Has anyone tried Noom?

jaxCarrie

If so, do you think it works better than MFP? How is it different? Do you use them together? I keep getting ads and am intrigued...

moonangel12

Looking at Noom is what reminded me of MFP - I researched it a little but the monthly cost was insane! I justified the yearly cost of this (I hate ads, and for something I am opening up multiple times a day it was worth it) by seeing progress during the first trial month. I couldn’t justify $50/month, but $50/year wasn’t terrible. I think my friend tried it briefly a couple years ago because I remember her talking about color coded foods (red, yellow, green) but I don’t think she stuck with it for long. Curious what others have to say.

Shortgirlrunning

It seems way over priced to me and I’ve heard the coaches are crap and just give stock responses that aren’t very helpful. I can log all my food here, I can eat all the foods I want and lose weight (their big promise/draw it seems) just by counting calories, and get support and advice from the forums for free. I just can’t see what about it is worth so much money.

Lietchi

Noom started me on my weightloss journey: I wasn't even trying to lose weight, when I saw an ad on facebook. I tried the app (cheap trial), found the introductory days quite interesting (aspects of motivation and goal setting beyond the numbers, concept of calorie dense and less calorie dense food,...) but the individual coaching aspect wasn't what I was looking for (or willing to pay for). And the tracking aspect wasn't very developed, if I remember correctly. I ended the trial, looked for a replacement and that's how I ended up here

vggb

I looked into it and it's a behavior modification approach. Not worth it, you do that yourself here by logging, weighing, gaining understanding of nutrition and applying it to your daily lifestyle. Bam, for free

threewins

I've seen a few reviews and as far as I can work out, it's not worth it. So basically it's a dieting app where you chat with a counsellor. Is that going to affect your behaviour? Initially, probably but if you go out to dinner, and have cheesecake, how will you justify it to them? Will you keep it a secret?

Even if it were free I wouldn't use it because I don't believe that chatting with someone is sufficient accountability. If it works for others, that's really great. It just wouldn't work for me.

LyndaBSS

I've seen noom members quit there and come here, but never the opposite.

COGypsy

My sister loves Noom and has used it to lose about 35 pounds so far this year. For her, the coaching is the best part. I haven’t explored the program in too much detail, but as my sister says, “it helps smooth out her crazies”. It’s helped her learn things like how to recover from a slip up, how to plan for regular treats (Taco Brunch!) Or unexpected indulgences, that loss isn’t linear....all that kind of stuff.

Sure, you can do the same thing here or lots of places for free, but it’s been really good for her to get immediate feedback when something unusual happens. In the past, when she went off plan or had a random fluctuation, she’d spin out and just give up. She deals with a lot of generalized anxiety, so it’s far more likely that she’s fixate on the problem and not researching PubMed, YouTube or message boards looking for solutions. Having an automatic “voice of reason” that tells her things like to expect a spike in weight after having cheesecake for dessert, but it won’t last, has probably been the greatest benefit for her.

I’d also say that when it comes to weight loss, she’s really more of a “what” person than a “why” person. I’m fascinated by things like a gram of carbs carries three grams of water with it. She just wants to know if she can eat tortillas and still lose weight. She also has no interest in the fitness side of a lot of the discussions here and from what I’ve seen from the YouTube links people post. She does yoga, her office does group workouts twice a week, but she’s beyond uninterested in the workout routines and weightlifting that are generally promoted here.

I think it’s just all about fit. I would be as frustrated with Noom as my sister would be with MFP. Luckily, we’ve both found systems that work well for us!

panda4153

I tried it to see if it offered anything more then MFP. I think it would be great for someone just starting who does not yet know a lot about nutrition. I like that it has a no good as bad approach it’s all about eating the right amounts. They also take you step by step into changing your behaviors. However even with the coaches I found that MFP has all the same info and the food database is much more robust. I’ve been at this a while, so for me I’ve learned all that stuff the coaches tell you along the way, by reading the forums. It was not worth it to me now, but looking back to when I was just starting out I would have like it.

bellabonbons

Yes and I love the free version ! And it doesn’t have constant glitches like MFP does.

jaxCarrie

vggb wrote: »

I looked into it and it's a behavior modification approach. Not worth it, you do that yourself here by logging, weighing, gaining understanding of nutrition and applying it to your daily lifestyle. Bam, for free

Okay, that's what I was thinking....it sounds like an accountability app....I find I'm more accountable if I log and I make better choices if I log, I don't need pep talks. And Free!! Glitches and all.

jandy180

Lietchi wrote: »

Noom started me on my weightloss journey: I wasn't even trying to lose weight, when I saw an ad on facebook. I tried the app (cheap trial), found the introductory days quite interesting (aspects of motivation and goal setting beyond the numbers, concept of calorie dense and less calorie dense food,...) but the individual coaching aspect wasn't what I was looking for (or willing to pay for). And the tracking aspect wasn't very developed, if I remember correctly. I ended the trial, looked for a replacement and that's how I ended up here

Ditto. I did the same two-week trial. It was helpful and kicked me off on my current weight loss journey. However, the coaching was not responsive at all, and the product is way over-priced. So I returned to MFP, and the free version of MFP is really all I need.

jandy180

I will say, though, that I like their logging system better. They categorize all foods as green light, yellow light, and red light, which is a quick and easy way to see how healthy you are eating. For me, it did motivate me somewhat to try and choose "green light" foods.

LyndaBSS

jandyprall wrote: »

I will say, though, that I like their logging system better. They categorize all foods as green light, yellow light, and red light, which is a quick and easy way to see how healthy you are eating. For me, it did motivate me somewhat to try and choose "green light" foods.

