Noom First Impressions

Maybe it’s all the NPR, but the name Noom has been popping up over and over in my life and I finally got curious enough to try it. I’ve been in and out of weight watchers for years. I know weight watchers works…if you work it. But that’s the trouble. I was paying every month, going to the meetings, and not tracking my food or changing my eating habits. So obviously it was not working for me.

I don’t know why I’ve been struggling to follow the plan with weight watchers and I am skeptical that there’s really any better program out there. Weight watchers is so reasonable about letting you eat everything in moderation, making lifestyle changes, and keeping up to date with weight loss science. But I quit because I wasn’t doing the work and there’s no point in paying $40 a month when I’m not doing what I need to do.

Along Comes Noom

How could Noom be any better for weight loss than weight watchers? I know there’s no magic bullet for weight loss. So the question is, will the Noom program get me to do what I’m supposed to be doing better than weight watchers?

And Actually I Think It Will

There’s a trial period with Noom so I decided to sign up and find out more about what makes Noom different.

So far I am on day seven. So early on it’s easy to get all excited and think “This will be it! I’m finally going to lose weight!” but I’ve failed enough times to be more cautious about new weight loss programs.

My Weight Struggles

My struggle with weight really started around age 30. I had a bad attitude about weight before then, thinking I was fat and starving myself down to far below a healthy size even though I was a good proportional size. (As with many of us, family didn’t help. My grandmother used to always make comments about how I might gain weight. I definitely felt that I wasn’t as worth of love if I were heavier).

Despite always being around 120 lbs (and 5’4″) around age 30 I just suddenly started gaining weight rapidly. I tried diet programs like intermittent fasting (which had worked for me in my early twenties), and an all liquid diet that my husband swears by. I lost no weight. I was around 150 lbs at that point.

We didn’t figure out what was going on until we started trying to get pregnant. That’s when I found out that my thyroid had stopped working properly and that I had PCOS, which is also known to have a side effect of weight gain.

In order to get pregnant I went on a very strict diet (among other things). It was low carb and vegan. It was far too intensive for me to keep up long term and I didn’t lose weight, but I did get pregnant.

During pregnancy I went up to 180 lbs.

After I had my son breastfeeding did nothing to help me lose baby weight! In fact by the time I got pregnant with my daughter two years later I was the same weight I was when I went to the birth center to have my son.

I was terrified to hit 200 lbs while pregnant with my daughter, but it’s not like we really have a ton of control over how our body gains weight in pregnancy. Somehow I stopped gaining just shy of 200.

Once again breastfeeding did nothing to help my weight loss. This month my daughter turns one and I am 185 lbs. Given that I have gained a lot of muscle from carrying my kids around I know that 150 lbs will be a good healthy weight for me.

Higher weight or being built more sturdy does not directly equate to bad health but for me a healthy amount of weight for me to be carrying is in that 150 range.

So I’m trying to lose about 35 lbs.

Things I Like About Noom

It is very guided. Each day I’m lead through learning techniques to deal with food triggers or stay motivated or any number of psychological tools. And many are things I’ve never heard of or thought of before.

There is food tracking involved but for some reason I’m less obsessive about it than I am with weight watchers. In other words I’m satisfied getting the basic idea rather than needing to know the exact brand of each bite.

Noom’s food system focuses on color coding food: green, yellow, and red. Green foods are what we think of as healthy foods but Noom explains why they are good for us. It also encourages balance in eating all three colors. You can see the break down of colors in your food log and I could quickly see I’m eating almost no green foods. Seeing that break down makes me want to fill up that green bar!

Noom also guides you in making goals and has a great fill-in-the-blank with suggestions so you don’t have to come up with a S.M.A.R.T. goal from scratch.

Then there are two coaches who talk to you one on one and pretty soon I’ll be added to a group of people who are in a similar place in their weight loss journey.

There’s also a lot of humor. The writing in the app feels warm and kind and easy to relate to.

Will Noom Work? Will It Last?

The only thing that really matters in a weight loss program is whether it can be maintained forever.

They say not to yo-yo diet but you don’t know you’re yo-yo dieting at the time. We always hope that this time will be it, lasting change.

There’s a lot of talk about a lifestyle not a diet, but what does that really mean? To me it’s overwhelming because it means not getting to enjoy the foods I do now.

I appreciate that Noom has a strong emphasis on long term shifts. And digging deep into the psychological and emotional basis of my relationship with food.

I have a lot of hope that this method will work for me.

Sign Up For The Noom Trial

After the trial the cost to continue is actually a little less than what I was paying for weight watchers! Plus you can use this link to sign up and get 20% off.

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