It’s no surprise that dieting is hard, no matter the kind of dieting you do. As it is, our world is designed in a way that makes losing weight hard. Experts call it an “obesogenic” landscape, which is a world where it’s difficult to avoid gaining weight. So, chances are that one can be more successful if there are personalized everyday reminders and tips for exercise, eating, and cooking, rather than doing it alone. This is where the Noom personalized plans win the day. Noom doesn’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. Rather, they have a long-term and wide-angled approach to health, which helps individuals approach weight loss differently by shifting their mindset.
Noom doesn’t focus on quick results; it teaches people about good nutrition, the importance of physical activity, and shifting weight perspectives by tailoring successful meal plans to every person. So, how do the health app’s personalized plans work towards improving overall health? Read on.
Important note: Before starting any new diet plans, it’s best to consult with registered dieticians or healthcare providers, especially if you have underlying health conditions.
How Noom Works
What makes Noom tick is that they approach everyone’s target weight and health goal differently. The first step is to download the app, which is available for free on both Android and iOS devices. Next, users need to complete detailed online quizzes that ask everything about the user: their weight and health goals, weight history, as well as health conditions, which generates a personalized plan and suggested program time length. Additionally, the app also has a detailed to-do list day-by-day, which usually includes reading brief but important psychology-based lessons and articles on food, exercise, and health, logging exercise and foods into the app, and reviewing progress charts. Apart from this, what drew us in was the fact that the Noom app also had us engaging with a ton of in-app support, such as coaches, groups, health communities, and even structured programs like Noom Move workouts.
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The Starting Point And Area Of Focus
Demographic Profile
All of Noom‘s personalized plans begin with a detailed questionnaire of your physical characteristics, health problems, and weight targets before delving into deeper questions to determine what drives weight loss for you.
To begin with, Noom asked us for our weight loss goal, sex, gender identity (after all, you need to take that into account), and whether or not we are pregnant (plans will differ). Next, it asked us details of our anthropometric measurements, including our age range, height, current weight, and whether or not we had any health conditions. It also asked in detail about whether or not we’d been diagnosed with diabetes, whether we had an active diagnosis of any eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, etc.), and the ideal weight we wanted to reach.
Motivation Behind Weight Loss
Determining what triggered your weight loss spree and what’s motivating you is a big factor in Noom‘s plans, especially since it’s an indicator of how dedicated you will be. After all, having something to look forward to could prove to be a huge motivator to stick to a diet plan. So, they ask about whether you have any important upcoming events and the pace at which you want the plan to proceed (quick or longer but more realistically sustainable). Finally, they made sure to find out whether we’re currently taking any GLP-1 medications, such as Zepbound, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Ozempic, etc.
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Behavioural Profile
Simply designing a weight loss program on the basis of one’s physical characteristics and weight target is not what Noom believes in. Since its idea is to modify inherent behavior for the good, the next set of questions in their questionnaire revolves around your general behavior towards food, fitness, and health. This Behavioral Profile Quiz has 10 questions, each of which helps Noom hone in on what we really feel about weight and weight loss.
For instance, it asked us questions like whether achieving a weight goal was important for progress in other areas of our lives, whether we’d love our bodies more or less, regardless of our weights, and how often we thought about our weight. What’s more, it also asked us what we thought the biggest barriers to achieving our weight goals were (internal/external) and whether weight loss management was our ultimate goal or the key to something else.
It also asked us questions about where our motivation for weight loss stemmed from, how constant and consistent it was, and what we thought having good health meant for ourselves. Finally, it sought to understand what weight loss programs meant to us: whether they could be a teachable moment and whether we needed one to reach our weight goals. Not to forget, it also asked us the best of the day that we’d read about Noom’s daily lessons which would help us reach our goals.
After decoding our behavioral profile, Noom then draws inferences about whether we need to put in effort, whether we need external motivation, or whether we need the structure and support to stay on track and keep moving toward our goals.
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Holistic Health and Weight Loss – Food, Fitness, and More
Food And Eating Habits
When it comes to personalized meal plans, you can’t have one without knowing what you used to eat or still enjoy eating in the first place. Noom‘s next set of questions revolved around our food and fitness routines, what we liked eating, doing, and, equally important, not doing.
