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We all want to care for ourselves and our wellness, but living a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. You may face many obstacles on your wellness journey, like busy schedules, expenses, or accessibility. But if you want to take care of your health and are unsure where to start, resources are available to work around these barriers.
Weight loss programs can be one accessible resource for people on a journey to healthy living. A survey we conducted in October 2023 of 300 people over the age of 54 found that 32% felt healthier as a result of using a weight loss program. [1]Weight Loss Programs Survey. 300 respondents. Conducted using Pollfish. Launched October 2023. These programs can act as a means of support and accountability. They can often come with a mix of benefits and drawbacks, though.
“A benefit of using a weight loss platform could be the accountability to continue to exercise and eat nourishing foods when initiated with a neutral mindset. A downside of weight loss platforms is the reliance on needing to count your food, taking away from the intuitive way your body should respond to hunger,” said Emily Maus, RD, a registered dietitian and founder of Live Well Dietitian.
To help you find the best weight loss platform for your needs, we reviewed and tested Noom, a well-known weight loss platform. Noom, like many other diet programs, can straddle the line between beneficial and unsustainable—some of the features may help you with your goals, while others may deter you. Here’s everything you need to know about Noom so you can decide if it’s the right platform to help you meet your goals.
Noom is a weight loss platform designed to help you reach your goals for a healthy lifestyle. It’s one of the few programs we found with a psychology-based approach, encouraging behavioral changes and focusing on nutrition and weight management education. Noom’s psychological and educational strategy helps you gain knowledge to build and sustain healthier habits. The Noom program combines lessons with personal coaching so you have instruction and motivation to help reach your goals.
Our Reviews Team tested Noom for two weeks. During testing, we became familiar with the app, tracked our progress (weight, food, and activity), engaged in daily lessons, interacted with customer support and Noom coaches, and prepared four meals from the recipe database.
Our Reviews Team found the app very easy to use and navigate. You can access all the features from the home screen or the menu bar.
Tracking your progress is quick and straightforward. The main metrics you can follow are meals, weight, movement, and water intake. But you can track additional health data like blood pressure and blood glucose. On the home screen, tap the metric you want to log, enter the value, and save it. Our Reviews Team appreciated the simplicity of food logging specifically. Some other weight loss or diet programs require manually entering each food’s nutritional information, which can be time-consuming or imprecise. But with Noom, the nutritional information is already available—you can simply put in the food type and quantity, and the app fills in the metrics from there.
Our Reviews Team was impressed with the level of compassion, patience, and intention in the lessons. The language is kind and supportive, albeit sometimes immature or overtly silly. For example, one of the lessons stated, “We’re basically plants (with consciousness and opposable thumbs).”
The daily lessons consist of strategies, challenges, and tips providing valuable information to users about nutrition and weight management. They also encourage behavioral changes leading to healthier habits. Unlike other weight loss platforms like Weight Watchers, the lessons have a psychology-based approach.
If you have a problem and need to contact customer support, you may or may not receive adequate support. Our Reviews Team contacted customer support (called ‘Noom’s Virtual Assistant) on a few occasions. They had automatic responses each time and would eventually connect us to a live agent. The response times were long, ranging from two to three minutes, and they often could not provide adequate support. In one instance, we contacted customer support about changing our Noom Coach, and they said we would receive a new coach in five business days, but we never received a new one or a follow-up.
If you cannot get customer service support, your health coach may be able to help you. Their response times are even longer, ranging from three hours to one day, but when they answer, they will likely be able to help. We contacted our health coach with a question about the course timeline unanswered by customer service, and she provided a helpful, thorough reply.
Finding and cooking dishes from the recipe database came with several challenges. First, searching for recipes was difficult. The filters are limited to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. The app also does not offer the option to filter for dietary restrictions or preferences such as vegetarian or vegan. If you want to search for something specific like “sandwiches,” you may be out of luck, and when we typed keywords into the search bar, the results rarely matched our search terms.
