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What Is the Noom Diet?
Everything you should know about ‘Weight Watchers for Millennials’
Ask any dietitian or weight loss professional what they think about fill-in-the-blank diet and they’ll usually say fad dieting is a waste of time, and healthy eating works.
Weight loss and nutrition are about the long haul. The best results come from plans that aren’t plans at all, but rather a lifestyle that works every single day. That could be why Noom, the top trending diet on Google in 2018 (which has also been dubbed “Weight Watchers for Millennials”) has become so popular, with its app racking up over 47 million users. Noom uses an algorithm to spit out individualized diet and weight loss plans, provides users with access to health coaches, and claims to play the long game.
How exactly does it work — and could it be the weight loss solution it’s hyped up to be? Here’s a primer.
How Noom Works
The Noom app offers two monthly memberships: a “Healthy Weight Program” and a “Diabetes Prevention Program” (which, by the way, is recognized as a lifestyle change program by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the first mobile program to earn the designation).
After the app is downloaded, the user fills out a questionnaire that asks for height, weight, goals, lifestyle, experience with dieting, and more. Once complete, the app provides a 16-week nutrition plan with calorie recommendations and connects the user with a health coach.
Noom uses a color-coding system for foods, labeling them green, yellow, and red. The company says the system isn’t meant to label foods “good” or “bad,” per se, but rather to be used as a portion guide. Foods that are low in calories or high in nutrients, or both, are labeled green (spinach, bell peppers, broccoli, tomatoes). Foods high in calories (oils, seeds, nuts) or low in nutrients, or both, are red. Yellow foods (grilled chicken, eggs, Greek yogurt) land in the middle.
Users track their daily food intake and physical activity (Noom connects with Fitbit, iHealth, Polar, and other wearables) and are provided with articles related to weight loss and dieting along the way. It’s also possible to connect with other app users for social support.
