Is Noom the best diet for weight loss?
As I know that many people will be embarking on a weight loss journey this new year, I thought it would be a good time to look at some more popular weight loss diets. I don’t think any fad diet will lead to sustainable weight loss. But I think it’s always worth showing both sides of the story. This time we’re looking at Noom.
What is Noom?
Noom is a subscription based weight loss programme that
sells itself as being backed by psychology and behaviour change science. They
promote eating mindfully, stopping dieting, and building healthy habits that
will last a lifetime.
Sounds good so far, right?
Negatives of Noom:
On the surface, Noom sounds like the weight loss programme
we’ve all been waiting for. But there’s more to the story.
It’s calorie counting but with a nicer name:
Foods in the green category are the least energy dense but
the most nutrient dense. These are the foods they say you should eat the most
of daily. Foods in the yellow category are more energy dense than the green
foods. While red foods are the most energy dense or least nutrient dense. Red
foods should be eaten sparingly and shouldn’t be a regular part of your diet.
Some of the foods are placed in categories that can be quite
confusing. For example, nuts are placed in the red category. And while they are
energy dense, they’re full of nutrients like zinc, selenium, and vitamin E so
they can be a great way to add nutrition to your diet. Beans and legumes are
placed in the yellow category, which means you should be more mindful of eating
these. But legumes are a good source of plant based protein and fibre.
Associating foods with colours can lead to feeling ‘good’ or
‘bad’ for eating certain things. Green is often associated with being right, correct, or good while red usually means incorrect, stop, or an error. Tying feelings
to foods doesn’t seem like the best option if you’re trying to create a healthy
relationship with food.
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I can appreciate what Noom is trying to do by making you
more aware of the energy and nutrient content of different foods. But the
traffic light system can be confusing and can lead to negative connotations
with food. You may start to associate the red foods with feelings of guilt and
do your best to restrict them, which can leave you wanting them more.
So, while Noom sells itself as a psychology backed programme, I’m not so convinced. It seems to be that it’s calorie counting in disguise.
It can be borderline disordered eating:
It also gets very close to the line of disordered eating by
saying that you can exercise to earn more calories. So, if you log your
exercise, you’ll get more calories in your daily budget. The idea of exercising
to earn calories screams diet culture. And it tells me you’re exercising for
all the wrong reasons. Exercising because you enjoy it, or because you can feel
yourself getting fitter, is the best way to ensure you’re more likely to stick
to it in the long term.
And research has shown that tracking your calories and your exercise can lead to some eating disorder symptoms. This isn’t to say that everyone who tracks using Noom will show eating disorder symptoms but, in some people, it can be a slippery slope into something more harmful. Some of the symptoms that can develop include: being overly concerned and anxious about your food intake, and excessive calorie restriction.
Focuses mainly on weight:
Another thing about Noom is that there is a lot of emphasis
on weight. And you may be thinking, isn’t this obvious as it’s a weight loss
programme? But Noom asks people to weigh themselves daily to help them ‘keep on
track’.
Your weight will fluctuate every day. And it will do this
regardless of your weight loss efforts. Weight can be affected by many things
like your hormones, your fluid intake, exercise, and your bowel habits.
Noom say that daily weighing will remove your fear of the
scales, but if you’re not seeing the results you want, this can be more
damaging. And as Noom will tell you, you just need to put in ‘more effort’ or
have ‘more willpower’ to get the scales moving again. But this isn’t always the
case. Sometimes you will be trying your best, but this won't be reflected on
the scales on that particular day.
By putting so much emphasis on the number on the scale it
can make you feel worse about yourself and mean you lose motivation. It could
be more helpful to have other daily measures of progress that aren’t weight
focused, like energy levels.
Our metabolism is complex, and weight loss will always be
challenging. Noom places all the responsibility on you to change your weight
and if you’re not able to, then it tells you you're not trying hard enough which isn't always the case.
There are few things that I’d say aren’t quite right with
Noom, but in order to provide balance, I’ll give some of the good stuff about
them too.
Benefits of Noom:
Incorporates behavioural psychology:
Noom makes good use of psychology to help you understand
your eating habits. Gaining a better understanding of your behaviour can help
when making change.
One way Noom does this well is the use of behaviour chains. This is where they get you to think of the triggers for your actions and then you can plan ahead to prepare for future triggers.
However,
some of the language used when explaining this can have subtle negative
undertones. There’s one example of eating cheese at a party and ‘snatching’ a
piece of gouda. Using the word snatch can suggest that you’re out of control
and taking food without thinking.
Mindless eating may be something you struggle with, but there’s better way to discover this without language that can bring feelings of shame.
Tries to help you understand nutrition:
As I mentioned earlier, Noom uses a colour coding system for
foods. And while I don’t agree with linking colours to foods, I can understand
their reasoning behind this. The app is trying to teach you more about the
nutrient density in foods. And as you log your meals, it offers swaps for things
so that you’re eating more from the green section.
The aim is to get you thinking more about your meals and the
nutritional content of them, so that you can make healthier choices more of a
habit. But the colour categories are oversimplified and can lead to a more
negative relationship with food.
Weight loss:
And finally, the part you’ve all been waiting for. Will Noom
lead to weight loss?
Using Noom will likely lead to weight loss. 77.9% of people
that use the app lose weight. With 22.7% of people losing more than 10% of
their body weight. People that are more engaged with the app are likely to lose
more weight.
However, whether this weight loss will be maintained in the long term is unknown, as people tend to use the app for less than a year and then stop engaging. Losing weight in the short term is a good outcome but sustaining the weight loss is also really important. So, if you want to lose weight for good, it might be worth trying another method that's more tried and tested.
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Overall, using Noom can lead to weight loss. But whether
this weight loss will be long lasting and leave you with a healthy relationship
with food is another question. If you want to ditch calorie counting and try
some other ways to lose weight, I’ve got lots of blog posts here:
How to lose weight without starving yourself
Why your diet keeps failing: Part 1 and Part 2
What's the best diet for weight loss?
Key points:
- Noom is a weight loss programme that uses behaviour change psychology to help you stop dieting.
- Noom uses calorie counting and a colour coding system to group foods. This can lead to disordered eating and a negative relationship with food.
- Noom focuses on weighing yourself daily and puts the blame on you if you’re not losing weight.
- Noom tries to use behaviour change science, but the delivery of some messages may leave you feeling worse.
- They also try to teach you about the nutrition in your food but do it in a way that might not be the most helpful.
- Noom will likely lead to weight loss in the short term if you engage with the app. But long term weight loss is unknown.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post! I’d love to hear your
thoughts.
Bye for now! 👋
References:
BDA Dietetics Today magazine May 2022
Edition, article – Noom: a dietitians experience
https://www.noom.com/blog/behavior-chain/
https://www.noom.com/blog/behavior-change-101-the-behavior-chain/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5098151/
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