Noom - an unbiased review - is it worth it? tootiredto

You may recall a few weeks ago I decided upon a new approach to my diet and fitness – if you have no idea what I am talking about you can read the post here. Then I found Noom!

At the time I wrote the post I was not feeling great about my weight loss efforts and my appearance. I had been following WW (Weightwatchers) on and off for which felt like forever. In the previous year, I think I had lost what added up to about 4lbs!!

This is not a sponsored post. I paid for my subscription and do not earn affiliate income. I will be honest about it as this is my personal experience!

What made me choose Noom?

I had the Noom ad pop up on Instagram and Facebook loads of times. Then I finally decided to try it after seeing a few Youtubers I watch starting on the Noom program.

You can get a cheap trial – actually they ask you how much you want to pay for a trial. After I chickened out of signing up, I was offered a completely free trial!

What is Noom and why is it different?

“Noom” is a different approach to weight loss, but some things are the same. You get a daily calorie allowance based on how heavy you are and how fast you want to lose weight etc You can make your weight loss faster or slower through a setting in the app.

Food Tracking

You can track foods (as you do with so many of the apps out there) and it counts the calories for you. It also assigns foods into Green, Amber and Red. Red foods are not banned. They ask that you try to limit the Red foods as they have more calories and do not fill you for as long.

Extra support and help

I have been assigned to a group chat. This is based on how I filled in the initial questionaire. I was also assigned an individual coach to help me to work on specific targets.

Additional information

You also have loads and loads of information/lessons every day. The lessons and tests are to help to retrain your brain, the way you see food and also to help make a healthier relationship with food.

Its the first weightloss app etc I have used where they actually want you to weigh in daily! I think the reason is so that the scales do not hold the same power over you. I thought it may lead to me becoming obsessive, instead, I just find interesting things, like if I eat more salt or do not drink enough water it affects the scales the next day – something I had never noticed previously.

What don’t I like?

Food database/search

Well as the app is predominantly American, the food database is more American than English. I am sure this will improve as more people start to use it, but at the moment it definitely has its limitations. I have not once found food I have scanned in using the bar code scanner, it always comes up as we do not have this food in the database – in this area, the WW app wins hands down. Also adding foods is clunky, to say the least.

Information overload?

I like the lessons but they do take up a lot of time – unless you set it as a part of your morning routine or something I struggle to find time to do it all. It’s not that it takes a long time, but its another thing to do. I am fairly sure that eventually, I won’t bother with it – although hopefully once I am re-programmed I won’t need it lol.

Is there anybody there?

I also find that the group chat isn’t that great. There are not many England/Europe based people in my group so I am posting at a completely different time to everyone else. They also merged us with another group – partly I think because my group is hard going. Not many people post and for some reason, they just cannot get it into their heads to “thread” conversation/topics so you just have lots of random posts.

Overall – should you try Noom?

I think its a good app/tool. I am not sure it is worth the full price if you can get a good offer and a free trial like I did it is ok. For me, at the moment it has been really freeing to be able to eat what I like within reason as I can count the calories. As I am writing this I am in Starbucks with some luxury fruit toast!! And I don’t consider it to be a treat so it doesn’t make me feel like I am breaking my “diet” so the reprogramming is working!!

On previous diets, I always had a cheat/treat day. I used to go mad as it was so restrictive the rest of the time. Now I find that isn’t happening – if I really want a chocolate biscuit I will have one and I do not have the whole “well I have done it now I may as well stay off plan for the rest of the day” mentality I have had in the past.

The thing it’s also really made me work on is portion sizes. I am trying to eat less. I am not blaming SW solely for this. But it didn’t help me to have food that’s classed as “free”. To me, that does not encourage healthy/good habits. For some people, this works, but for me, with no off switch, it just encourages me to binge. With bingeing comes guilt and that’s, not a good road to be on…..I look on Instagram and some of the plates of food people are eating is just not healthy at all!!

I find that walking and activity goals are set at a reasonable level. When you beat your goal for that day, only then does it go up.

There are no unrealistic exercise goals – you say what you want to work on. On one of the days they got us to aim for 30 mins exercise in a day, but broken down into 10 mins in the morning, a 10 min walk etc at work at lunchtime and 10 mins in the evening – this makes it totally do-able!

I am at the start of week 8 and have lost around 11lbs and I haven’t deprived myself at all so for me it has been totally worth it.

If you are thinking of starting Noom and have any questions, let me know. Or let me know how your weight loss journey is going.

Julie x