Weight Watchers vs Noom

Update 2/7/21: I’m not the person who does one program for a month and claims to be an expert. This Weight Watchers vs Noom review is written by someone who spent 10 years off and on WW and a year on Noom.

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Six months ago I joined Noom while I was also on WW. I wanted to compare the two programs to see which was right for me. Two months later, I walked away from WW and fully committed to Noom. This move shocked me because I had been on WW off and on for 10 years.

Since WW was a part of my life for so long it felt like betrayal to leave them, especially for their rival: Noom. Contrary to what you might think, I didn’t leave them because I disliked the program. I still think WW is a great weight loss program, despite its cons, and there are still people I believe it would work perfectly for. If you are trying to figure out which weight loss program will give you the best chances for success, I outlined both programs below and who I think would benefit from each.

*Before We Go Any Further, Let Me Explain Something.

Nothing is more confusing than the weight loss world. There is a mind-blowing amount of conflicting information out there, when it is actually quite simple. The “secret” to weight loss is nothing more than consistently being in a calorie deficit. How you achieve that deficit is completely up to you, and the options are endless.

Take it from me, someone who has tried and failed a lot of diets, that the least miserable way to create a sustainable calorie deficit is by incorporating the foods you love into your diet. But how do you manage that and successfully lose weight? By creating a plan, and becoming the author of your own diet.

Would you believe me if I said you can lose weight, right now, and enjoy the process?

My goal is simple: I want to help you create a weight loss system that is completely personalized. Let me take the confusion of weight loss out of the equation, and set you on a consistent path to weight loss success. But not just any path, not mine or anyone else’s, your own path.

The one you create will be unique to you, and that’s why it works. Let’s get you started today. Don’t wait until after the holidays, or for the New Year. Start changing your life now. Sign up for my FREE weight loss course and find out just how much you’re capable of.

Now, onto what you are here for…

WW basics

Points

In case you don’t know, WW doesn’t count calories. Instead, they track points. WW assigns a point value to all foods, and you get a daily allotment of points. The healthier the food, the lower the point value. You want to try to stay within your point range to achieve weight loss. You get a set amount of daily points, along with 30(ish) weekly points, and you earn fit points through exercise (which raises your point allotment for the week).

The three plans

The Weight Watchers program currently offers three plans: the green, blue, and purple. You get to choose which one you would like to follow. You can switch between them to find the one that works best for you! There is one main difference between the three plans.

Basically, it boils down to this: the more zero-point foods on the plan you choose, the less daily points you will have. On the purple plan I got only 16 daily points, but 300+ free foods. (For reference: I was 35, 160 lbs, a woman, and not breastfeeding when assigned that amount). With the blue plan (which is basically the freestyle program they have used for two-ish years) I got 23 daily points and a list of 200+ zero-point foods. Finally, on the green plan, I got 30 daily points and 100+ free foods (this system is similar to smart points).

It’s no secret that I like WW. The program has some really amazing benefits. You will develop the habit of going for fruit, veggies, or a lean protein for a snack instead of junk. When I followed WW precisely, I LOST weight. Every. Single. Time.

Noom Basics

Noom is a calorie tracking weight loss app, but it is so much more than that.

Pro-tip: I’ve been using my life and fitness planner in conjunction with a calorie tracking app (specifically Noom). It allows me to plan ahead and it raises my awareness around my eating habits. You can learn more about that here.

Science-based weight loss

Noom focuses on the science of weight loss. Every day, when you open the app, you have about ten minutes of material to read. This information ranges from the process of weight loss how to how to mentally get over hurdles that have tripped you up in the past. Although it can be easy to skip this, it is EXTREMELY helpful, and I would advise doing it everyday. Those lessons helped me finally lose 10 pounds after months of stalling.

Support System

Support is so important when you are trying to lose weight. Noom offer a lot of support. During the first two weeks, you get a weight loss coach. Your coach is there for you when you reach out, and in addition to this, they touch base about once a week. Coaches won’t respond immediately, but they will get back to you as soon as they can.

After your first two weeks, they assign you a group coach and a weight loss group (in addition to your personal coach) to share your ideas and struggles with. I don’t use this feature because I have such a great support system on Instagram, however, my group seems to always be talking (which I think is great). It is a nice support system if you need it.

Daily Weigh-In

Noom encourages you to weigh daily. I have enjoyed that much more than I thought I would. It’s been fun to watch my weight graph (I actually post it daily in Mom’s Kids), but mostly it has helped me learn about the way I eat and how it effects my body.

