What I learned test-driving the weight loss platform NOOM

Whether it was the stress-eating at the restaurant he ran throughout the pandemic or simply a matter of a lifetime of tastings catching up, when Solomon Siegel weighed himself this summer he didn’t like the number he saw.

In response, he signed up for NOOM, a weight loss platform, app and community whose tag line reads: “Stop Dieting. Get Lifelong Results.” It’s too soon to say if the results are lifelong, but he definitely lost weight — 35 pounds in three months. That’s fast.

“It was probably a little too fast,” says Siegel, co-owner of Pagliacci’s, a family-owned Italian restaurant in Victoria. “But I felt like I had to do it, since I was at about 235 pounds. I think what worked best for me was recording all the food I ate every day, because it really made me conscious about what I wanted to spend the calories on. That made me stop a lot of snacking.”

Despite the fact that NOOM advises eating a balanced diet throughout the day, Siegel found himself hoarding calories, so he could indulge in dinner, paired with a beer or two. Throughout the day, he largely avoided food, with the exception of pickles, since he discovered that they were essentially “free foods” that barely used up any of his calorie allowance. He even started calling it the “pickle diet.”

I can relate, since I’ve also been test-driving the platform for this story. And, since I’ve asked a few registered dietitians (RDs) about it and done some research, I’ve discovered that NOOM is pretty divisive, since some worry that NOOM is more of a diet than an anti-diet and that counting every calorie might lead to more problematic behaviours.

Speaking in broad strokes, aside from the community element, there are essentially three components to NOOM — tracking diet and exercise; learning nutrition science, and using psychology to change habits. The psych component draws from several fields, including cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness and positive psychology. As a user, I’d call it a pretty smart package, delivered up by a diverse crew of narrators in snappy daily lessons.

The nutrition piece emphasizes that no foods are off-limits, since the plan is based on the idea of minimizing calorie-dense food and maxing out things like soups, fresh fruits and veggies which will make you feel full with fewer calories. That’s also the strategy that informs “Volumetrics,” a diet plan developed 20-plus years ago by Penn State’s Barbara Rolls that she refers to as the “best diet nobody’s heard of.”

Why isn’t it more popular? Although it’s fairly simple, figuring out calorie-density of specific foods can be time-consuming. But here’s where NOOM comes in. You don’t have to figure out the caloric density of a food on your own, since, when you log your meals, you find out how dense they are. You could, in fact, use the tool before you eat to see how much of it you should put on your plate.

That’s also the aspect of NOOM that starts to raise eyebrows in RD circles, however, since there’s a worry that intense calorie counting could trigger disordered eating.

“Aiming for weight loss and calorie-restricted diets can create long-term problematic relationships with food and weight and our bodies in general,” says Craig Pacheco, an RD who is launching a new practice in Toronto called Queerly Nutrition. “I try to steer clients away from them, since diets can lead to negative body image problems.

“And any program that restricts calories and aims for weight loss is a diet, even if it masks itself as an anti-diet program.”

Siegel and I can both see how things could get out of control. Siegel hoards calories for beer; I might skip a piece of cheese in the afternoon so there’s room for wine with dinner. Even if we were making healthier trade-offs, there’s a sense in which intensive tracking is an invitation to obsess over every bite of food and every fluctuation on the scale, when we should be aiming for a better diet and lifestyle overall.

To be fair, that last bit is actually what most daily NOOM lessons preach. It’s the platform’s raison d’être. So, it’s sort of like a tracker with a heart of gold.

Here’s the bind, though: metrics are the lifeblood and selling feature of all apps. Humans love to see charts and graphs that purport to map out and measure our personal growth. So much so that, when some people forget to take their wearables with them on a walk, they wonder if they have to redo their steps.

If the tracker didn’t record it, did it even happen? Does it count?

Yes. It does. It counts. It’s also possible to not do everything your app tells you to do, especially if you disable any optional push notifications and, if you can, install it on a device that doesn’t leave the house (also not a bad idea for people worried about privacy).

That might not be possible for everyone. But anyone with a history of disordered eating or a tendency to obsess over things should think long and hard before they download any wellness app with a tracking feature — not just NOOM. This would include working out a plan for how they’re going to use the tool. By and large, though, few of us give any serious thought to what we’re signing up for when we hit the install button. There should be an app for that.

So, what’s the verdict? It’s clear NOOM isn’t for everyone. For the right person, though, it might be possible to keep it at arm’s length and use its considerable resources. There’s something of value in here, it’s just that it’s probably not the thing most people buy it for.

Prices appear to vary, but Siegel paid $196.75 for an annual NOOM subscription. There is a free two-week trial option.