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As an editor in the well-being space, I’m attuned to the basics of weight loss. Yet putting these habits into practice is always easier said than done—which is why I jumped on the chance to try Noom Weight.
The unique weight management program focuses on psychological principles rooted in behavioral changes.
Translation? Noom teaches you how to fuel smarter with a focus on balancing calorie density, with an emphasis on also closely tracking sleep, exercise, and stress.
This education is paired with personalized coaching, progress tracking, goal setting, and accountability buddies. The end goal is long-term, sustainable change.
But how does the program actually work—and does it actually work? Below, I break down the basics of the program along with my honest take on using this program for one week.
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Noom is a digital health care company that aims to support metabolic health by building a long-term, sustainable approach to weight management.
Founded in 2008, Noom launched as a way to help people take health care into their own hands. Today the brand is known for its psychology-based weight program, which combines nutrition education, personalized coaching, and daily tracking.
Over time, Noom has expanded its offerings to include programs focused on stress management—since mental health is so closely tied to physical health—and medical weight loss support.
Noom offers three programs in total: Noom Weight, Noom Mood, and Noom Med. All three programs build on the same type of psychological programming but vary in their add-ons.
Joining Noom is a straightforward process. When you download the free Noom app, you’ll be prompted to start your free seven-day trial or to enter a Unique Program ID for a preexisting subscription, like those from your health insurance.
New users will be led through an initial intake questionnaire, which includes questions about your weight loss goals, gender, age, height, current weight, and lifestyle (e.g., employment status or current health concerns).
During the sign-up process, Noom will inquire whether you’ve previously dealt with disordered eating. Noom will not let users join who self-reported diagnosed eating disorders.
From there, you’ll be asked about your long-term weight goals and how you prefer to achieve them (a focus on diet, nutrition, or building good habits).
At mindbodygreen, we believe in a holistic approach to health that would incorporate aspects of all three options—so I checked all three!
Afterward, the brand will ask about your preferred weight loss method (rapid or slow & steady), along with any big life events.
While I felt comfortable taking the rest of the questionnaire, this section gave me pause. Noom’s entire methodology focuses on long-term sustainable change, so the option of “fast weight loss” felt like the antithesis of the goal. But I know for many people the catalyst for change is often a big event in their life.
Once your questionnaire is finished, the app starts to build your ideal Noom plan. You’ll also take smaller surveys with holistic lifestyle questions (e.g., sleep or stress levels) to explore optional plan enhancements.
A full breakdown of the sign-up process:
The cost of your Noom plan depends on the length of your subscription. Users can choose to be billed annually, monthly, or somewhere in between.
Reminder: All plans are billed upfront and are auto-renewing (but you can cancel anytime).
The cost breakdown looks like:
The Noom App is essential to the program—and you’ll need to spend at least 12 minutes every day in the app to track completing the following parts of the weight management program:
You’ll start every day with a morning weigh-in. While it might seem intimidating at first, Noom emphasizes that your weight will fluctuate based on a variety of factors.
Surprisingly, daily weigh-ins feel less scary when the goal is to understand the overarching trend in how your body fluctuates with a focus on progress over time—rather than daily.
Every Noom Weight user logs their daily food intake for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and snacks. Each day you have a loose calorie target—but that’s not your focus.
Instead you’re aiming to meet a delicate balance of green, yellow, and orange foods (which are determined by caloric density and nutrients). Here are a few examples.
Green: Veggies and whole grains
Yellow: Lean meats and starches
Orange: Desserts and chips
As someone hyper-focused on maximizing their daily protein, I do wish lean proteins were included in the green category. However, I understand Noom is based around the idea of volume eating, where you fill your plate with low-calorie foods (i.e., high water density) to ensure you feel full and satisfied when eating less.
Many lean proteins have more calories per ounce than a veggie or starch—but protein is essential for building muscles as you age. I made sure my yellow category really focused on lean protein with my green foods focused on fiber. This ensured I followed Noom’s rules but still hit my own goals for maximizing fiber and protein.
