Noom is a subscription-based app for tracking a person's food intake and exercise habits. The company is known for its emphasis on behavior change and mental wellness.

App

When creating an account, the user is asked to record information about physical factors such as weight, height, and age, as well as experiential information such as lifestyle, goals, and obstacles.

Users then log their meals and exercise. In response, the app provides feedback in various ways: algorithmically, from a human coach, from other users, through articles, and through quizzes.

The app has been reviewed by newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune ^[1] and USA Today; ^[2] health publications such WebMD; ^[3] and lifestyle magazines such as Good Housekeeping. ^[4]

Research

In 2016, a study published in Scientific Reports and based on data collected from 36,000 Noom users (78% female, 22% male) found that 78% of the users self-reported that they lost weight while using the app. The data were collected from October 2012 to April 2014, and the median number of days the users reported their weight was 267, or approximately 9 months. Only users who recorded their weight at least twice a month for 6 consecutive months were included in the study. The frequency of data input correlated positively with weight loss. There was a significant gender difference, such that male users on average reported a higher starting BMI and a greater weight loss. ^[5]

In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized Noom as a diabetes-prevention program, the first mobile app to achieve this status. ^[6]

Company

Noom was founded in 2008 by friends Artem Petakov and Saeju Jeong. ^{[7] [8]} The app launched in 2016. ^[9] The company is headquartered in New York City. ^[10]

Petakov, previously a software engineer at Google, is Noom's president; Jeong is the company's chief executive.^{[ citation needed]}

In 2020, Noom generated $400 million in revenue. ^[11] As of April 2021, the company says it employs 3,000 people, 2,700 of whom are coaches. ^[12]

In 2019, as a result of a partnership with Novo Nordisk, patients taking the diabetes medication Saxenda received free access to Noom for one year. ^[13]

Criticisms

Health programs

Noom has been criticized for promoting "diet culture" in its advertisements, ^{[14] [15]} for setting inappropriately low calorie goals for customers and for using staff who are not qualified as dietitians as coaches with coaching relying heavily on canned responses. ^{[16] [17]}

Noom customers initially complete a survey, consisting of more than 50 questions, prior to the creation of a personalised program. In 2021, UK charity Privacy International claimed that Noom was among several diet companies which were using such tests to lure in users and that some of the data collected was not actually used to generate the personalised programs, with the same programs being recommended to many people. Privacy International further expressed concern that some of the data collected could be classed as Health data and that there was a lack of transparency about how this was shared with external organisations, including Facebook, despite such data potentially being classed as "sensitive" under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). ^{[18] [19]} Privacy International reevaluated Noom's data handling in 2023 and found "significant positive changes" while noting that Noom was still sharing data with Facebook and stating that "there is still room for improvement". ^[20]

Billing issues lawsuit

In August 2020, the Better Business Bureau issued a warning to consumers about Noom's subscription fees. Customers reported finding it difficult to cancel subscriptions following the free trial period, as well as to contact the company to obtain refunds. ^[21] In February 2022, Noom settled a class action lawsuit for $62 million with qualifying claimants receiving approximately $167 each. In the case a former senior software engineer for Noom stated that canceling Noom was made "difficult by design" in order to receive income from customers who did not cancel in time. Noom said that it would change its practices to make pricing and policies more transparent and that it had added self-service cancellation facilities. ^{[22] [23] [24]}

References