked the way it claimed.
Noom didn’t do much for my aunt, as far as I know, but my friend? She’s lost a lot of weight. So much, in fact, she had to buy a new wedding dress. Was it just Noom? No. Was it easy? Probably not. But did it work? Yeah, actually – and she also tells me her relationship with food is healthier than ever.
Why does Noom’s marketing program suck?
Noom is a diet program that’s been advertised a lot recently, but if you haven’t heard of it, don’t feel bad – compared to other programs like WW or Jenny Craig, it’s the new kid on the block.
If you’re tried to check it out before and you’re still confused, I get it. The marketing is… vague, at best. TV ads show frightfully happy people doing normal things like going shopping, going to parties, enjoying a backyard BBQ. Their social media page seems full of weirdly colored pictures, healthy good, and feel-good messages that don’t actually say anything.
Except this picture of a pie. Seriously.
Do I like the message? Sure. Do I like pie? Absolutely. Is this what I expect to see on an Instagram account for weight loss and diets? Not… quite.
That’s the whole message, though. Feel good about yourself, take it all one day at a time, and figure it out as you go. We’re here for you.
That doesn’t tell me anything about how it’s going to help me drop a size in time for my wedding, but I’m at least interested.
Okay, so what REALLY is Noom?!
Noom works differently from most diet plans because it’s not just about getting you to eat less, or just eat better, though that is obviously the goal. Noom is actually trying to get you to change your relationship with food and the way you see and think about it. In that way, it’s sort of trying to ‘fix’ your mentality with food while encouraging healthy eating.
That was the part my good friend (who didn’t wish for me to share her name, or information. I get it!) liked the most, she told me – that it was changing the way she thought about food. She worked a busy job during the day and at night took classes, but she never packed lunch because she didn’t want the calories or didn’t have the time. Instead, she would blindly binge while studying in the evenings, which created unhealthy habits.
With Noom, she was eating more, feeling more full for longer, and losing weight. It changed the way she saw food, so it changed the way she ate.
With Noom, there’s no meal delivery service. You’re not microwaving branded, frozen foods to get your calories in. There is no super strict diet routine where you’re shamed publicly in a group meeting on Saturday mornings because you ate a slice of birthday cake after being over your points.
Instead, Noom sort of creates an app-based diet (and it’s all through the app!) that helps you track your meals, your moods, and your eating habits, gently suggesting and encouraging you to make better choices in your life. But you’re not making these choices because you feel threatened – Noom is helping you understand you want to make these choices.
You’re not being treated like a child in trouble for eating cake. You’re not being talked to like a kid who doesn’t understand their own body. Noom is trying to treat you like an adult, but help you make the best choices for your diet and your life. It’s… kind of crazy that this hasn’t happened before.
Is Noom expensive?
Noom is not a free experience, and it’s important to know that going in. This isn’t something you can access without paying money. Some would argue that it’s because if it’s free, you might not take it seriously – others would tell you that they spent a lot of time developing the app and continually improve it, so that’s going to cost.
Whatever. The point is, you will pay for it.
Noom has a 2-week free trial that will let you log your food, track your weight, and give you helpful tips and advice. What you don’t get with your free trial is the support.
After your 2 week period is up, if you decide to stick with Noom, you’re going to get a support specialist, as well as access to a group chat system with other Noom users that started about the same time as you did. Theoretically, this means you all are about in the same place in your diet experience.
The group chat can be hit or miss, but I think it’s hugely dependent on the people you end up connected with. If you’re with a group of like-minded people who have similar goals and motivations, then yes, group chat is going to be super helpful! But there’s no promise.
The support specialist is there if you need support, have questions, or just generally feel a little lost and need some guidance. I’m not sure how useful this actually is in practice, but some people really like having that extra ‘help’.
Noom isn’t cheap – it’s $59 a month, or you can sign up annually for $199.
However, consider Weight Watcher’s, or “WW” as they’re called now. If you do the “full” WW experience with the meetings and the digital experience, it’s $45/month. This doesn’t factor in the cost of their own food, which you don’t technically have to eat but it is heavily encouraged.
Does Noom actually work?
This isn’t an advertisement for Noom – they’re not paying me to talk about it, let’s be clear, but there has been a lot of talk about the app over the last few months, so I wanted to sort of set the record straight with it.
Noom totally can work. On that Instagram post, of the pie? The top comment is from a woman that says she is down 40lbs using just Noom. My good friend really did have to buy another wedding dress, because she lost enough weight in 2020 that it wasn’t possible to alter her original dress.
You have to be willing to make the right changes, though. It’s not a magic pill, and you need to put yourself in the mindset: you want to get healthier. You want to lose weight. You want to take back control of your life, and your diet. Then, Noom is the answer.
Nothing is going to be magic, but changing the way you think about food is a good first step.
