Noom?

[hbridge]

Does anyone use Noom? It was recommended to me, but seems VERY expensive. My goal is not so much weight loss, as to set good habits. HOWEVER, I also have severe food restrictions so I am not sure if this will even work for me.

Does anyone have any opinions?

Thanks so much.

[gymnbomb]

No personal experience, but my Aunt does it and likes it. One thing she specifically mentioned liking was that there are no foods she "can't" eat with it.

[California]

A good friend had an incredible experience with Noom. Lost weight, felt like she made some mental breakthroughs, and has kept the weight off for two years. She said it was the mental shift that really made the difference for her.

[echoesofspring]

I think it could be useful if you haven't done a lot of weight loss programs/diets before. The people I know who've been successful with it generally didn't have a lot of weight loss experience and seemed to appreciate the 'you can eat anything approach'. I just retried it thinking maybe it had changed since I last did it (when they were called out for suggesting calorie counts that were drastically low). I quit after 2 days - I find the tone of the articles and the simplified (color coded) food logging just too patronizing to me. I got frustrated seeing healthy higher cal foods (almonds) marked as 'red' same as unhealthy high calorie foods (potato chips), but I'm used to tracking carbs/fats/protein. Under the covers their food tracking is really just calorie counting/rewarding low calorie density. That being said you can eat anything so it should work with any restrictions. And quitting after 2 days of the trial was easy (again, they got into trouble a few years ago making it difficult to cancel the sub)

[StantonHyde]

Weight Watchers is very good at teaching good habits. When i did it, I tried the CORE program and really changed my eating. They have switched to more of a CORE approach so that healthier foods are free/low points while unhealthy foods with the same calorie count "cost" more. So it pushes you to eat healthier, less processed foods. You can eat what you want and take into account your restrictions.

[Kindra178]

Try Carbon.


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[ahisma]

I tried it a few years ago. I liked it for the first few weeks, but not beyond that. I think it depends on the coach. Mine was very clearly just going through the paces (who can blame them, I'm sure it's a very low paid gig) and it felt almost like I was engaging with an AI interface - very scripted, etc. For me, the level of personalization that I need for true accountability just wasn't there.

[hbridge]

OP here, Thanks everyone. I am not looking for weight loss/diet as much as structure and stress reduction... Noom was recommended by a medical professional. I am NOT app driven so I don't see this working too well for me.

[echoesofspring]

I am not looking for weight loss/diet as much as structure and stress reduction

Hmm stress reduction discussion in Noom's program is mostly around 'stress can hurt your ability to lose weight' or 'stress may be triggering emotional eating', etc. And that part of the program is just going to be a couple min of reading a day and then it's up to you do something with it. Like I didn't really find anything in their discussion of it that isn't available lots of places, and when you start it, they ask if you have some various meditation and exercise apps already so it's kind of like they are planning to shuttle you off to those.

What about Headspace? It started as a meditation app, but it's really grown beyond that in terms of content. I just looked at it and they have about 16 different little 'mindful eating' guided activities when you search food, and I'm sure even more around around "stress". And they seem to have a whole section of content devoted to women (I haven't checked it out yet, I mostly use the app to help put DD to sleep). Is that the kind of thing you might be looking for?

[elephantmeg]

I lost 40 lbs on it a couple years ago (of which I gained 15 lbs back as I was finishing up my masters-practicum kicked my but!-that I am trying to lose again).
Pros: learning why I ate and ways to eat so I felt full and not deprived was amazing. I have been able to pick those habits back up again without noom now
A lot of what I learned in the short lessons was super helpful-why I eat, why I make choices, what are better choices at a restaurant-have really helped my gain to not be as bad AND have helped me get back on track
Cons: their tracker isn't as good as say my fitness pal BUT for a while seeing foods that were better choices (lower calories for the bulk) was super helpful and again I've been able to go back to those
Con: I really, really liked my coach and I gather that isn't part of the program now (or it's extra). The personal coaching was key for me. But for others it wasn't helpful. You have to think about the coaching like email-not like text. They would get back to you in a day or so. But my coach was fabulous.
One tip is to register to the point where you are about to put in your credit card. They will often email you a discount the next day

There is a noom book that I picked up recently and another resource is the book atomic habits. I also learned a lot from the half sized me podcast and the community. They all have similar messaging. Small, consistent habits that you can sustain make a difference. All or nothing thinking does not help (oh so I ate all this stuff so I'm just not going to log at all the rest of the day/week/month).

One other thing that has helped me is pre tracking my food for the next day. For some reason it is so much easier than tracking what I ate. I have no idea why.

ETA just read your update re stress etc. Have you looked at silk and sonder? I'm loving it!