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What Is Noom (and how can it help you lose weight)?

by | Dec 8, 2022 | Last updated Feb 25, 2023

What is Noom? | How does Noom work? | What is the Noom diet? | Does Noom work? | How much does Noom cost? | Is Noom right for you?

Noom Weight is a weight loss program that helps you change your habits and mindset around food. 

Rather than just focusing on what you should or shouldn’t eat—like other weight loss programs—our psychology-based approach helps you change the way you think and feel about eating.

Because weight loss isn’t just about what you eat, but why you eat. 

Our goal is to help you develop sustainable habits that you’ll keep for a lifetime—not just the few months that you’re on the program.

On Noom Weight, you’ll track your weight, monitor what you eat, and connect with like-minded people.

You’ll also learn:

  • What triggers you to eat when you’re not hungry
  • How to overcome emotional and stress eating
  • What to do instead of reaching for a snack when you don’t feel good
  • How incorporate mindfulness while eating 
  • How to choose foods that pack a powerful nutrition punch (but still keep you feeling full and satisfied)
  • How to tell the difference between feeling genuinely hungry and ‘head hungry’
  • How to manage plateaus (when your weight loss temporarily stalls)

And so much more.

Noom Weight is not a fad diet or an elimination diet. 

It’s also not pre-packaged food that you’ll need to depend on for the rest of your life. 

Instead, it’s a program that helps you deal with why and how your behaviors impact your health. 

Even diets that are healthy and backed by science, such as the Mediterranean diet, often don’t work. 

That’s because they only provide an ‘eat this, not that’ approach that’s difficult to follow and sustain long term.

Everyone knows that they should eat healthier, but most people don’t understand the science behind their choices, why they make certain decisions, or why their brain craves sweets and other goodies.

We’ll help you to make step-by-step changes to your eating habits and lifestyle that can add up to a big difference in your health, confidence, and your sense of well-being. 

Because losing weight shouldn’t feel like a punishment or an endless struggle. 

It should feel like something that you have control over. 

That’s why our ultimate goal isn’t just to help you reach your desired weight.

We want to give you the knowledge and mindset you need to make changes that last. 

Ready to make a lasting change?

A healthier you, wherever you are.

Take The Quiz

So how does Noom work?

You start by answering some questions on our website about your current weight, your goal weight, and your experience with dieting and weight loss. 

It takes about 10 minutes.

Then you’ll receive a plan (usually for around 16 weeks, but it can be more or less depending on your goal) with a suggested calorie range for every day. 

Your plan will show you how your weight could drop over that time based on the clinical recommendation for sustainable weight loss pace at one to two pounds per week

And every plan started with an initial 7-day trial, so you can try Noom with no risk. 

Daily lessons

From day 1, daily lessons of around 5-15 minutes help you change your mindset around the way you eat and feel about food.

You’ll get exercises, quizzes or tasks to complete, and insights into the root causes of your eating habits. All based on the gold standard in behavioral science. 

Our lessons are based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a type of therapy that’s been proven to help people change their habits and behavior.

Food tracking

You’ll soon get to know which foods keep you feeling full while staying within your calorie range by entering everything you eat in the Noom Weight app.

You can do that after every meal and snack, or wait till the end of the day. It’s up to you!

When you realize how full and satisfied you can feel without needing to deprive yourself, you can naturally start to make healthier choices.

Plus, research has shown that the more you track what you eat, the likelier you are to reach your goal weight.

Food 3-color system

All the foods you log are green, yellow or orange under our color system.

Green foods (like most vegetables and some fruits and whole grains) fill you up while keeping your calories low.

Orange foods do the opposite, while yellow foods are in-between.

No food is off limits. You can still have cheesecake, enchiladas, or chicken curry. 

The key is to balance the amount of green, yellow, and orange foods that you eat. And Noom Weight gives you a suggested daily allotment for each, to make it as easy as possible for you. 

Coaches and guides

Noom guides and coaches are right there when you need them.

If you have questions or need a bit of support, just reach out. 

Our coaches adapt to your needs. If you only want to check in once every couple of weeks, great. 

If you’re struggling with sticking to your calorie budget and need advice on how to get more green foods into your day, just ask.

And if you feel like you need more intensive coaching—like when you hit a plateau and don’t know what to do—they’re right there for you.

Your coach is trained in the science behind behavior change, and is a huge resource to help you develop the accountability you need to hit your goals. 

Weighing-in

With Noom Weight, you’ll have the option to weigh-in every day.

That’s because people tell us that weekly weigh-ins can become too much of a big deal, and they can miss out on observing the small, temporary weight gains and subsequent losses that are part of almost every weight loss story. 

With daily weigh-ins, your weight chart will show those fluctuations, which are completely normal, natural, and part of the process.

Research has shown that weighing yourself daily helps you be more mindful and make healthier choices, resulting in more sustainable, long-term weight loss.

Soon enough, an every day weigh-in can become part of your daily routine, no biggie.

What else does Noom Weight offer?

Exercise tracking

When you’re ready, start with 200 steps a day (the Noom Weight app includes a pedometer) and build up to more as your confidence builds. 

Why just 200 steps?

Because for the health of your whole body and mind, exercise is important. But when it comes to weight loss, we start with food.

That’s because research has proven that it needs to come first. 

Changing what you eat will give you the results you need to motivate yourself to continue. 

Then when you’ve got the food side of things handled, you can start to build exercise into your routine. 

