(Ed Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with, not an employee of, and not compensated by Noom. I am just a very satisfied customer.)
The last year has impacted pretty much everyone on the planet. The day the lockdowns were announced, I was well below my goal weight. By the one-year anniversary of the lockdown I, along with most of the people I know, had gained 15#.
It wasn't due to lack of exercise, because all through that year I was walking, biking, hiking, doing my steps videos, and working in the garden. For me, it was much more about my emotional triggers: boredom, restlessness, loneliness, uncertainty. I've always been an emotional eater, and this was an Emotional Time with a capital E. Normally stress isn't an issue for me, but you add the stress of disagreements about masks, lockdowns and vaccines among friends and family and you have a recipe for storm eating and weight gain.
So, bit by bit, ounce by ounce, the weight climbed. On 4-20-21 I hit what I call a "trigger weight" on the scale, that one that makes you say, "OK this is where I draw the line" and decided to get control. I rejoined Noom under one of their special discounts for returning members, and I found the program to be freshly modified and relevant to these trying times, so I decided to do another mini review.
OK. First the positives:
One of the main problems I had with Noom was their individual "Goal Specialists," the coach you work with on a one-to-one basis, checking in at least once a week. In our group there was this constant questioning as to whether these were really even people or if they were computer generated because the feedback they gave was very automated and completely out of touch with our needs at the time. The responses always sounded like a canned response read from a script. In their defense, I'm sure that these counselors are very limited in the scope of their response by mandated corporate rules. The group coaches, on the other hand, were great: encouraging, full of ideas, and in touch. So I was very pleased when I rejoined to find that you now have the option of choosing between a "coached" approach and a "guided" approach. The "coached" approach was what I had before, where your coach would contact you once a week and you could contact them any time you needed M-F. The "guided" approach is where you only contact them if you have a question or need some specific help but they don't bother you. You still have your daily lessons and have your group assigned to you after two weeks, along with a group coach. This suited me perfectly because I already know what to do, I just need the accountability of the group and not some automatic response telling me what I "need" to do, even if it doesn't apply to my situation.
I also found many of the lessons had been rewritten to be more clear and had references to the challenges presented to us by Covid. The plan has now been structured to include a "Progress" button where you can pull up the graphic at the right. It shows you where you are in the course. I keep a daily "Noom Journal" and it's much easier to take notes from the lessons now because of the clearer structure. A note to get the most out of each lesson: if there are multiple choice questions that you answer that lead you to more pages, sometimes it's helpful to answer them one way, read the following pages, then hit the back button and answer them a different way to see what comes up. There are many of the questions that have multiple answers that apply to me and I've gotten a lot more from the program by doing this. The lessons are like tree branches that diverge into new areas depending on your answers to questions, but sometimes you just need them all.
The next thing I noticed is that their support response time has dramatically improved. I contacted support about an issue over an incorrect food item and they responded within just a couple hours. Pretty impressive.
One of the common complaints with Noom from members was that the billing and automatic renewal amounts were not transparent and difficult to access. This has also been changed. Now you just click on Settings-Manage Subscription and it pops right up. Easy peasy to see and/or change.
OK now the negatives:
The iOS version of the app still needs a lot of work. In the Android version you could input a meal and then simply hit "save meal" and it would save it for you. You could also choose from previous days' meals and it would enter the whole meal again. Handy for people like me who tend to eat the same four or five breakfasts. Now you have to go in and create a meal and save it and then enter that meal from a list. Still a good function, just not anywhere near as handy because sometimes I like to mix up a few things in the meal but don't want to enter the whole meal again. The group chat function is also still way behind the technical times. It's not at all user friendly. There are so many successful forum programs out there that I just don't know why they can't fix this. It's hard to find threads and comment notifications are really wonky. This is true in both iOS and Android.
The food database still has a TON of errors in it. I try to report every single one I find, but there are many. Either the calories are off or the color coding is off on many foods. You can report an inaccuracy by hitting the More button while on a food page, then select Flag a Problem. My advice is to cross-check your info directly from your packaging and from other food sites like My Fitness Pal. Also, when entering a new food for them I found a glitch in the iOS app that won't allow me to enter info down past a certain point before it gets locked behind the keyboard screen. I reported this and they are working on fixing it. Again, I found the tech response to be vastly improved so I know they're trying hard to improve the app and the program in general.
Takeaway:
After one month of rejoin I've lost half of my Quarantine gain. Noom really works, in spite of the few shortcomings. If you're willing to face yourself honestly and dig into the nitty gritty of why you overeat, then Noom will help you achieve your goals.
In case you haven't already read them, here are links to my previous reviews.
I'd love to hear your own experiences with Noom so comment away. And best of luck ditching that Quarantine 15!