Color-coded foods

Color-coding is how Noom tries to guide food choics. Foods are divided into three categories: green, yellow, and red. The purpose of the color coding is to get you to view your foods similarly to the way you would look at the colors on a traffic light.

Green is go! Eat as many green foods as possible. These are mainly fruits and veggies. Yellow is slow down. These foods have a suggested amount of calories you should consume. They include eggs and chicken breasts. The red doesn’t mean stop, but be cautious. Nothing is off-limits, but they suggest you should eat less of the red foods. High fat dairy, fatty meat, and junk food is red.

The tracker

I’d like to mention that while Noom tracks calories, their calorie tracker is anything but average. I like it so much more than the tracker with MyFitnessPal. It is the easiest one I have ever logged calories in, and I’ve logged food for over a decade. I also read it was the most accurate tracker.

Even if the only thing Noom offered was the tracker, I would pay for it. That’s how much I love it. When you go over in calories, they don’t show you red numbers or negative signs that make you feel like you failed. It simply says “over” and shows by how much. Talk about stress relief! I used to crumple each time I saw a negative sign or red number, not anymore.

Why Noom instead of WW?

Short answer: I was burnt out. The problem with WW is “following the program exactly” is the hard part. It is so hard that I could only manage to stay on track for a month at most before falling off. The months I was “good,” I would lose up to 10 pounds. When I started struggling because of the rigidity of the program, I would spend months just maintaining my weight without any loss. Failing on the program got old.

I concluded I had gone as far as I could go with WW. It was time to learn about calories so I could be consistent with my food intake. I figured if I ate an adequate amount of calories, I would probably be less prone to cravings that made me fall off the horse. I knew that my negative association with MyFitnessPal and calories was also hindering me, so I decided to check out a different calorie tracker: Noom.

What to expect if you switch to Noom

Transitioning from WW to Noom was the best way for me, a lifetime WW fan, to adjust to the world of calories. It’s like Noom takes you gently by the hand and explains to you why you have struggled.

Don’t expect to hit the ground running, though. From my experience, times of transition don’t bring rapid weight loss. I didn’t lose weight the first two months of the switch, but I didn’t give up on Noom.

In mid-February, I committed to losing 1 pound a week and got focused. Ten weeks later, I am now down 10 pounds using Noom. You can read about how I transitioned from trying to lose weight fast to a slower approach here.

Who would I STill RECOMMEND WW to?

Breastfeeding Mothers

In my opinion, WW is the best program for weight loss if you are breastfeeding. It’s the only program that I know of that offers a weight loss option that is safe and effective for nursing mothers. It even offers an option if you are nursing part-time. WW is how I lost weight after each of my three babies. Combine all the pounds I’ve lost with WW from post pregnancy weight, and I’ve lost 105 pounds with the program!

People who don’t know where to start

Overhauling your diet can be overwhelming. The great thing about WW is you don’t have to do a giant overhaul to be successful. You can continue to eat the foods you are used to eating, but the point system teaches you how to slowly make healthy choices. It’s a great place to start.

PEOPLE WHO NEED TO BREAK FREE FROM DIETING EXTREMES

In the past, I would go to one extreme and only eat chicken breasts to lose weight. Once that failed, I would go to the other extreme and eat unreasonably small portions of very unhealthy foods. Both extremes made me miserable. Not to mention, I tried every fad diet under the sun. WW helped me escape the diet world and create a healthy mindset. While you absolutely can turn WW into a diet, I never did.

WW opened my eyes to healthy swaps. It made me realize I could still eat pizza but use cheese with less fat and put non-fat Greek yogurt in the crust. I discovered The Skinnyish Dish recipes and saw that dieting wasn’t at all what I thought it was. Then, I finally had success.

While Noom can also help you make healthy choices, WW penalizes unhealthy food with high points so I am more likely to make smart choices with WW.

PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT FAST.

On Noom you can choose to “lose weight fast.” However, aggressive weight loss sabotages me when I SEE that I’m only eating 1200 calories a day. It messes me up. I obsess about calories, I get stressed about it, and I can’t keep with it. On WW, I had PLENTY of 1200 calorie days…but I didn’t realize it because it was in points. Therefore, I didn’t get in my head about it because I would be blind to the low calorie amount, and I had fast weight loss success.

PEOPLE WHO STRUGGLE WITH THE MENTAL ASPECT OF COUNTING CALORIES.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Losing weight starts in your head. That’s the epic mental battle that will either allow you to go forward or stay put. I had a major mental hang up with calorie counting, and I know I am not alone with that. Points are a great way to track if you struggle like I once did with counting calories (every time I have used MyFitnessPal, I have not lost any weight).