That seems like a great way to make people feel guilty about their food choices. 😒

Shortgirlrunning

LyndaBSS wrote: »

jandyprall wrote: »

I will say, though, that I like their logging system better. They categorize all foods as green light, yellow light, and red light, which is a quick and easy way to see how healthy you are eating. For me, it did motivate me somewhat to try and choose "green light" foods.

That seems like a great way to make people feel guilty about their food choices. 😒

Then maybe it’s not the best option for some people, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be an option for people it will encourage to make healthier picks without feeling guilty about when they don’t.

chench53

I'm doing Noom since FEB this year, and have lost about 25 pounds. I've done MFP for several years before, and didn't lose anything. But, I think it's the mindset one has that helps you get going on something.

I found the Noom coaches to be very responsive, and the folks in my group also helpful. My coaches got me exercising more consistently, and higher intensity. Before I started Noom, I upgraded to MFP premium, but still see ads, and way too many blog post links in between things I want to see. The extra tweaks you can make to things you track were not very helpful to me, and premium MFP did not offer personal coaching, as far as I see. So, while it's good for some, I'll drop the premium MFP when it runs out.

Re the Noom food colors (vs tracking macros), it does not make you feel guilty, it's just a different way of looking at what you're eating. GREEN foods are not the only good foods. RED foods are not bad foods. With all, it's moderation. The MFP food database is more expansive, so I had to adjust how I did some things at first, but easily worked around so I'm still logging foods accurately.

I was tracking food & exercise & weight in both Noom & MFP, but it was redundant, so I just log into Noom now, though I still enter my weight here.

As far as cost, I started with a 20% discount, or $103/4 months, or ~$26 a month. Considering my success, I'm happy with that cost. Eventually, I'll stop the paid Noom subscription which will ends coaching and the daily activity lessons, but you can still use it to log food, weight, track exercise.

So, I think both are good. Everyone has to find what works for themselves.

waterberdoo

I paid for Noom for about three months. I lost weight and liked it a lot because it focused on the psychological aspects of overeating. Once you know you have to eat 1200 calories a day to lose weight, and you know what a day's worth of food is, you dont need to hear that over and over again. It was interesting scientifically and you learned from daily blogs about studies of goal -setting, motivation, failure, behavioral modification, etc. They try to make it entertaining too. I would recommend it for 3 or 4 months. That's enough.

pennyks88

I tried it for a few months and managed to lose 12 pounds, but then I stalled. I'm back here because I haven't been progressing at all. The coaching wasn't that great. I did like the behavior articles and being a part of a group. I wouldn't say it was worth the amount I paid for it though.

babyj0

I signed up for Noom, and soon as I saw that I could only eat 300 calories of red meat a day... I left. I just can't stick to 1200 for myself. It seems too low.

shorepine

I tried Noom and actually completed the 16 week program but honestly, the articles you have to read each day become onerous. They jump around a lot too, one day you're working on a goal and then the next they introduce something totally different that you have to get your head around. Then there is little continuity about the goal you had been working on, you only briefly hear about it.

My coach just gave me a ton of stock responses. Anytime I asked a question she would reply somewhere along the lines of "why do you think you feel that way?" or "is there something you can do to overcome that?". Basically a quick and easy way of turning it around back on me without offering anything of real substance or advice. I can do that myself. Your coach also checks in with you once a week, which basically means shooting you a quick message. Often times, when you respond, it takes a while to get a response back. So, not worth it for the coaching.

A major downside for me is that it is only an App, and no desktop website at all. So for those of us who like to type in the group forums, the interface was really challenging. They wanted me to do a lot of journaling, but did not provide a place for it. And I am just not one of those people who likes to write on my tablet or smartphone. As a result I did not do a lot of the journal activities.

Essentially, it's a glorified food logger like MFP, only their food logger is not as good with not as many foods in it, and they require you to stress about the "red green yellow" food thing. Red foods are more calorie dense. They claim there is nothing "bad" about red foods, but in reality it made me feel guilty when something I ate was assigned the red color. I like the nonjudgmental aspect of the MFP food logger.

The good? I did lose 10 lbs during the 16 weeks, but I was just diligent about my food logging and I don't think anything about the Noom program in particular led to that. When I am diligent about food logging I do lose weight.

matti422

It's super pricey, but I decided to give it a try for a few months since I had access to disposable income. There's a lot more psychological tips on how to recognize food or overeating triggers and respond to them. That said, there's nothing really new in the tips - its kind of like getting a daily update from Psychology Today on recent trends in mindful eating and distraction techniques.

Also, with their "Green Yellow Red" labels really aren't much different than "Non-starchy vegetables and fruits" (green, or WW zero points), "starchy plain vegetables and lean meats" (yellow) and "added sugar, fats and meats that are not lean" (Red). But then, things get weird and, quite frankly, the food and exercise databases are terrible. Fat free yogurt is "Yellow" even if it's packed with added sugar. Two different brands of raw vegetables can be given calorie differences of 10x. Exercise calories are WAY over estimated (but they only give back half of what you burn in your daily goal). The coaches can't tell you what the accurate information is, only how to tell Noom it's incorrect (which, well...how do you know which one is correct and which one isn't?)

The app is also really, really difficult to add your own recipes. There's no cut-and-paste or analyze web link like MFP. And you're limited in how many servings it might create, so if you weigh a recipe and use "servings" as ounces or grams in MFP, no similar option exists in Noom.

Finally, while it doesn't keep you from following a paleo or keto diet, it doesn't allow you to track macros.

Overall, Noom is probably a good choice for someone who is unfamiliar with psychological eating triggers, wants encouragement to eat apples instead of apple pie and who dines primarily on packaged or restaurant food or only cooks simple meals. If you have more specific nutrition goals than "loose weight", or are already reasonably educated beyond a junior high health class on the MFP appears much better option.