It’s important to note you don’t need to know every color of food by heart! When you log a meal in the app, it automatically assigns a food to each category and estimates calories based on the ounces of food consumed. While you can start to learn colors over time, the true goal is teaching users balance, not elimination.
What’s more, logging your food is not a long, arduous process. While you can search for each component of your meal, Noom allows you to scan barcodes and even transcribes your meals based on your audio descriptions.
But my favorite option was the photo scan. You upload or take a photo of your meal and the app estimates the breakdown of ingredients. It’s not a perfect science—but I’ve found it speeds up tracking so much that there’s no excuse not to switch with it.
Along with tracking your food, you’ll partake in a daily lesson. These brief, informative exercises teach you about the basics of nutrition and how to support yourself throughout the Noom process.
The thought process? By understanding how your body uses food as fuel, you’ll be able to make choices that help support it long term.
These brief lessons always take less than 12 minutes per day, but you can choose to spend as little as four minutes per day learning if you’re low on time.
Mini-courses focus on topics like the psychology of eating and understanding your habits.
New users will be given a super-achievable goal of 2,000 steps per day, which increases over time. The goal is to gradually build movement into your routine until it becomes a natural part of your day.
While the app offers basic workout routines, you can also connect other fitness trackers like the Oura or Garmin to better understand how your activity impacts your goals.
Surprisingly, Noom Weight also asks you to track your daily water intake. You set this goal at the start of the program but can adjust it at any time.
As someone who drinks a lot of water, I wasn’t as concerned about this particular tracking during the program.
It’s a holistic approach to health.
Noom doesn’t just address diet; it also emphasizes the importance of physical activity, mental health, and stress management. We talk a lot about these pillars of health at mindbodygreen, so I really appreciated the 360-degree approach.
It’s not meant to be a quick fix.
By helping users understand their eating habits and triggers, Noom promotes lasting change. You’re not meant to keep deleting and redownloading Noom. The app is built to make you a long-term user with incentives like Noom coins to keep you coming back. And once you stop using Noom, the hope is that your habits are changed for good.
It makes weight management easier to follow.
Noom encourages users to incorporate healthy habits into their existing routines. By focusing on small, manageable changes rather than drastic overhauls, it makes the program feel manageable even if you’re newer to understanding nutrition.
It finds unique ways to motivate you.
Access to personal coaches, Noom coins, and a supportive community make it easier to feel committed to the program. By encouraging accountability, Noom users are more likely to actually use the app (rather than falling off when things get hard or busy).
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Overall, I think there’s a really solid case for trying out Noom if you struggle with weight management. I love that it takes a 360-degree approach to weight management that focuses on really teaching users about nutrition and other pillars of health. While the subscription can feel high without commitment, Noom is an expansive program that really forces you to think about all components of your lifestyle to ensure you’re optimizing them for your best (and longest) life.
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Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes
Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes
Mindfulness/Spirituality | Light Watkins
Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar
Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar
Yoga | Caley Alyssa
Yoga | Caley Alyssa
Nutrition | Rich Roll
Nutrition | Rich Roll
Nutrition | Sahara Rose
Love & Relationships | Esther Perel
Love & Relationships | Esther Perel
Sarah Regan
Hannah Frye
Hannah Frye
Gretchen Lidicker, M.S.
Jason Wachob
Hannah Frye
Sarah Regan
Molly Knudsen, M.S., RDN
Emma Loewe
Sarah Regan
Hannah Frye
Hannah Frye
Gretchen Lidicker, M.S.
Jason Wachob
Hannah Frye
Sarah Regan
Molly Knudsen, M.S., RDN
Emma Loewe
Sarah Regan
Hannah Frye
Hannah Frye
Gretchen Lidicker, M.S.
Jason Wachob
Hannah Frye
Sarah Regan
Molly Knudsen, M.S., RDN
Emma Loewe
Hannah Frye
Sarah Regan
Hannah Frye
Hannah Frye
Gretchen Lidicker, M.S.
Jason Wachob
Hannah Frye
Sarah Regan
Molly Knudsen, M.S., RDN
Emma Loewe
Hannah Frye
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