Second, once you eventually find a recipe you want to try, it may be difficult to recreate. The recipes were not easy to follow because the instructions were oversimplified. For instance, the “Confetti Pesto Pasta” recipe doesn’t offer multiple steps. Instead, the recipe only includes one step to mix all ingredients together. The instructions didn’t specify when or how to cook the chicken breast or pasta, so our Reviews Team relied on experimenting to fill in the gaps. Most of the recipes were yummy, but the process was unnecessarily challenging.
The Noom app offers many features to users. Our Reviews Team tested out each feature to gauge its functionality and efficiency.
The daily lessons are a key feature of Noom. You will receive lessons to read and/or listen to daily. They focus on nutrition, weight management, goals, and eating habits to provide a basic education to help you make informed decisions and adjust your habits for a healthier lifestyle.
Noom has 16 weeks’ worth of lessons split into courses such as “Introduction to the Psychology of Weight Loss” and “Food Fundamentals.” After you complete the 16-week course, you can move on to the next course, which will help you sustain the healthy habits you learned in the first course.
On the home screen of the Noom app, you can track the following:
Keeping track of these metrics intends to hold you accountable for your progress. But for some people, daily weigh-ins may be harmful to their mental health.
In a review of studies examining the behaviors associated with self-weighing, most found self-weighing harmed the participants’ affect, self-esteem, and eating-related behaviors, and fewer studies found a positive impact. [2]Pacanowski C, et al. Self-weighing: Helpful or harmful for psychological well-being? A review of the literature. Current Obesity Reports. March 2015. Found on the internet at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4729441/
Noom adjusted its platform in August 2022 to acknowledge some people may experience negative emotions because of the scale. As a result, you decide how often you want to step on the scale. Yet the language in the daily lessons still encourages you to work toward daily weigh-ins.
Additionally, you must weigh yourself to receive a Noomcoin (a reward for completing a full day of Noom). So, even though you can opt out of weighing yourself, you will still receive reminders, encouragement, and incentives to step on the scale.
“Weighing yourself daily is not a necessary part of a healthy body and mind. Weight shifts day to day and can contribute to associating worth with a smaller number. Weighing on occasion is more than enough to monitor health,” said Maus.
In the Noom app, health coaching is available via chat messaging. Each user receives a health coach they can message anytime, although they are only available to answer during weekdays within an eight-hour window of their choosing from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST. Health coaches can provide you with support and guidance. For instance, if you find staying motivated difficult, your health coach can help remind you of your goals.
Noom coaches receive training in health and wellness but are not required to be certified with specific credentials. The training program takes over 75 hours and aims to equip coaches with the skills they need to coach users successfully.
To message your coach in the app, go to the home screen and tap the second icon from the top right. The icon resembles a chat bubble. From there, you can access the chat history with your coach and send them a message.
Our Reviews Team found the Noom health coaches kind, encouraging, and supportive. But sometimes, there were frequent delays in receiving replies. When our testers would message their coaches, they often received a reply hours or even days later. The long waits for a response made it difficult to carry a conversation or get a quick answer to questions.
To educate you on your food choices, Noom developed a color-coded food system separating foods as green, yellow, or orange based on their caloric density and/or nutritional value. Calorie density is the average calories per volume or weight of a food item. [3]American Institute for Cancer Research. The Calorie Density of Foods – Exploring the Facts & Science. Found on the internet at https://www.aicr.org/resources/blog/the-calorie-density-of-foods-american-institute-for-cancer-research/ In this system, you should eat primarily green foods (which are low in caloric density) and limit your intake of orange foods (which are high in caloric density).
(Noom used to label orange foods as red foods. But they received feedback from Noom users stating the red foods felt off-limits, so they switched to orange.)
