How does Noom work? A review by Registered Dietitian.
By now, you may have seen a million wellness ads trying to grab your attention as they promise you they are ‘different’ from the rest. Does “Stop dieting and get life long results” sound familiar? If so, you probably have come across Noom- a mobile app and program that promises more than weight loss but also sustainable habits to ‘keep the weight off for good’. Is Noom finally the answer everyone’s been looking for or is it just another diet in disguise? Let’s uncover what Noom really offers (and doesn’t) through a dietitian’s perspective.
What is Noom?
Noom claims to be a personalized wellness program for weight loss that tries to sell itself apart from typical diet programs like Weight Watchers. They claim to promise long-term weight loss through psychology and behavioural change. At the end of the day, it’s marketed as a ‘lifestyle’ and not a dieting app.
Noom was created by two individuals with a tech and engineering background (notice how there is no founder with a healthcare background). You can sign up to use Noom by completing an onboarding quiz to get to know your needs. Using this information, Noom then suggests a ‘personalized’ weight loss goal for you and then your journey through the 16-week program begins. Going through the program, you can expect ongoing motivational messaging, a food and exercise tracking system and support from a community of similar users called ‘Noomers’. The platform also offers a real-time, virtual coaching program where you are paired with a coach to support your journey. Along the way, you will also engage in interactive learning activities like games and quizzes which test your knowledge around food and nutrition. For anyone looking to lose weight, it does sound promising doesn’t it?
Diving into the features (and pitfalls) of Noom
Noom’s calorie targets and health philosophy
Despite appearing innovative at first, there’s a few downfalls to Noom’s onboarding process. Noom starts off casually by asking you standard questions about your lifestyle, activity level, nutrition habits, current chronic disease, goal weight and motivation levels. The only two goals that you can choose from are either to ‘lose weight’ or ‘get fit’. Despite the various number of users on the platform, it appears that these two goals mean the same thing to Noom and the target isn’t all that ‘personalized’. The somewhat popular 1200-1400kcal dieting range appears to be quite a common target for Noom users across the board whether you choose the goal of losing weight or getting fit (9). Not only is this far from what Noom promises as being a ‘personalized’ offering, these calorie targets are extremely low for adults and already points to a classic red flag for a restrictive dieting pattern. While restricting calories and engaging in a calorie deficit may result in short-term weight loss, we know evidence suggests that restricting calories often does more harm than good in the long-term (1) It is very common that limiting calories can result in disordered eating including intense food cravings, increased food preoccupation and binge eating; bringing one back to square one. Not to mention the metabolic imbalances and undesirable hormonal changes that happen within our bodies as a result of depriving the body of essential nutrients (1). Our bodies may only survive but far from thrive on such low-calorie limits.
Alright, so Noom’s suggested calorie range is nothing new in the world of yo-yo dieting. What else? The next thing Noom suggests is that the user can earn more room in their calorie budget by doing more exercise (9). At first, this may sound harmless because a more physically active individual may need more to fuel their training, however the way the message is delivered is problematic. This actually promotes the diet culture notion that one needs to ‘earn their food (calories) by doing exercise’ or similarly that one needs to ‘exercise to compensate for any ‘extra calories consumed’. This might look like having some chocolate to satisfy a craving but then being reminded that it was extra calories that needed to be burned off during the next gym session. In this type of mentality fueled by diet culture, there is a disconnect in understanding about the role of food not only for basic human functioning but also discourages learning to listen to our body’s own internal cues about when and what to eat. When the focus is solely on calories in and calories out rather than overall health that includes stress management, sleep quality, sustainable nutrition, and regular enjoyable exercise, it can be quite a guilt-provoking process. A fixation on calories or making sure you fall within a set calorie limit ,while using guilt as a motivator for exercise is strongly linked to emotional eating behaviours (2,10) which can lead down a whole other rabbit hole of undesirable habits around food.
Noom also encourages all users to do daily weigh-ins and tells them the process will essentially ‘become less intimidating’ after it gets more routine (11). Not only can weighing be very triggering for some people, Noom appears to miss the point when it comes to telling people to simply overcome a fear as if it were only a matter of time or willpower. Contrary to Noom’s belief, the literature suggests us to actually do the opposite because frequent weighing is often tied to poor outcomes like low self-esteem, non-serving eating behaviours and poor mental health (8).
The traffic light colour system
At the core of its program, Noom uses ongoing tracking of food for calories through the color-coded traffic light system intended to guide healthier food choices. Foods are categorized based on caloric density with orange (previously red) foods having the most calories and green foods being lower in calories. Yellow foods fall in between. Noom claims that this colour-coded system does not mean foods are good or bad and they even say that ‘no food is bad or off-limits’(12). While we are also believers of this messaging that all foods can fit into a healthy lifestyle, the nature of the orange/red, yellow, green system can naturally lead people to think of red as ‘bad’ and green as ‘good’ which counters Noom’s original messaging. Putting food into categories can lead individuals down the restrictive eating path and set them up to tie moral value to food (‘good food’ or ‘bad food’). Looking closer at the system, how some foods are categorized are also quite questionable. For example, chicken, salmon, tofu, lentils and beans are placed in the yellow category despite these sources of food being either high quality proteins, a good source of fibre or contain healthy fats which gives us the satisfaction or fullness factor. In fact Canada’s Eating Guidelines actually encourages eating plant-based proteins such as beans and lentils more often (13) as they have been known to be heart-healthy options that can reduce cholesterol. These foods are also quite familiar to many people (including vegetarians) and putting them in the yellow category, based only on how many calories it contains is nutritionally misleading.
