MFP vs Noom

I just finished the two week free trial. Noom overall wasn’t helpful for me. Some good ideas though, I liked that it had an interactive aspect for reinforcement of good habits (articles followed by quizzes). It was also interesting to see CBT incorporated to reframe your relationship with food and building healthy habits. Color coding foods red, yellow, green, made more sense than counting points. I liked that no food was off limits, just that you should not eat too much of the red category foods (calorically dense). I found the coaching was basic and trite. The coaching may get better when you actually start the paid subscription, but I read many complaints about it in the forums. There was nothing compelling enough about the program to justify a $50/mo price tag. Canceling at the end of the trial was easy/no hassle. As I was leaving, I was offered a monthly cost of only $19.00, which was tempting, but the anemic support and uninteresting mobile site added to my decision to drop it. I have been off of MFP for 3 years and am impressed with how much more is offered here-for free!

I wrote this on a previous post about the topic, sharing it here...

I used Noom to get back on track with weight loss two years after my last soiree with MFP. I signed up for the 2 week free trial and canceled it before the trial ended because I had read some reviews that made me a little suspicious of their customer service practices and because logging food in the app was so tedious. Their database isn't nearly as large as MFPs and they make you scroll so much to get the right amounts (e.g.: scrolling slowly from 1 to 300 if something is 300 grams).

I continued with Noom through the free version of the app because I found the daily behavior modification articles very motivating and the quizzes/challenges were fun. Once you cancel, the app reverts to the free version and you can still read all the articles and quizzes. I was really motivated by getting the little check mark that said I read all the articles and competed my daily check in. Truth be told, the articles get significantly worse after about 2.5 months.

With the free version, I didn't have access to the recipes, personal coach, or group chats, but I found ways around this. I have accountability through my partner at home who is also on a fitness journey and I found that the MFP forums give me all the "group" accountability I need. It's enough to check into these forums and remember I'm not doing this alone and plenty of posters here have similar questions that I have and are seeking support. I sought out recipe recommendations through my Fitbit community and through Facebook groups I was a part of.

All in all, I found the free version of Noom useful for it's daily psychology-based behavior modification articles. I learned a lot about myself and lost ~15 pounds (half my goal weight). Throughout the time I was using the free version of Noom for the articles, I used MFP to track calories because Noom's calorie tracker is awful and I used the MFP forums to stay "connected" and feel supported. After I was done with all the articles (after 4 months) I just stuck with MFP beacuse by that point logging and reading MFP articles and forums had become a daily habit too. Their whole program is CICO + behavior modification. MFP is good at the first, but behavior mod is incidental. Noom is better at the latter. For me, using both gave me the best of both apps.

I saved $180 by doing it this way. It may not be the way that works for everyone, but it worked for me. I credit Noom for motivating me in the beginning with the kinds of articles that you can't find on MFP, helping me stick to this journey for 4 consecutive months, and now in entering my 6th month without Noom. It's definitely an excellent tool for creating new habits and learning about your relationship with food...which is the whole point of the program.