Noom Vs Weight Watchers

Both Noom and Weight Watchers are well-reviewed weight loss programs, but their approaches are different. There’s a reason that most people who have tried both or compared them prefer one over the other, and those reasons are summed up in the differences. 

WW Approach to Weight Loss

WW (formerly Weight Watchers, but old habits die hard, so expect to see them referred to by their previous branding, both here and elsewhere) is one of the oldest and most well-known weight loss programs out there. Weight Watchers was founded in the 1960s, with its weight loss programs changing over time. 

WW’s program is designed off of a point system, which many people are at least vaguely familiar with. Foods are assigned point values, and someone following the program should stick within a specified points budget for a successful weight loss journey. 

Weight Watchers takes the shift from counting calories and helps people develop healthy habits by redefining their relationship with food. Instead of seeing certain foods as being completely off limits, which can heighten the sense of deprivation, even these “bad” foods are assigned a point value, so they can still be enjoyed as long as the points system is kept in check for the overall day. 

Today, Weight Watchers creates an individualized, tailored points budget. How many points you’re allowed per day may differ from your friend’s that you’re doing the program with. There is also a long list of zero-point foods to fill in the gaps and keep you satisfied. 

Weight loss results are further supported by Weight Watcher’s collection of free workouts that are suitable for all levels of fitness. Ideally, this is a plan that combines a variety of healthy habits, including food tracking and exercising, to achieve weight loss goals. 

Noom Weight Loss Program

Similar to Weight Watchers, Noom’s premise is to change a person’s relationship with food and develop healthy habits that lead to sustainable weight loss. Noom is an app that offers a multi-tiered approach to your weight loss journey. 

To get the most out of the Noom app, you are required to track food and keep track of counting calories, but it’s not in the tedious way that you might be most accustomed to doing. 

Foods are tracked according to color, which includes red foods to be avoided or limited to very small portions, yellow foods to enjoy in moderation, and green food choices that are healthy and won’t hinder your weight loss progress. 

By breaking foods into categories of red, yellow, and green foods, you begin to see food choices in a new way. Sure, many of us already know what “red” food is (although there are some surprises), but this simplified approach makes it easier to intuitively make better food choices. 

Another benefit of all this food tracking, in addition to weight loss and new healthy habits, is that it’s all integrated into a larger snapshot of your overall health. You can log other important health details like blood sugar, blood pressure, and water intake. 

Additionally, Noom also offers quick access to a personal health & wellness coach, along with education in the form of easily digestible daily lessons that you can work through at your own pace. 

The primary focus of nearly every weight loss program is food. This isn’t to say there aren’t other factors that contribute to weight loss, but developing healthy eating habits and eating appropriately for one’s body type and lifestyle is key for weight loss and weight maintenance. 

Both WW and Noom acknowledge that a healthy mindset toward food goes beyond calorie counting and should focus more on the least calorie-dense foods that are also packed with nutrition. 

WW Food & Points 

Instead of calorie counting, Weight Watchers works off of its famous point system. Foods are assigned a point value based on multiple factors, including calorie density and nutritional value, including whether a food is full of healthy fats or high in saturated fat. 

Each person who signs up for WW is given a daily point allowance, which is similar to a calorie budget. With this system, there are no off-limits foods, and you can eat according to your personal food preferences. 

This might not sound intuitive to weight loss, but by assigning point values and encouraging people to make healthier food choices, this system actually does work quite well in helping people develop a new mindset around food. 

After all, if a single meal of fried chicken and cheesecake eats up an entire day’s worth of points, you’re more likely to make healthier food choices. 

WW also offers a list of about 200 zero-point foods. With this system, zero points don’t equate to zero calories. It’s just that these items are low-caloric density foods that offer high nutritional value and also work to keep your appetite satiated. You can eat as many zero-point foods as you want. 

The other nice thing about WW is that meal delivery services like Blue Apron offer meals that are easy to track using WW points. With Blue Apron, all you have to do is scan the barcode of the meal kit into your WW App, and all the points values are automatically calculated for you. 

This is a great advantage of the WW App for people who are learning how to incorporate healthier foods into their diet in new, delicious ways. For added convenience, it isn’t difficult to find WW snacks at most grocery stores or through sites like Amazon. 

Noom & Food 

With Noom, redefining your relationship with food is really at the forefront of the program. You are assigned a calorie budget, but this is really just to help you develop a better idea of how many calories are in different foods and how to choose more nutritious foods while staying within a reasonable calorie range to achieve your weight loss goals. 

Unlike WW, Noom has never (at least as of yet) put any marketing dollars into promoting meals with their name on them, and there aren’t currently any meal delivery services that align themselves specifically with Noom. However, it’s not difficult to stay within your calorie range once you get a firm grasp on what counts as green foods, yellow foods, and red foods within the Noom system. 

The color coding system helps you learn to easily identify the most calorie-dense foods and learn to replace them with nutritious foods that have fewer calories. 

A simple example is opting to forgo a plate of refined pasta and replacing it with a portion of whole grains that has not only fewer calories but fewer refined carbs while also being more nutritionally dense. Pair this with other green foods like broccoli, spinach, and sweet potatoes, and you have a meal full of healthy foods that will help you lose weight and gain control of your health.