I joined Noom on Christmas Day, 2019.
2019 was the year I’d been at my heaviest and I was dreading Christmas if I’m honest with you. My husband’s family live in another country and I knew if we chatted on Facetime, they’d see how big I’d gotten.
I was mortified at the way I looked.
After scrolling Facebook (as you do on Christmas day – haha) I noticed the Noom ad in my feed.
This was not the first time I’d seen it, but I’d spent 2019 trying to make another diet work for me (it didn’t).
This time I was ready to click the Noom ad. I signed up for the 14-day trial, figuring I had nothing to lose.
Boy, was I wrong! I had 10 pounds to lose!!
I’m writing this post in April, so my weight loss has not been fast.
But between joining Noom at Christmas and now, I’ve had a three-week vacation with my parents and lockdown with 2 kids and a kitchen (those Corona kilos are real!).
I’ve restarted Noom three times (you can request a restart anytime you like), and I am so far from perfect it’s not funny.
But – I keep picking up where I left off and my knowledge is compounding.
Something clicked a while back, and Noom is now in my head.
That’s because of the psychological aspect of the program, Noom is big on mind stuff.
I’ll get into that more, as I want to just show you how I have lost 10lbs (4.53kgs for my metric friends) with Noom and why I know it’s the program that will get me to my weight loss goal (50lbs in total).
10 Reasons Noom Works
1. The 14-day trial
The 14-day trial is a perfect way to figure out if Noom is for you. I joined the trial with the full intention of giving it 14 days and then taking some time to think it through.
Ha – by the 7th day I was messaging the support team to see how I could join.
Sometimes the trial is free, but I paid $1. If you would like to sign up for a 14-day trial, click this link to get started.
2. You can eat regular food
This was a big thing for me. No expensive protein bars required.
Noom is a calorie-controlled plan, so you can basically eat whatever you want within your calorie budget.
The program encourages eating calorie-dense foods so you’ll feel fuller for longer and not binge, but it also allows you to use your own free will to eat a candy bar or a piece of toast slathered with real butter if you so wish.
To help you decipher which foods you should be eating more of and which you might want to limit, Noom uses a color system – red foods, yellow foods and green foods.
3. They encourage gentle (or not so gentle) exercise
I’ve been on programs before where exercise was not encouraged until you’d had significant weight loss from the eating plan.
Which is fine for some people – remember “abs are made in the kitchen”.
But, if you love to exercise, or like me, NEED to exercise to destress, then not exercising is not an option.
Noom not only encourages you to exercise, they actually increase your calorie budget if you do!
Doing my daily workout means I can have an extra filling dinner or an after-dinner treat.
4. I get to talk to a real human
The Noom coach program comes with a real actual coach, who I check in with once a week.
She helps me set weekly goals to work on and then actually follows up that I did them. I cannot understate how wonderful this is.
The coach is the reason Noom works for me.
An app is quite easy to ignore, but an actual person messaging you and asking you questions is something you have to show up for.
5. Daily weigh-ins
Noom requires a daily weigh-in.
This is to reduce scale anxiety and I gotta tell you – it works.
I’ve done Weight Watchers before. I was always trying to find a meeting that was in the morning so I could weigh in before work.
If I had an evening meeting I’d eat almost nothing that day and then after my weigh-in, celebrate with a meal.
The weekly weigh-in became the focus of my week, and not in a good way.
Now, I get on the scales every morning after using the bathroom but before I’ve eaten or had anything to drink.
I then log my weight in the Noom app and watch my graph rise or fall. No drama. Then, I keep going.
6. All the #psychtricks
Psychology is big with Noom. They really want to show you why you eat how you do and how you can change it to succeed with weight loss.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve said out loud “that makes so much sense” when doing my Noom readings.
The “trigger-thought-action-consequence” reading was especially valid for me in explaining why I cave to sweet food when I see it.
7. The app model
Noom is an app – you cannot use it on your computer or laptop but it works on a smartphone or tablet. The Android app (which I have) is not as feature-rich as the iPhone app.
(The Noom android app does not have the turtle and hare feature in weight loss goals, where you can select the speed you wish to lose weight at.)
The great thing about the program being app-based is accessibility. Your phone is always with you, so there’s no excuse for not tracking.
All the teachings, readings and support are on the app and you need nothing else to make this work.
8. The supportive community
As well as the Noom Coach, you also get access to a support group and group coach in the app. These are people who started their Noom journey at the same time as you.
The group coach is there to bounce ideas off of and interact/lead group conversations.
There are also numerous Facebook groups for Noomies.
9. Rewind
With Noom, the daily readings and activities are really important. They require your engagement. If you happen to be unable to complete the activities, it’s easy to ask your coach to reset you back a few weeks, or even to Week One.
They do it all the time, it’s not something you should feel bad about.
I have reset 3 times so far, and I’m about to request a 4th reset because of lockdown. I want to start fresh when my kids go back to school #hallelujah.
If you have a down week or just no time, request a reset and get back on the horse. Just don’t quit.
Related: How to Restart Noom
10. Great value for money
There doesn’t seem to be a specific price for Noom as it depends on your goals.
For example, when I filled out the quiz during the 14-day trial, Noom calculated that I would need an 8-month membership to meet my goals.
I paid around $160 for my 8-month membership which works out at around $20 per month. At that price, Noom is an absolute bargain – not even counting the future healthcare costs I will avoid by losing weight.
