Discover the weight-loss program to supercharge your health in 2022

Looking to start the New Year with better habits? Noom helps people lead healthier lives by changing their mindsets and rejecting stringent rules

(Marshall Rose)

It’s the same story every year: wake up on 1st January with the best intentions in the world to get fit, eat healthily and ditch the bad habits, but by 10th January it’s all out the window. There’s nothing quite as dejecting as feeling like we’ve failed at our own test. If we can’t do this for ourselves, can we do it at all?

January is a loaded month. There’s an immense amount of pressure for us to become the best, untapped versions of ourselves, to start a new year with a tabula rasa, but often this approach just sets us up for failure.

Of course, in many ways a new year is a perfect time to start afresh – and after a year like last, 2022 holds more promise than than most, with many of us keen to make up for lost time. But we don’t have to reinvent ourselves entirely in order to do this. Rather, it’s about a change of mindset.

Getting to the bottom of the psychology of why we do certain things – like relying a little too heavily on that glass of wine in the evening, or that junk food after a bad day at work – and what triggers us or leads us to crave them, is where it all begins. That way we know how and why we make the decisions we do when it comes to our health.

This is where Noom comes in. A weight loss program in a league of its own, Noom goes against the grain of fad diets that are not only miserable, but often dangerous and ultimately unsustainable.  It is designed by psychologists with the aim of equipping us with the knowledge and thought processes we need to develop in order to make lasting, long-term change.

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Sign up here for a 14-day trial for £1, Noom

Because if there’s one thing last year taught us, it’s that we don’t need any more curtailments on our freedom. Noom isn’t about stringent rules that make us feel guilty when we put a foot wrong, it’s about an evolving thought process. Perhaps that’s why as much as 84 per cent of users complete Noom’s six-month program, rather than abandoning it the second January ends.

So how does it work?

It starts with science

Noom was designed by doctors and psychologists and uses a traditional cognitive behavioural approach that aims to help us adapt our thinking around food and fitness and guide us to a healthier life that fits our own personal goals, as opposed to societally determined beauty standards.

It’s a program created with health as the definitive goal. Users will learn about the triggers that lead them to make bad choices when it comes to food, so that healthy eating eventually becomes second nature. They will learn about not what to eat, but how to eat.

The behavioural psychology approach makes Noom different from traditional weight loss programmes, and it gets results. Sixty-four per cent of users lost more than 5 per cent of bodyweight using Noom, with as many as 60 per cent of people keeping it off after a year.

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Sign up here for a 14-day trial for £1, Noom

Real coaches, real support

This isn’t some faceless app that you click on once then abandon. Noom is different because it offers a personalised service to every customer. Users will have access to coaches trained in psychology and nutrition – services that usually cost a fortune – to guide them through their journey and tailor a program to their specific goals.

The program even offers group support, with the option to match with someone at a similar level in the process to you so you can share your experience and tips, and also help one another feel accountable.

What it takes

Not very much, as it happens. There are no classes to attend, no books to read, meetings to check in on or bland food to buy. The Noom team knows that our lives are increasingly busy, and often even finding an hour a day to dedicate to ourselves can be a tall order. Instead, the program requires just ten minutes a day, which can be done at any time that suits you.

(Getty Images)

Sign up here for a 14-day trial for £1, Noom

Simply log your food intake and physical activity via the app, and enjoy customised challenges, delicious healthy recipes and bitesize snippets of valuable information to get started. You can even sync it with your Fitbit or smart watch if you prefer to track your exercise using those. This isn’t about punishment; it’s about taking time for self-care in a way that fits into your life.

Your goals, your rules

There’s nothing worse than being told we can’t eat something. The second an item of food is put on the contraband list, it becomes all we can think about. Which is why nothing is off limits with Noom – it’s about guidance and learning, not reprimands. Making the decision to change our lives is an amazing first step, we don’t need ticking off if we do it imperfectly.

(Jovana Milanko / Stocksy United)

As well as prioritising nutrient rich whole foods, the program actually encourages snacking (music to our ears) and all our favourite treats from burgers to pizza are still on the menu. Because, the way Noom sees it, this is about feeling good about yourself and taking ownership over your wellbeing, not about numbers on a scale. The point is, this is your journey – a one-size-fits-all approach is an ineffectual one.

Ultimately, it’s about reclaiming control and confidence over what we consume. Because once we know why we turn to certain foods, we can begin to differentiate between wanting the item and simply responding to emotional or habitual triggers so that healthy eating becomes second nature.

How to get started

Simply go to Noom.com, take a quick quiz about your lifestyle and your reasons for wanting to start the program – whether it be to be able to run a 5k or simply to feel more confident or healthy in your body – and your customised plan and daily tasks will be provided for you. Bring on 2022.

Noom is offering a 14-day trial of the service for just £1 which you can sign up to here. Terms and Conditions Apply*.

*Offer only available to UK new customers only. 14 Day trial will auto renew to a paid membership if not cancelled before the end of the 14 day trial period. For full terms and conditions please visit https://web.noom.com/terms-and-conditions-of-use. Promoter: Noom