Getting started on the noom diet plan involves answering questions no diet plan has ever asked me before.
1. take a test for a personalized plan.
The first step of the program is a 10-minute online questionnaire that asks typical questions about your height, weight, gender, age, and why you want to lose weight. It also asks how active you are, how often you eat, and if you’re at risk for certain health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and depression.
then ask questions like “has a life event caused you to gain weight in recent years?” and “why aren’t you sure you’ll reach your weight loss goals?” pop-up window to assess habits and behaviors.
2. pay, then download the app to your smartphone and create a login.
once you have decided to join the program and paid the fee, you need to download the noom app. It is currently only available on iOS (12.4 or later) and Android (version 6 or later) smartphones. You can use it on iPad and Android tablets, but the functionality will be limited because tablets don’t normally come with motion sensors (noom has a step counter). Once you’ve installed the app, you’ll be prompted to sign in with the email address you used to join the program.
3. meet your trainers, commit to lessons, and get your calorie budget.
noom asks you to complete 10 psychology and behavior change mini-lessons in 16 weeks. you decide immediately whether you want to spend a minimum of five minutes or a maximum of 16 minutes a day on the lessons. About two days later, you’ll connect with a goal coach who will check in with you personally about twice a week to check on your progress, ask about your progress, and send you messages of encouragement.
a few more days into the program, you will be assigned a group coach and a group of partners. the group coach moderates the peer group chat, posts weight loss tips, and sometimes replies to individual posts. Both the goal coach and the group coach are trained in all things noom and have a bachelor’s or associate’s degree, plus 2,000 hours of wellness experience.
Your calorie restrictions are based on your information. For some obese and prediabetic people, Noom might recommend its Diabetes Prevention Program, the first mobile health program to be recognized by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for offering a type 2 diabetes prevention program based on on the evidence.
Your personalized plan assigns a daily calorie budget (the minimum calories you need to function each day) and requires you to log your meals and physical activity daily. You also decide if you want to spend two to ten minutes a day reading short articles on positive thinking, mindful eating, and stress relief.
On top of all this, noom has a step counter, so as long as your phone is on all day, you’ll know how many steps you’ve taken in total. The app encourages you to record daily blood pressure readings, blood glucose levels, and water intake.
the noom plan is designed to last 16 weeks, but we encourage you to purchase up to twelve months at a time to lose weight and keep it off. to reach my goal of losing 12 pounds, my calorie budget was 1,250 calories per day for 16 weeks. when I logged my food, the app let me know how many calories I had left in each food category (see below) for the day. There were no warnings when I went over my calorie budget, just messages of encouragement to stick with the plan and lessons to help me examine what triggered my day (or week) of poor eating.