Looking further into the foods within the orange/red category, you will find options like olive oil, nuts, seeds, nut butters, avocado and whole fat dairy. It is true these foods may be higher in calories however the system overlooks the greater nutritional benefits as these foods are great sources of essential nutrients like Vitamins E, A, K and healthy Omega-3 fats, which definitely should be part of a nutritious eating pattern. Among other foods in the orange-light category are also frozen foods, snack bars, dried fruits, and grains. Noom appears to discourage nutritionally-dense and satisfying options and there seems to be too much focus on the caloric density of the food rather than zooming out of the nutrition picture.
Putting foods within the yellow and red category can lead people to feel guilty about choosing those foods or they may end up avoiding them altogether. The traffic light system will likely exacerbate unhelpful food policing and can discourage people from having a diversity of foods and listening to their own bodies when what they really want is food from the ‘wrong’ category. This can lead to a poor relationship with food when such structured eating patterns are in place. As such, this colour coding system does not seem to be supportive of sustainable eating patterns for long term health.
A strong caution for individuals with disordered eating and eating disorders
For those who have a history of eating disorders or have engaged in disordered eating behaviours, it is not recommended to try Noom. Despite marketing itself as a non-diet approach, Noom proves otherwise and also does not flag an individual for their potential eating disorder history through its onboarding process. With so much emphasis on calorie counting and restriction and the nature of food labelling through the traffic light system, this only triggers restrictive eating behaviours and obsession around food and weight (3). The consistent tracking of food in Noom and frequent weigh-ins can negatively affect one’s body image relationship, increase anxiety around food, and may deteriorate progress towards eating disorder recovery (4, 5, 6), potentially leading to relapse. It is important for individuals with eating disorders to obtain guidance from dedicated medical professionals such as doctors, psychiatrists, therapists and registered dietitians before considering Noom. These professionals can offer safe and inclusive support when it comes to a plan for sustainable health and well being.
Potential helpful aspects of Noom
Education and psychology integration
Noom appears to promote behavioural change through its education opportunities and encouragement of habit development. Noom offers daily reading materials that are tailored to your interests and these topics can include battling unsupportive thinking patterns (ie. the all or nothing approach), reviewing the different types of eating (ie. eating for hungers) and navigating cravings. These can be supportive resources when it comes down to supporting someone’s health journey that makes food eating more than about counting calories. It is worth mentioning that Noom integrates Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) principles, which is a well-recognized tool in the psychology space. CBT principles can guide the user into the reasoning behind choices in order to encourage habits towards a health-driven goal instead of weight-driven one (14).
Noom’s Community & Coaches
Noom sets itself apart from similar platforms through the personalized human coaching feature where users can receive support, motivation and answers to questions from a dedicated coach. All Noom coaches are supposed to be coached at ‘Noomiversity’, receiving over 75 hours of onboarding training (15). While this can provide a level of reassurance for customers, it is still largely unclear on exactly what type of training is offered which leaves a large loophole for what make someone qualified to provide nutrition advice. Perhaps there can be a benefit from forming that 1-on-1 connection with a coach who may serve as a positive means of connection. Perhaps it can make self-directed health goals more attainable in the short term. In addition to this coaching support, users can also connect with other ‘Noomers’ in the community who are working towards a shared goal. Our only concern of course is the fact that it can become dangerous when goals are centered around unhealthy ways to attain weight loss.
Verdict: Should you consider using Noom?
At the end of the day, Noom is still a diet. With its focus on calories, daily weigh-ins, low calorie budgets and embedded food rules (traffic light system), Noom demonstrates classic features of a restrictive diet. Noom, like many other diets and dieting platforms, is likely not a long-term sustainable approach to weight loss despite their claims, given the gradual decline in the number of users who report sustained weight maintenance over 2 years of follow up (16). That means, yes diets may result in weight loss in the short term however, it is very likely that people who start on a diet will regain the weight back in 1-2 years time and possibly more weight than they lost in the long-term (10, 17). Diets also often leave people physically and emotionally less healthy than they started due to the physical and mental restrictive process of undergoing a diet.
Counting calories in food does not give the whole picture of nourishment but rather we should consider our overall eating patterns and ask questions around food diversity and food satisfaction without guilt. For long-term, sustainable well-being, it is worthwhile to consider a nourishing eating pattern that consists of a variety of foods, mindful eating, adequate stress management, good sleep quality and quantity and enjoyable physical activity. Consider what best aligns with your values and needs towards wellbeing. If in doubt, seek the advice of a Registered Dietitian who can offer a more personalized and comprehensive approach to your needs while ensuring balanced nutrition and a healthy relationship to food.
Disclaimer: the information provided is not intended as medical advice or to diagnose or treat a medical disease. It is strictly for informational purposes. Consult with your medical provider such as a dietitian before implementing any dietary changes, the information provided does not replace medical advice provided by your healthcare provider.
Written by Sharon Sun, RD
Reviewed by Abby Hsiao, RD
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References
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What is the Noom “diet”? (2024). Noom. www.noom.com/blog/what-is-the-noom-diet/
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