And you can sync Noom Weight with your Apple Watch, Fitbit or Garmin. It’s also compatible with iHealth, Misfit, Omron, Polar, Qardio, Runkeeper, Withings, and Yoo.

Connect with your fellow Noomers 

When you join, you’ll become part of a community of like-minded people to share milestones and celebrate wins.

Your fellow Noomers are there for you, 24/7. Want to eat Chinese food but not sure what might work? Ask the community and get the answers you’re after.

Going through a period of low motivation? Share it with other Noomers and you’ll get all the encouragement you need to keep going. 

Track your weight, water intake, glucose levels and blood pressure

Like to stay on top of what’s going on with your body? We can help you there. You can do it all through the Noom Weight app.

So what exactly is the Noom diet?

That’s a question we get a lot.

Noom Weight isn’t a diet the way most people think of diets.

It’s not a fad or trend that cuts out whole food groups (like carbs) from your diet until you lose weight. 

Instead, we focus on helping you understand your choices, how to be in the moment and appreciate your meals, and which foods will help you feel full (with a focus on calorie density).

Put simply, that means we want you to be full and satisfied while staying within your calorie range.

There’s no need to feel hungry while you’re on Noom.

Noom Weight uses a 3-color traffic light system to categorize foods. 

Orange, green, and yellow doesn’t mean ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ though.

The colors just help you to choose the foods that get you into a calorie deficit. Because if we want to lose weight, we have to eat fewer calories than we burn.

But there’s a big difference between a low-calorie diet and one that focuses on lowering calorie density. Why? Because calories don’t fill you up. Food does!

Research shows that when people eat more foods that are less dense in calories, they lose weight more easily and sustainably. 

It’s all about water and fiber content. That’s why half a pound of peanut butter contains 1334 calories, and half a pound of spinach contains 52. 

Half a pound of oatmeal has 154 calories, but it’s still on our green list because it’s packed with belly-filling fiber.

(And we don’t recommend you eat half a pound of peanut butter).

Ready to make a lasting change?

A healthier you, wherever you are.

Take The Quiz

What can you eat on Noom?

You can eat all your favorite foods!

We designed Noom Weight to fit into your life, not the other way round.

If you want to eat cake or chips, you can. You just need to log it, and aim to stay within your recommended calorie range.

When you start to log all your food, you’ll be amazed by how much of the ‘green’ stuff you can eat and still stay within your calorie limit. You’ll see and feel the rewards of your choices. 

And over time, it becomes easier and easier to recognize which foods are green, yellow, or orange without even needing to rely on us. 

That’s how Noom Weight works: we want to give you lightbulb moments that you’ll internalize for the rest of your life.

Will it accommodate my diet and lifestyle?

Because you can eat your favorite foods, at any time, Noom Weight is complementary to every lifestyle.

Your coach can help you fit Noom Weight into the way you eat and live.

Are you an all day grazer who eats little and often? That’s fine. Just log all those little nibbles!

Or are you an intermittent faster who has two hearty meals a day with nothing in between? That works too!

Some dietary plans are easier than others, though. For instance, the ketogenic diet (a trendy approach to eating that almost eliminates carbohydrates) is more of a challenge, but it’s not impossible.

All we ask is that you log everything, and try to stay within your calorie budget. 

Does Noom actually work?

Research has proven that Noom Weight helps people to lose weight.

In one study of almost 36,000 Noom Weight users, almost 80 percent reported weight loss. 

There are dozens of peer-reviewed studies that substantiate that either Noom Weight—or similar programs that focus on reducing calorie density and logging meals—work for long-term, sustainable weight loss.

How much does Noom cost?

If you’re one of those people who buys a latte every day (and why not?) we want to let you know that Noom Weight costs less than your caffeine habit.

You can pay for your whole plan at once for the best price. Most plans are around three or four months:

  • Monthly auto-renewing plan $70 USD
  • 2 month auto-renewing plan $129 USD
  • 3 month auto-renewing plan $159 USD
  • 4 month auto-renewing plan $169 USD
  • 5 month auto-renewing plan $174 USD
  • 6 month auto-renewing plan $179 USD
  • 7 month auto-renewing plan $184 USD
  • 8 month auto-renewing plan $189 USD
  • 9 month auto-renewing plan $195 USD
  • 10 month auto-renewing plan $199 USD
  • 11 month auto-renewing plan $205 USD
  • Annual auto-renewing plan $209 USD

Most plans come out to the price of an annual gym membership or a pair of really nice running shoes. 

Is Noom right for you?

Noom Weight is right for you if:

  • You’ve tried weight loss programs in the past, but haven’t been able to keep the weight off
  • You are looking for a different approach to weight loss that’s sustainable and will lead to lasting change
  • You want to learn what to do besides reaching for food when you feel stressed, emotional, anxious, or bored
  • You want to learn how to make healthy good choices on your own
  • You have habits related to food that you want to change (but don’t know how)
  • You want to lose weight and keep it off, by transforming the way you think and feel about food
  • You want a more structured program, with daily tasks, challenges and lessons to keep you on track
  • You’re busy, and don’t have a lot of time to invest in a program
  • You’d benefit from having a clear steps to follow every day, rather than feeling on your own
  • You’d prefer a more personal and interactive relationship with your own coach, who knows your goals, motivations and stumbling blocks
  • You’d rather not have to meet with a group every week

Get started with Noom Weight

Download our app (Android or iPhone only) or check out our website to get to know us better.