Noom vs Myfitnesspal

[Anonymous]

With the COVID weight gain on top of pregnancy weight gain I need to buckle down and lose some weight. A friend was raving about Noom, but I know she’s also never done basic calorie counting like via MyFitnessPal. Would love to get more feedback on whether it’s worth it to splurge on Noom/something else compared to just counting calories.

[Anonymous]

I’ve lost 25 pounds (and kept them off) using the app Lose it. I think it’s similar to my fitness pal.

[Anonymous]

I did the trial of Noom and liked it enough to buy a subscription. Noom is more mental. It has a quick article and then you log meals. You have a coach and a group, which I found both unhelpful and a waste of time. But I did find the articles helpful at first, although after about a month the Schtick got old and I didn’t stick with it. Maybe try the free trial?
If you have the motivation to stick with counting calories that works just as well.

[Anonymous]

My daughter liked the color-coded food categories on Noom, but she is naturally thin and only needed to lose the COVID 15.

I need to lose 50. I’ve lost 6 this month so far on MyFitnessPal.

[Anonymous]

I've tried to lose weight for years counting calories on My Fitness Pal. I know how to eat. I know how to record. I didn't lose much weight.

I've lost almost 50 now on Noom. Is it that much better? I don't know. It's helpful with the daily reminders and accountability. But I think my biggest change is that I'm home and can plan and cook my meals each day. I didn't have the time for that before.

What I do like about noom is it only gives you half the calories extra for the day that you've burned in exericse. My Fitness Pal gives them all to you. And I do think that messed me up a bit. A long walk could have burned 600 calories, but if I ate 600 more calories, I lost nothing. On noom, I might burn 400 calories, but I'm only given an additional 200 to eat. That does make a difference for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter liked the color-coded food categories on Noom, but she is naturally thin and only needed to lose the COVID 15.

I need to lose 50. I’ve lost 6 this month so far on MyFitnessPal.

I tried Noom after WW and found the tracking to be too frustrating. The name brand item would be red, the store brand green, but when you compare nutrition facts, the name brand was better. After a robust tracking database in WW, it was hard to adjust to Noom. I think if you eat a lot of whole foods and not much processed it's easier because they fall cleanly into categories.

WW worked much better for me, and even after stopping, I had gotten the basics of points down and had some go to meals, knew what was zero points, and even over a year later still know roughly points on some items. When I was using it with fidelity it was the most progress I had made. I also liked that I had money in the game so I was more inclined to use it than Lose it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've tried to lose weight for years counting calories on My Fitness Pal. I know how to eat. I know how to record. I didn't lose much weight.

I've lost almost 50 now on Noom. Is it that much better? I don't know. It's helpful with the daily reminders and accountability. But I think my biggest change is that I'm home and can plan and cook my meals each day. I didn't have the time for that before.

What I do like about noom is it only gives you half the calories extra for the day that you've burned in exericse. My Fitness Pal gives them all to you. And I do think that messed me up a bit. A long walk could have burned 600 calories, but if I ate 600 more calories, I lost nothing. On noom, I might burn 400 calories, but I'm only given an additional 200 to eat. That does make a difference for me.

I’ve lost 45 on MFP, but I think this is really a tripping point with it. Also, depending on what apps you’ve synced with it, it overestimates you’re calories burned. This is especially the case if you are already at the minimum number of calories it allows for in a day, which I think is 1200. It always uses that 1200 as a baseline, even if you really only would need 800 to account for your goal loss.

That said, I think it’s a great free app once you understand its idiosyncrasies, and if you use it properly, and that means taking the time to track every darned bite, no matter how cumbersome that feels, and enter your recipes, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did the trial of Noom and liked it enough to buy a subscription. Noom is more mental. It has a quick article and then you log meals. You have a coach and a group, which I found both unhelpful and a waste of time. But I did find the articles helpful at first, although after about a month the Schtick got old and I didn’t stick with it. Maybe try the free trial?
If you have the motivation to stick with counting calories that works just as well.

