Are you the sort of person who needs some accountability in order to stick to your goals? Have you tried other programs where you log/track your food in some way and found they didn't give you the push you need to truly stick to the plan? Do you have days where your priorities don't offer you the time to sit down and do some light reading and maybe take some quizzes? If you answered yes to these questions, Noom may not be for you.
Noom is built on the basic principle of tracking your food and sticking to a calorie goal. What makes it a full Weight Loss program, however, is that along with the food tracking, you have daily readings that offer you insight on the psychology of weight gain/loss, a "Goal Specialist" that is supposed to help you navigate the program and succeed, and an assigned group of people at the same stages of the program to talk to as you go. If you've struggled with your weight for some time, and have never tried a weight loss program that teaches you this sort of thing in the past, you may do very well. If you've "been there, done that," and know what you should be doing, how you should be eating, etc., and just aren't succeeding despite that, maybe not.
Details of My Personal Experience:
Daily Readings - At first I found the humor in the daily readings to be enjoyable, but the information to be nothing all that new from what I had learned in my experiences with other programs. There were nuggets of information that were interesting, but not particularly helpful in changing my behaviors, which is ultimately what I was there to do. Still, I trucked along for the first three weeks, reading them every day. Then I got behind by 3 days because of a family emergency. If you are already a person without a ton of free time... this will be the end for you. There is a lot to read each day and once I was behind, I couldn't catch up. This is especially due to the fact that the readings are associated with each "day" of the program so, you'll have to log your food on the current day but scroll back to the days you missed your readings and continue forward to catch up, making sure not to accidentally use that day to log your food too. Confused? Exactly.
Goal Specialist - Ironically, the one facet of the program I really thought was going to be what made Noom work for me over others, turned out to be the worst experience for me. The first problem was that, during the initial few days of the program, it is drilled into you when you will first hear from your GS and what they will do with you that very first interaction. Despite telling you specifically on what day of the program that will happen, they fail to mention that if that day happens on a weekend, it'll actually be 2-3 days later. By then, the program has mentioned two or three other things they should've done with you by then, despite the fact that you haven't even spoken to them yet. Then, when you do, if you mention the items the program has said you need to work on with them, they'll essentially tell you (sort of like the pirate code) that the suggestions are more like guidelines, and that your interactions will function how they see is needed. As someone who is driven by structure, having the daily readings say "today your GS will talk to you about XYZ" and then having my GS not doing that, was a huge turn-off. Further, the program implies that the GS will review your food logs and give you daily feedback, holding you accountable for the decisions you make and helping you to make better decisions. Instead, the GS checks in on their own preset schedule, and asks you open-ended questions about how you think you can set goals and improve. If I was able to motivate myself and hold myself accountable, I wouldn't be paying $100+ for a weight loss program. When I called the GS out on this, explaining that I needed someone to hold me accountable because I was failing to do that with myself, I was informed that the psychology used to build the program is proven and that I, essentially, would only succeed if I really thought for myself. Further, when I finally did get her to look at my food logs (totally not a daily review), I didn't get any useful feedback (see aforementioned "open questions").
Group - This is frankly just an absolute mess. The concept for the group is that a "small" group of people, at exactly the same place in the program, are put together to motivate each other, etc. The very first day, very first post from the group leader, it is emphasized how important it is to "thread" the conversations. Think of a typical online forum, or something like Reddit. Someone posts a topic, people respond in that thread. Well, despite emphasizing that, answers to posted questions are consistently posted as new items, rather than responses in the thread. To make matters worse, as you continue through the program, each day there is a suggestion to "share with the group" something specific. It'd be great if, given the fact that everyone is on the same day of the program, there could be a post created for those topics that everyone could thread under, but no. Instead, you get random statements that by themselves mean nothing, posted as new threads by every member. Going to the group for suggestions, or advice on how to succeed is ultimately a pointless endeavor, as everyone is at the same place in the program you are and the group leader works under the same philosophies as the Goal Specialist, in that they believe in the psychology of making you answer your own questions and being accountable for yourself.
Weight Loss - I joined Noom because with the other program I had been following, for literally the past 17 years off and on, I would plateau and get frustrated. I figured if I switched programs while I was at that plateau, it would spark something in me. Instead, while I lost 5lbs the first two weeks, I then gained 3, lost nothing, gained 2, lost 2, lost nothing, gained 2, lost 1, lost nothing...etc. The same rollercoaster I had been on with the prior program, or while trying this on my own.
Bottom Line: By week 4, I was already done. I was behind in my readings, I was getting absolutely no motivation from my GS, and the group was such a mess it did nothing but irritate me each time I tried to visit it. Ultimately, Noom did nothing for me other than teach me that ultimately, I need to find something that doesn't leave it up to me. I need to be given directions on what to do to succeed, and held accountable. Some people will find Noom works amazingly for them. They'll stay on top of it, they'll find "ah ha" moments in the daily readings, and they'll do amazing. For me, a serial weight loss program failure, it turned out to be nothing different than what I can get from a (free) motivational subreddit and a (free) calorie counting app such as MyFitnessPal. Unfortunately, it wasn't until the 2 weeks mark, when there is no going back (the cost of the program is deducted from your account) that I started to see just how little it was truly offering for the cost.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
