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The Noom Diet Plan: Everything You Need to Know

by | Jun 13, 2019 | Last updated Feb 15, 2022

Author: Amanda Cofer, MPH

You’re scrolling Facebook or Instagram and you keep seeing videos of people who have lost weight, changed their lives, and they’re crediting something called Noom for helping them do it. You saw a friend log some food at lunch and you asked what they were doing and they told you about how they’ve been using Noom, have a health coach, an awesome group supporting them, and that they’re working on a goal this week to log meals more accurately. You may have seen us around either in your social circles or your virtual ones, but who are we? What exactly is Noom and where the heck did we come from? Here’s a little bit of everything you need to know about us!

A little Noom history

Noom started from humble beginnings in 2008. Founded by a businessman with big dreams and a passion for making a difference in people’s lives and health and a former Google software engineer who shared his vision, the first app they developed helped users track their exercise, and eventually, their calorie intake. The app was simple but was making a difference! Fast foward to 2014, Noom added psychology and behavior change into the mix by bringing on Dr. Andreas Michaelides, Phd., a licensed clinical psychologist and now Noom’s Chief of Psychology.

This sparked growth towards what Noom is today and what Noom is striving to be in the future. Dr. Michaelides added the human element to this health improvement puzzle and technology based, virtual platform. User support groups were among the first human interactions added to the app and Noom program. Just one year later, individual health coaching was added to the mix in 2015 and the first human Noom Coach was hired! The year 2015 brought big things for Noom as the team grew and the program and app were developed even more. Continue down the timeline and what we now know as the Healthy Weight program launches in 2016 and the psychology based curriculum begins to grow.

As the year 2017 and 2018 go on Noom begins to build it’s full scale team. We experimented, researched, and developed and really started to hit our stride. By the end of 2018 our program offerings had grown, the psychology based curriculum was locked in and improving, and we now had over 800 Noom Coaches working all over the country. In 2019 even more dreams became a reality as our 1000th (and counting) employee was hired and the very first Noom Leadership Summit was hosted in New York City. The future looks bright and we are excited to be soaking up the sun!

The Noom program and psychology-based approach

Throughout the years Noom’s mission became more and more clear to “help people live healthier lives through behavior change.” This means, long-term results for those losing weight the Noom way. When you think about things this way, the Noom diet, isn’t a diet at all but a lifestyle change. Noom’s curriculum has been created by psychologists, doctors, and researchers — experts in the field of health psychology and behavior change to get at the root cause of weight loss struggles. This is important in the behavior change process because it’s addressing more elements of losing weight and keeping it off outside of cutting calories and exercising. With Noom you’ll learn about social eating, cognition and food, stress management, managing emotions in relation to food, how exercise affects you, why we eat and act the way we do as humans, along with so much more. Noom aims for these changes to be sustainable, increasing the chance that they will become permanent thus helping you keep the weight off for the rest of your life.

The psychology-based approach is essential for changing your mindset and while you learn more about yourself through the curriculum that is exactly what you’ll be doing. You may think that your meals should come before mindset but sometimes it has to be the other way around. Noom will help you address this and your readiness to make changes. Once you determine the things you’re ready to work on, your mindset will help you form new neural connections over time to change your habits. This is also one reason that changing your habits can sometimes be so difficult. These connections are powerful and ingrained but the more you retrain your brain for healthy habits, the more likely weight loss success is to follow and stick. So who is along for the ride to help you master your thoughts?

Remember that human element that Dr. Michaelides brought to the table back when? This is also a game changer in the way that Noom individualizes its programming, helping users stay motivated towards their weight loss goals. This level of support and individual programming is important to users’ weight loss success. Everyone is different and needs different things in their journey to a healthy weight. Health coaching is a fairly new field but research shows that when an individual coaching approach is coupled with group support, education, and frequent interactions a patient or participant is much more likely to see success in changing their health. Noom’s research shows some similar results and that this engagement and self-monitoring through the app increases weight loss success in users! The coaches Noom hires are also too legit to quit. They hold degrees in all sorts of fields many with certification in personal training, nutrition, and counseling, many holding advanced degrees. Noom’s coaches are some of the best in the biz for a reason and you could have access to them and so much more in the palm of your hand.  

The bottom line: #WeAreNoom

The bottom line is that Noom may be a younger player in the weight loss game when compared to other programs out there but it’s approach is advanced, evidence-based, and rooted in psychology  making it stand out from the crowd. Developed by people with a passion for helping others be the healthiest versions of themselves, Noom’s mission is at the heart of it’s program. The psychology based curriculum gets at the reasons behind your habits to grow self-awareness so that you can better know how to make changes and lose weight. Noom coaches are there to help you in these changes every step of the way. In this, the Noom diet plan is actually a true lifestyle change for long term weight loss success.