Here are some examples of the different categories separated by food group:
| Food groups | Green foods | Yellow foods | Orange foods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fruits and veggies | Berries (raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries), zucchini, corn, and asparagus | Canned pineapples, avocado | Raisins, dates, dried cranberries |
| Grains | Whole wheat bread, whole wheat English muffins, whole grains (pasta, pita, and rice) | Whole wheat bagel and tortilla, rice (jasmine, wild, yellow, and basmati) | Bread (white, sourdough, pita, banana), croissants, and muffins |
| Dairy | Non-fat yogurt, greek yogurt, cheese sticks, cottage cheese, cheese, milk, and sour cream | Low-fat yogurt, milk (1%–2%), and cheese | Full-fat cheese, goat cheese, and cream cheese |
| Protein | Tofu, crab meat, certain types of fish, egg whites | Fish (crab cakes, tuna, and sushi), chicken breast, rotisserie chicken | Bacon and turkey bacon, fried chicken chicken nuggets, chicken wings |
| Snacks | Unsweetened apple sauce, pickles | Hummus, fruit cup | Nuts, tortilla and potato chips |
| Beverages | Juice (tomato, beet, unsweetened apple, and carrot), and almond, cashew, soy, and skim milk | Juice (grapefruit, orange, and unsweetened cranberry), diet soda | Red and white wine, soda |
While the color system can help you understand more about calorie-dense foods, this system doesn’t cover other nutritional aspects of food like sugar, fat, or sodium levels. Nuts, for example, are in the orange category. While they may be high in calories, they are also a great source of fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals. [4]Goncalves B, et al. Composition of nuts and their potential health benefits—an overview. Foods. February 2023. Found on the internet at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10000569/ So, if you limit your intake of nuts, you’ll miss out on the nutrients they could add to your diet.
Each person has different nutritional needs. Since diets should be individualized, there may be better approaches than a one-size-fits-all food system.
“What is ‘healthy’ is what is considered moderate and balanced for each individual. That means that everyone is different and therefore what their body needs to function optimally is also different,” said Kelsey Latimer, PhD, a certified eating disorder specialist and licensed psychologist at a virtual private practice.
Our Reviews Team found Noom Circles an underrated app feature. Noom Circles is a place where you can interact with health coaches and other Noom users by creating a post or commenting on other posts. Acting as a “support group” in Noom Circles, you can share accomplishments, vent, ask for advice, and lean on others for support and encouragement. Our Reviews Team appreciated the community aspect of this feature. A healthy living journey can often feel isolating and lonely. This feature allows users to talk to others going through a similar journey.
When you join Noom Circles, the app prompts you to answer questions about your interests to align with a specific category. Users can decide to join numerous categories—you can even create your own.
Here are some examples of Noom Circle categories:
You can access Noom Circles in the Noom app from the top right corner of the home screen. Our Reviews Team found it easy to comment, like, and make our own posts in the “New Noomer’s” community. We received 13 comments offering support and advice from Noom Coaches and other Noom users.
Noom has a lengthy sign-up process. To sign up for Noom, go to the website or download the app on iPhone or Android from the App Store or Google Play Store. You will complete a thorough questionnaire on desktop and mobile, taking about 10 to 15 minutes. The questionnaire asks about your health, fitness, lifestyle, and weight loss goals.
Once the questionnaire is complete, Noom creates a personalized weight loss plan based on your answers. Your plan will include the length of your subscription, your personal goals, and an estimate of how much weight you will lose, considering those metrics. The cost of your plan is part of these results.
Noom may also recommend additional “course enhancements.” These courses provide extra lessons in specific topics, such as aging and metabolism, stress management, sleep, and finding joy in physical activity. The cost varies depending on the course.
If you sign up for Noom on a desktop, you will receive instructions for downloading the app at the end of the sign-up process. Our Reviews Team found it very easy to download the app with the provided instructions. You have the option to scan a QR card or choose to receive a text message. Both options will give you a link where you can download the app.
The cost of Noom varies. These are the costs of Noom’s subscription plans:
Noom does not allow you to choose your own plan. Noom creates a customized subscription plan based on your questionnaire answers during sign-up.
