Noom
A subscription app that treats weight as a psychology problem first — daily lessons, coaching and food logging.
Compiled by Nidari Nutrition from the Atlas dataset · pending clinical review by Maryam Shabbir, DN.
This is an Atlas entry — a short reference overview, not one of our long-form diet guides. Educational, not medical advice; personalized and clinically reviewed at your consult.
What is Noom?
Noom is a modern, commercial diet from New York City, USA. Nidari rates it moderate to keep up day to day, and rates the weight of peer-reviewed evidence behind its main claims as moderate.
Family: Modern & Commercial · Origin: New York City, USA · Era: 2008 · Difficulty: Moderate · Evidence rating: Moderate evidence
Where does Noom come from?
Founded in New York in 2008 by Saeju Jeong and former Google engineer Artem Petakov, Noom built a behaviour-change curriculum drawn from cognitive behavioural therapy and delivered it through a phone app with human coaches. Commercially it is a subscription: you log every meal against a red/yellow/green calorie-density scheme, read a short psychology lesson each day, and pay monthly. The company has since added prescription weight-loss medication as a separate paid tier.
Originator: Saeju Jeong & Artem Petakov · Region: New York City, USA · Era: 2008 · Atlas map pin: 40.71° N, 74.01° W
How does Noom work?
- Behaviour and mindset before food rules
- Colour-coded density, not bans
- Daily logging and self-monitoring
- A human coach alongside the app
What do you eat on Noom?
✓ Eat freely
- Green foods: vegetables, fruit, whole grains
- Yellow foods: lean protein, dairy, legumes
- Any food, within a calorie budget
✕ Limit or avoid
- Unlogged eating
- Large portions of oils, nuts and sweets
- All-or-nothing thinking about slips
Who is Noom for?
The goals this pattern is most often used for. In a consult we confirm whether it actually fits your body and life.
Is there good evidence that Noom works?
Nidari rates the evidence behind Noom’s primary claims as moderate — that is the current weight of peer-reviewed research for those claims, and nothing more.
Noom has run several randomised trials, including a 427-person, 68-week trial reporting roughly 4.1% mean weight loss against a control group that gained weight. Every one of these trials was funded by Noom, Inc., and some authors hold company equity. Independent, non-company-funded trials are scarce, so the effect size should be read as company-generated evidence.
Is Noom safe, and who should avoid it?
The eating plan itself is a moderate deficit and not inherently unsafe, but daily logging and food colour-coding can be a poor fit for anyone with a history of disordered eating. Noom paid $62 million to settle a US class action alleging it enrolled people in hard-to-cancel auto-renewing subscriptions after a “risk-free” trial, with final approval in July 2022. Anyone using the medication tier needs genuine prescriber oversight, not app oversight.
How does Nidari adapt Noom?
The colour system was built on an American shopping basket, so roti, dal and sabzi often get logged wrong or not at all. We give you the desi equivalents — and, honestly, most of what Noom teaches you can get from a dietitian without the subscription.
Book a free 15-minute intro callReady to discuss Noom?
Fifteen minutes with one of our dietitians. We’ll tell you honestly whether Noom fits you — or point you to the diet that does. Halal and home-kitchen ready. No pressure.