For instance, the questions included what we’d eaten in the last week, whether we craved/enjoyed anything from wine, bacon, honey, or cheese (or nothing), and foods we’d eat (cucumbers, tomatoes, greens, salads, bananas, or none). Next, Noom also asked us about any physical limitations, what else we’d like to explore with weight loss (metabolism changes, better sleep, etc.), how frequently we experienced stress, and what we’d do or eat when we felt stressed or overwhelmed (meditate, breathe, exercise, drink alcohol, eat junk food, or none).
An important part of this line of questioning included questions on weight and self-esteem, whether we’d noticed weight changes despite diets staying the same, and whether we’d experienced changes like lack of energy and shifts in muscle mass or weight as we’d gotten older.
Physical Activity
No matter how much we don’t like it, there’s no denying that physical activity and exercise do play an important role in holistic health and weight loss. Hence, Noom’s next set of questions was all about our physical activity, including how often we engaged in regular physical activity, how we felt about it, and whether we were interested in finding activities that suited our bodies.
Sleep
It’s shocking how much we overlook sleep as one of the biggest health factors in our lives. While we’ve been harping about a good night’s sleep half our lives, how much are we taking our own advice? Noom sets out to find that out with another set of questions, including how we’d rate the quality of our sleep over the previous month, what sleep-related problems we’ve faced over the previous month (difficulties in falling or staying asleep, tossing and turning, etc.), and whether we feel alert and rested after a night’s sleep.
Motivation Levels
Finally, Noom tries to understand the flow of our emotions, as it helps them customize our program. So, they asked questions about whether our motivation to lose weight changed over time, whether we needed any external motivation, whether we wanted to achieve something else besides our weight loss goal, what we thought of snacking, mindful eating, and daily weigh-ins.
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Noom Support
One of the best things about Noom‘s personalized food and weight loss programs was that they offered lots of support. Noom not only had blogs and articles that it would send us every day, but it also had guides and coaches who would help us not only identify our goals, but also stick to them and even plan how to get there. Moreover, Noom’s messaging feature got us not only regular feedback from personal coaches, but they even motivated us towards our weight loss goals and helped us overcome obstacles along the way.
Moreover, Noom also had a whole lot of other features that made our plan feel very personalized. These included virtual support groups throughout the 16-week program, articles and interactive challenges about nutrition, weight loss, and exercise, personality quizzes, and calorie calculators. Altogether, it helped focus our effort and energy where we needed to for the best results.
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Dietary Restrictions With Noom
Last but not least, one of the best things about Noom‘s weight loss plans was that it had no dietary restrictions, and we could eat anything while we were following it. Yes! Basically, Noom has three categories of foods: orange (calorie-dense items like chocolate, bacon, etc.), yellow (low-fat dairy, proteins, legumes), and green (high-fluid, high-fiber foods).
However, they tell us not to avoid these orange foods altogether. Rather, the idea is to balance them with lots and lots of yellow and green foods. That’s what makes norms diet not only doable but also sustainable, as none of your favorite foods are off the table. The best bit? Nomurs have verified that following this personalized diet even reduced their cravings towards calorie-dense foods, and when they would have them, they’d enjoy them more. Finally, did we mention that even if you’re already on a diet, even if it’s a specific one, such as a keto, low carb, or a gluten free one, Noom’s weight plans take those into account while designing a new one for you.
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Is there a free version of Noom?
No, not really. Besides the free trials, Noom requires users to pay to access any of its features.
Also read: The Best Percussion Massagers For Cellulite.
Does Noom prescribe Ozempic?
While Noom’s standard version doesn’t, the 2023-launched Noom Med is allowed to prescribe GLP-1 drugs to specific users who’ve received health evaluations from physicians and have undergone lab work.
Does the Noom diet restrict certain foods entirely?
No, that’s what sets Noom apart from other weight loss programs. All of its orange foods (calorie-dense foods) can be consumed with portion and calorie control and awareness.
Some images on this article are copyrighted by Noom.