People who love following a program

While I love Noom, their color guidance for which foods to eat has zero effect on me. The only time I focus on a balanced diet consisting of lots of vegetables and fruit, low fat dairy, and lean protein is when WW forces me. I eat the healthiest on this program. It’s just the way it is.

If you enjoy the structure of a program where there is more strict guidance on what you should and shouldn’t eat, WW would be a good fit for you.

People who hate logging

WW is the place for you if you hate logging every single bite of food you put in your mouth. You don’t have to log healthy food on WW. All fruit and veggies are free. Depending on the program you choose within WW, you might not even have to log lean proteins, whole grains, and beans! You simply log the desserts and fat-filled dairy products. It can be so freeing, and it’s an incredible way to lose.

Related Post: WW vs MFP

Who would I recommend Noom to?

people who enjoy science behind weight loss

My first ah-ha moment with the psychology behind weight loss came when I read this book. Noom echos a lot of the same teachings. These have been two invaluable tools in my weight-loss arsenal. The daily readings with Noom help keep me focused. It has given me so much grace with myself and my struggles to know about the science behind losing. If you don’t choose Noom, at least read that book.

extremely active people

This was the reason I tried Noom in the first place. In mid-November I was training for a half marathon, and despite eating all my fit points and weekly points, I was still starving. I began to realize that on the days I was eating less “free” foods, I would eat too few calories.

Since I would have a super low calorie day, on a high exercise day, I would be so hungry the next day that I was basically out of control. It clicked that I was probably just under eating, and that is when I started to track with Noom and WW to compare. I was, in fact, eating very inconsistent calorie amounts that were making me very hungry and leading to binges.

On WW, the binges would lead to guilt. Whereas on Noom, I realized I was just giving my body what it needed and wasn’t actually having a binge. That’s the power of knowing the amount of calories you are actually consuming.

people who want dessert or junk food often

Dessert makes me happy. WW penalizes foods high in sugar and fat. Therefore, dessert on WW comes with a high price tag…unless you make something funky from fake sugar. I don’t do fake sugar, so I was miserable without dessert on WW.

When you count calories, you can easily fit a dessert a day in your diet. I had Easter candy, pie, and cookies. You name it, I’ve had it these last 10 weeks on Noom, but I’ve still lost 10 pounds. Goodbye unnecessary restriction that comes with WW, hello life!

Before you say, “That much dessert is unhealthy,” know I read an article once that said “People in a healthy weight range can eat one dessert a day and be perfectly healthy.” And I’m never going to research that again. HA! (This isn’t the article I read, but it’s a good one to read about eating dessert).

People who want to lose weight for good.

On Noom, I have learned how to moderate my foods at a level I’ve never been at before. Since I am eating more, self control is just easier now. It’s easy to say no when I am satisfied. I’ve never been at this point with WW. Never once in ten years.

I eat all the foods I love within my calories, and I am still losing weight. Now I understand eating in moderation isn’t that hard, and I know I can do this forever.

Simply put: I like Noom Better

I would recommend Noom because it is better at establishing lifelong habits and creating a healthy relationship with food. The WW program can also change your habits for better, but be aware it can also create unhealthy habits and mindsets.

Which is right for you?

I can’t tell you what program to choose because weight loss has everything to do with your personality and brain. Just because I no longer use WW doesn’t mean it won’t be a good fit for you. The same applies about Noom; just because it works for me, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you.

Since no one knows you better than yourself, it’s up to you to figure out what you need to be successful with weight loss. The best way to figure out what will work for you is to try them out.

Both Noom and WW have strong community support. They both encourage you to eat more fruits and vegetables. You can get weight loss coaches with some WW plans and all Noom plans, and you will lose weight on each program. Both programs are good, but I feel like Noom is the program that will create habits that I will be able to stick with for the rest of my life.

Where I am now on this epic weight loss journey

I have been consistent with Noom for a year now. In that time I have lost 20 pounds because I chose the slowest weight loss option. With the slow loss, I am living my life while dieting. My life isn’t on hold. Most people don’t even realize I’m trying to lose weight when we eat together, and I enjoy eating dessert just about everyday.

**Updated January 2, 2021

I actually don’t follow the recommended calories from Noom, but instead came up with my own. My support system is Mom’s Kids and my planner helps raise my awareness about my calories and choices. But, I use Noom for the graph and food tracker.

If you need support with your weight loss journey, join Mom’s Kids. It is run by someone who understands how you feel 100% – ME. Hope to see you there.

If you have any more questions about Noom or Weight Watchers let me know in the comments, I’d be happy to answer them. Follow me on Instagram to have real-time updates on my weight loss and fitness journey.

Weight Watchers vs Noom