Why I Recommend Noom

In my post, How I Lost 80 Pounds, I talked about how I lost the bulk of my weight by using Noom. I have had some questions about how the Noom app works, since it’s difficult to find detailed information about it online. Noom doesn’t tell you much about how their program works and I suspect that is part of why it’s so effective for many people. I had heard of it, watched the commercials on TV and ads on social media, but it took a friend sharing a positive recommendation on Facebook last spring for me to sign up.

I don’t want to reveal too much about how Noom works so that it retains its effectiveness, but I will share a few important things that might help you decide if Noom is right for you.

What Noom Does:

• Educates you and helps you change some of your beliefs about food, exercise, etc. through proven science and psychology.
• Motivates and inspires you. It’s a feel good program! No shame or judgment.
• Gives you access to an easy to use app with which to record your weight, exercise, and food. It also allows you to save articles you might want to re-read later and Noom comes with a recipe database.
• Provides you with a coach you may contact privately if you need her/him.
• Provides you with a group for support from other Noomers. Your coach leads the group and will post questions, inspiring messages and other information regularly.

What Noom Doesn’t Do:

• Noom itself is NOT a diet!

I’ve always wanted to be able to eat in the real world while maintaining a healthy weight. At 52, I didn’t think that was possible. Having done some form of keto/low-carb/Atkins many times since 2004, with initial success but ultimate failure, I was done giving up entire food categories in an attempt to lose weight. Noom gently guided me into a lifestyle where every food is an option for me. And it’s a lifestyle I know will be sustainable for me longterm, hopefully forever.

A Typical Day on Noom:

• Weigh in, read that day’s articles, log your food, log your exercise.

Noom gradually gives you information for you to absorb, ponder and see how it applies to your life. That is where the magic is and why I recommend Noom. It has been worth every penny!

Someone asked if there is anything I don’t like about Noom. I don’t love to measure, weigh and log my food every dang day but it gets easier and almost automatic after awhile. I like having the information recorded and it’s been a big part of how I learned about portion-sizing and what foods are calorically high and low.

A Few More Things I Love About Noom:

• Noom tells you what to expect on your weight loss journey.

In the Noom articles you read, you are often told (or warned) what to expect during your weight loss journey. For instance, Noom let’s you know from the early stages that your weight loss will not be a straight trajectory in a southerly direction. Don’t expect to see a drop in your weight every time you step on the scale. That is not going to happen.

There will be spikes to the north, long plateaus, and anything but a straight downward line. If you zoom in and look at a 3-week weight graph of mine, you can see the numbers zigzagging all over the place. Knowing ahead of time that I would consistently experience up and downs – that everyone does – helped me to stay the course.

But then take a wide view of my overall weight loss – 8 months – which doesn’t show those crazy up and downs/ What it does show is a lovely declining trajectory.

If you keep adding your weight into the app’s graph, you’ll have it to look back on. So now I know how much I weighed on say, August 11, 2020 (193 lbs.), if I want that info for some reason. More importantly, I have a visual to remind me of just how far I’ve come. I often looked at my graph for motivation along the way.

• You can choose how quickly you want to lose weight.

When setting up your profile, you can decide how fast you want to lose weight. There is a scale with nine speeds, varying from “tortoise” to “cheetah” and speeds in between. Of course the faster you go, the less calories per day you will have to work with. I have tried them all and found the middle, which is the hare, is best for me.

Please feel free to ask me questions about Noom or anything else. I am happy to answer them!

Adrienne