I disliked Noom a lot. I wanted better nutrition advice and meal planning, and it gave me neither. The coach was useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did the trial of Noom and liked it enough to buy a subscription. Noom is more mental. It has a quick article and then you log meals. You have a coach and a group, which I found both unhelpful and a waste of time. But I did find the articles helpful at first, although after about a month the Schtick got old and I didn’t stick with it. Maybe try the free trial?
If you have the motivation to stick with counting calories that works just as well.

I disliked Noom a lot. I wanted better nutrition advice and meal planning, and it gave me neither. The coach was useless.

NP. I agree that the coach was useless. I just use the calorie tracking and the meal logging (the free version) and I like the interface, and that works for me. I tried the full version but the articles didn't help me at all. It was half "tricks to eat less" and half "the research says x!" (which frequently was research that's been debunked/withdrawn- they really like Brian Wansink, who resigned from Cornell after they determined he committed scientific misconduct.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did the trial of Noom and liked it enough to buy a subscription. Noom is more mental. It has a quick article and then you log meals. You have a coach and a group, which I found both unhelpful and a waste of time. But I did find the articles helpful at first, although after about a month the Schtick got old and I didn’t stick with it. Maybe try the free trial?
If you have the motivation to stick with counting calories that works just as well.

I disliked Noom a lot. I wanted better nutrition advice and meal planning, and it gave me neither. The coach was useless.

Previous WW poster. Agree with the meal planning--WW has a lot more recipes from WW and users. Just try looking on Pinterest or doing a google search for Noom recipes and WW recipes. Also just remembered that a lot of the Noom recipes would say they fit in with how many points/whatever I had left for the day, but it would exclude key things like the fatty meat, cream, etc. from the calculation.

I also hated tracking EVERYTHING. With WW you don't have to track "free" foods which are lots of fruits, vegetables, and even some meats/fish/eggs. It made tracking much easier since I'd only have to type in a few items or scan a few barcodes.

[Anonymous]

Noom has a big educational component. As someone who has worried about my weight and intermittently dieted for 30+ years, I didn't find it taught me amything or any tricks I didn't already know. It might be fantastic for someone who is concerned about their eating habits for the first time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Noom has a big educational component. As someone who has worried about my weight and intermittently dieted for 30+ years, I didn't find it taught me amything or any tricks I didn't already know. It might be fantastic for someone who is concerned about their eating habits for the first time.

Loose it has the same educational components. The only thing that’s competitive with Noom is color coding the good,ok, and unhealthy foods. Not worth the price at all.

The support you get doesn’t even seem to be a real person(bot).

[Anonymous]

I’m in my 40’s and counting calories no longer works for me. I think it’s because I allow myself too many (since I’m not happy at 1200) but then feel the need to eat the entire amount, even if I’m not that hungry. I like the idea of more mindful eating, so I would probably try Noom. That said, I just switched to a mostly plant-based diet and lost more over the past two weeks than I have over the past couple months counting calories. I eat until I’m full and stick to unprocessed, mostly non-meat, low-fat choices. Although I’m well versed in portion sizes based on years of counting calories, I don’t measure or weigh stuff like I used to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in my 40’s and counting calories no longer works for me. I think it’s because I allow myself too many (since I’m not happy at 1200) but then feel the need to eat the entire amount, even if I’m not that hungry. I like the idea of more mindful eating, so I would probably try Noom. That said, I just switched to a mostly plant-based diet and lost more over the past two weeks than I have over the past couple months counting calories. I eat until I’m full and stick to unprocessed, mostly non-meat, low-fat choices. Although I’m well versed in portion sizes based on years of counting calories, I don’t measure or weigh stuff like I used to.

YES. OK, to be fair, calorie counting is working for me (I use FitBit, it does only give you a partial amount of new calories for exercise), but I had an extra 200 calories a couple of nights ago, and instead of letting them "roll over" and make up for the days I might go over my calorie goal, I made myself a drink. I ended up throwing half of it away, but it was a compulsion to use up what I was alotted, even though I knew what I was doing. I didn't even enjoy it (which is why I threw half of it out).