Noom terms: a cheat sheet
Your Noomer is learning all sorts of new things on the Noom journey, from concepts around food and nutrition to how to create good habits. Here’s a list of terms you might hear from your Noomer, and what they actually mean.
1:1 coach: A Noom coach (not a trained therapist or dietician) who works directly with a Noomer on their individual plan, goals and needs
Addition mindset: Keeping a Noomer’s meals exciting by adding a new food each week
Behavior chain: Ta series of events that both precede and proceed a specific behavior (your “habit”) It begins with a trigger and moves on to a thought, an action and a consequence
Caloric density: The number of calories divided by the weight of a food. In general, foods with more water have lower caloric density—Noom encourages users to eat more foods that are low in calorie density (these are typically “green” foods on the plan).
Eating script: Habits built around eating in different situations or environments
Elephant (or inner elephant): One’s impulsive, irrational, emotional side (the one that wants ice cream and guilty pleasure TV)
Fog eating: Mindless eating
Fuel eating: Eating to give the body what it needs to power through the day
Fun eating: Eating for pleasure
Green foods: Foods with the lowest caloric density and/or the highest concentration of nutrients
Happy weight: The weight at which a person feels happy and healthy in body, mind, and spirit
IMPROVE: A behavior therapy skill used to help people deal with difficult emotions during stressful times. It stands for Imagery, Meaning, Prayer/Practice, Relaxation, One thing in the moment, Vacation, Encouragement
Guide: A Noom group leader who helps new Noomers navigate the plan. Unlike a 1:1 coach, a guide helps groups of users through the program.
Keystone habit: A healthy habit that triggers a cascade of other healthy habits
Meal logging: The action a Noomer takes of entering and tracking their meals within the app
Metacognition: A psychological term for being aware of—and understanding—how you think
Mindful eating: The process of being fully attentive to your food, as you buy, prepare, serve, and eat it
Plateau: A period of four to five days in which a Noomer doesn’t lose any weight (it’s a natural phenomenon)
Portion distortion: The cultural phenomenon in which food portion sizes have grown over the last 50 years without many people realizing
Positive reinforcement: Behavior from a supporter that strengthens a Noomer’s behavior
Orange foods: Foods with the highest caloric density and/or the least nutrients
Reframes: Strategies for re-shaping thought distortions into views that are more helpful and believable
Rider: One’s rational, analytical side, or self-control
Satiety scale: The degree of hunger or fullness that someone feels before, after or between meals
Self-efficacy: The belief in your own ability to succeed
SMART goal: A popular strategy for psychologically sound goal setting. SMART stands for: Specific: clearly defined and detailed; Measurable: easy to determine whether it’s achieved or not; Attainable: something you can accomplish with hard work (like running a 5K) as opposed to something you can accomplish with magic (like flying a 5K on a broomstick); Relevant: aligned with your other goals; Time-based: linked to a time frame.
SOS plan: A support plan to be activated when a Noom user starts struggling or faltering
Step goal: The number of walking steps a Noomer aims to take each day
Storm eating: Feeling like you can’t stop eating, even if you’re not hungry any more
Super Goal: What a Noomer wants to accomplish by the end of the course.
Temptation bundling: Batching together something instantly gratifying (like watching TV) with a to-do (like cleaning out your junk drawer)
Thought distortion: A trick our mind uses to convince us of a (usually negative) thing that isn’t actually true.
Trigger: A circumstance which can set off a certain behavior. Triggers can be environmental, mental, emotional, or social.
Yellow foods: Foods with a mid-level caloric density and/or a medium amount of nutrients
Your Big Picture (YBP): A Noomer’s source of motivation that helps overcome obstacles along the way. YBP consists of a user’s Super Goal, an Ultimate Why, and how their life will be different