One of the questions asks if you have an important event coming up and, if so, the event’s date. If you answer yes, you have an event—like a wedding, birthday, or anniversary—coming up in four months; Noom will assign you a four-month subscription plan. When our testers answered they didn’t have an important event, they were given a two-month plan by default. So, while there are various subscription plans, you cannot choose which one to sign up for.
Noom doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can pay a small fee for a one or two-week trial. You can pay $0.50, $3, $10, or $18. The flexible pricing allows you to pay what you can afford before fully committing to a subscription plan.
Based on our expert consultations, research, and testing, we determined the following factors to be essential for our readers when signing up for a weight loss platform:
We had all of our reviews medically reviewed by an expert in the field to ensure the information is appropriate for NCOA readers’ needs.
When you’re considering signing up for a weight loss platform, consider the following questions.
Before starting a weight loss program, you should always talk to your health care provider. Weight loss programs may not be the best option for everyone. While there are certainly benefits to weight loss, these programs also pose unique potential risks for older adults.
Older adults are more at risk for experiencing bone and muscle loss due to calorie restrictions. Losing muscle mass and strength can also lead to other adverse effects like reducing physical function and overall quality of life. So, talking to your health care provider first is important; they can advise you on the best steps to reach your health goals.
Weight loss programs can still be beneficial for older adults, though. For example, older adults participating in a dietary and exercise program improved overall quality of life and physical performance. [6]DiMilia P, et al. Benefit-to-Risk Balance of Weight Loss Interventions in Older Adults with Obesity. Current Diabetes Reports. Nov 2019. Found on the internet at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6986769/ You can weigh the benefits and risks with your doctor or health care provider.
On Trustpilot, Noom has four out of five stars based on over 63,300 reviews. Reviewers appreciate the engaging daily lessons with easy-to-understand language. Many reviewers noticed changes in not only their weight but also in their mindset of how they approach weight loss. They experience more self-love and self-compassion as a result of the program.
One reviewer from Trustpilot said, “I am also noticing changes not only in my body but in the way I perceive and love myself. One of the biggest changes is that I now mindfully eat my food rather than eating like there are people trying to get my plate. And finally, I’ve enjoyed the progress I made even if that progress is not measured in pounds.”
On BBB, Noom has a rating of 1.15 out of five stars based on 506 customer reviews. Reviewers report billing issues in which Noom charged customers even when they canceled their subscriptions before the auto-renew period. In 2022, Noom faced a lawsuit for this exact reason—customers signed up for a “risk-free trial” but were charged fees despite canceling their subscription.
After testing and researching Noom, Our Reviews Team found benefits and drawbacks.
The Noom program is user-friendly, and tracking your progress is simple and convenient. The psychology-based educational lessons provide a robust understanding of nutrition. These lessons guide users to make healthy choices and adjust their existing habits.
Noom does have some disappointing features, though, like the recipe database and the color-coded food system, which may not be the most productive way to analyze your food choices. Additionally, users are encouraged to weigh themselves daily, which may be harmful to their mental and emotional health.
Before you sign up for a weight loss program, you should talk to your health care provider. They can provide you with additional guidance for specific dietary or fitness needs.
Whether Noom is worth the cost is up to you. Since the cost varies for each person, you can end up paying $17 to $70 per month. Noom’s price includes personal coaching, educational courses, and the opportunity to track your progress.
Noom is not a scam. It provides all of the features advertised.
Weight Watchers and Noom are two different weight loss programs. Both platforms encourage you to log your food intake and include health coaching for users. Unlike Noom, Weight Watchers does not provide as much education in nutrition, and the app is more difficult to use.
The average monthly cost of Noom varies depending on your subscription plan. If you choose the monthly auto-renewing plan, you’ll pay $70 per month. If you choose a six month plan, you’ll pay a little under $30 a month.
Have questions about this review? Email us at reviewsteam@ncoa.org.
