After four weeks of using Noom, I had lost 11.8 pounds, but the biggest change was how I handled cravings, restaurant meals, and imperfect food choices. This Noom review focuses on that experience rather than explaining every program feature.
I paid for Noom myself and am not affiliated with the company. I joined because I already knew how to lose weight; I needed help breaking the thought patterns that repeatedly caused me to regain it.
Why I Decided to Try Noom
In August 2018, I began another weight loss journey and lost 65 pounds by March 2019. Over the following years, I repeatedly gained and lost weight until I eventually regained 42 pounds.
Low-carb diets worked for me temporarily, but I treated them as all-or-nothing:
- I followed the diet perfectly for several weeks.
- I eventually gave in to a craving.
- One off-plan food made me feel as though I had ruined everything.
- I ate everything I had been avoiding and promised to restart the next day.
- One day turned into weeks or months of unhealthy habits.
Exercise followed the same pattern. When I stopped eating well, I had less energy, skipped workouts, and wondered why I should exercise if I was not following my diet.
After seeing advertisements and reading reviews, I tried Noom through its free trial. I did not need another list of foods to eat or avoid. I wanted help changing how I thought about food, cravings, and weight loss.
My Experience During the First Four Weeks
After four weeks, I honestly did not know whether I could fully express the difference Noom had made for me. Everyone is different and must find what works for them, but at that point in my journey, I believed Noom was the missing piece I had been searching for.
The program did not make me feel as though I was following another restrictive diet. Instead, the lessons focused on the psychology behind what, when, and why I ate. They encouraged me to recognize physical, environmental, and emotional triggers rather than dividing every food into good or bad categories.
During those first four weeks, I noticed several important changes:
- I did not feel guilty about everything I ate.
- I allowed myself to enjoy foods I craved without feeling deprived.
- The number on the scale did not control my emotions as strongly.
- I began looking beyond the scale when measuring progress.
- I intentionally chose healthier foods instead of eating them because I felt forced to.
- One unplanned choice no longer meant that I had ruined the entire day.
The first change was the most freeing. I could eat something I wanted without using it as an excuse to abandon every other healthy choice.
Making Different Choices in Real Life
Restaurants, desserts, and fast-food cravings were situations that previously made me feel as though I had ruined my diet. During my first four weeks with Noom, I began approaching them differently.
Eating at Chili’s Without Feeling Guilty
When my husband suggested Chili’s, my first reaction was that eating out would ruin my progress. Instead, I reviewed the nutrition information and ordered sirloin steak with grilled avocado and asparagus. I still enjoyed some chips, salsa, and queso. The important change was that I made an intentional choice, enjoyed the meal, and did not feel guilty afterward.
Enjoying a Small Piece of Brownie
While baking salted caramel brownies for my husband, I licked the spoon and ate a piece about the size of a quarter. That small amount satisfied the craving. Previously, tasting one brownie might have led to eating several because I believed I had already failed. This time, I logged it and moved on.
Changing My Taco Bell Order
Taco Bell had often triggered an unhealthy eating spiral. During my first four weeks with Noom, I ate it twice without allowing either meal to derail the rest of my day.
| Previous order | New order |
|---|---|
| Two burritos | One bean burrito |
| Taco and nacho fries | One or two tacos |
| Extra sauce | No extra sauce |
| Large Cherry Pepsi | No soda |
The second time, I ordered only one burrito and one taco because I realized I did not need more. Taco Bell had not become healthy; I had simply learned that satisfying one craving did not require abandoning every other healthy choice.
How Daily Weigh-Ins Changed the Scale for Me
Before Noom, I hated weighing myself. I did not even enjoy weighing myself once a week, so stepping on the scale every day sounded terrible.
The scale had too much emotional power over me. If I believed I had eaten perfectly all week and saw a small loss, no change, or a gain, I became discouraged. I expected a dramatic reward for avoiding all the foods I had labeled as bad.
When I did not receive that reward, I might decide the effort was pointless and head directly to Taco Bell.
Surprisingly, weighing myself every day began taking some of that power away. Instead of expecting one large weekly loss, I saw normal daily fluctuations. The number gradually became information rather than a judgment about whether I had succeeded or failed.
At one point, my weight stayed exactly the same for three days. I was irritated, but I did not allow it to change what I was doing. Looking back at that week, normal monthly changes likely influenced the scale.
My Noom Results
At the four-week mark, my results looked like this:
- Time using Noom: Four weeks
- Weight lost: 11.8 pounds
- Most noticeable change: Less guilt surrounding food
- Biggest challenge: Letting go of all-or-nothing thinking
- Unexpected benefit: Becoming less emotional about daily weigh-ins
I am an accountant, so tracking progress comes naturally to me. My weight did not decrease in a perfectly straight line. Some days it increased, and other days it did not change at all. What mattered was the overall trend.
In September, I began using a Renpho smart scale to track estimated body composition alongside my weight. Seeing more than one measurement reminded me that the number on the scale did not tell the entire story.
My Honest Noom Review
At the four-week mark, Noom felt different from the restrictive diets I had tried before. It required commitment, but its focus on thought patterns addressed the part of weight loss I had struggled to manage on my own.
Noom will not work the same way for everyone. For someone who already understands nutrition but struggles with perfection, guilt, and repeatedly starting over, its psychology-based approach may offer a more sustainable way forward.