What we like about it: Noom makes the nuts and bolts of weight loss (calories in/calories out) both educational and fun. It uses quizzes, humor, and very human language — it’s like talking with a nonjudgemental friend. But along the way, you’re learning real and useful information about habit formation, how metabolism works, and what it actually takes to lose weight sensibly and keep it off.
It’s also backed by research. One study of more than 500 adults found that food and exercise logging, along with coaching through Noom, was more effective for weight loss over 6 months than food logging or personalized coaching alone.
A newer feature, Success Kit, provides support resources like grocery planning, healthy food swaps, workouts, and meditations.
How it works: Using information you provide through a series of prompts, Noom generates a customized plan that includes a timeline for your weight loss goals, a suggested daily calorie range, and behavioral encouragements, such as helping you to understand the “why” behind your goal.
In addition to meal tracking (and tracking other things, like water consumption and activity), it offers nutritional guidance by sorting foods into colored categories (green, yellow, orange), and offers daily reading with quizzes. You can also get ideas for food substitutions and recipes.
Plus, you’ll have a health coach who can provide accountabilityand help you set realistic weekly goals to keep you on track.
Noom subscription costs range from $70 per month to $209 per year, with costs dropping for longer subscriptions.
Additionally, Noom offers a weight loss medication service, Noom Med, which costs $49 more per month, not including the cost of medication.
Considerations: As a calorie-counting tool, Noom may not be the right fit for everyone. In some people, calorie counting can increase the risk of disordered eating. Plus, as our tester noted, the app may set your calorie goals too low (though you can adjust them).
Additionally, Noom’s color coding system may discourage consumption of higher calorie foods that are nonetheless nutritionally dense.
