Over a weekend last year, as the holidays approached, a user of the popular weight-loss app Noom sent a series of alarming messages via the service’s chat.
The client, in his 50s, introduced himself as a war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder and father of 3 daughters, according to the “target specialist” or coach Noom app that had been assigned to him. He expressed suicidal thoughts, apparently due to the arrival of the holidays, confinement and stress related to the pandemic. In one message, he wrote that he “wanted to get off this trip.”
He coach (whose job was to answer users’ questions about the Noom program and encourage them with slogans like “Don’t give up!”) didn’t see the messages until they logged on Monday.
“When I didn’t respond to him over the weekend, he asked me why I had left him. I felt terrible that I couldn’t do more, but I wasn’t capable of doing anything beyond sending him a suicide hotline contact and encouraging him to see a therapist,” she told Business Insider he coachwho has already left the company.
According to Noom protocols, these types of cases goes to a team that reviews whether users should be banned from the platform. To the coach specific instructions were given to facilitate contact with help for the suicidal person and to recommend that the client speak with a therapist. The client’s response was that he felt more emotionally stable.
However, she was allowed to remain on the app and eventually stopped responding to messages.
He coach He never found out what had happened to him and described the experience as intense and emotionally challenging. Although Business Insider has not had access to this chat nor has he been able to speak with the user, he has interviewed 13 former coach and Noom officials who confirm that this story matches their experiences at the company.
They have described at least 7 incidents in which they or their colleagues have assisted users with suicidal thoughts. (Business Insider knows the identities of the coaches interviewed, but most of them have asked to remain anonymous to protect their jobs).
“Easy access to a healthier life”
With its slogan “Stop dieting. Achieve lifelong results,” Noom claims to use psychology to address in depth the reasons for weight gainhelping users reframe their thinking around food and eating habits.
“Losing weight is psychological,” Noom says in one ad, which shows a man eating every last morsel from his plate. He is then placed in front of a table just like the one he grew up with, with a father figure in front of him urging him to eat everything on his plate, so he can understand why he does it: “I’ve been conditioned to clean my plate since I was a kid!”
However, the process by which Noom helps its users move forward with this issue is far from clear. They don’t explain what the point is of linking current behavior to childhood trauma.or how people can distinguish between unhealthy habits and the metabolic reasons that influence their appetite.
What is clear, according to interviews with more than 30 people, including former coachesformer employees, users and experts, is that Noom attracted people who appeared to suffer from depression, eating disorders and other acute mental health issues, and who understood the app’s “psychology-based” offerings as something akin to therapy.
Although Noom does not advertise therapeutic services or treatment for eating disorders, its emphasis on psychology and mental well-being can make it difficult to tell the difference. coaches Noom clients, who lacked the necessary training and preparation to be psychological counselors, were faced with clients with complex and sometimes frightening behaviors.
When the company grows accelerated during the lockdown due to the COVID pandemic In early 2020, the huge increase in users put enormous pressure on the staff of coaching Noom. “Coaches might as well be uncertified therapists,” says one ex-coach and project manager at Business Insider.
Liu Guanguan/China News Service via Getty Images
Business Insider asked the company about its marketing strategy, safety protocols and training, to which a Noom spokesperson responded with this statement:
“Noom has helped millions of people achieve their personal health and wellness goals using behavioral science techniques. It’s incredibly important to us that every user has a safe and rewarding experience as we continually evolve and improve our platform by incorporating customer feedback and input from reputable experts. We have robust processes and safeguards in place to protect the safety of our users, such as preventing at-risk individuals from joining the program and employing a team of clinical experts who are consulted when signs of unhealthy behavior are detected.”
Noom was co-founded in 2008 by Saeju Jeong, an entrepreneur who studied electrical engineering, and Artem Petakov, a former Google software engineer. They spent a decade searching for success, first testing a digital interface for exercise bikes and then a digital fitness tracker with a step counter and food diary.
None of the three ideas came to fruition.
But Noom Weight Loss App TriumphedIn 2017, it became the first virtual program to be recognized by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the health authority in the United States) as an evidence-based project to help prevent diabetes, supported by data that up to 64% of Noom users had lost at least 5% of their body weight. In 2018, it was one of the most searched diets, according to Google, after the low-carb keto diet and the Dubrow diet, and it maintained its position in the top 10 until 2020.
In September 2019, Noom announced that tennis great Serena Williams had invested in the app. “I firmly believe that everyone should have easy access to a healthier life,” she said in Noom’s press release.
At a time of growing disillusionment with juice diets and low-fat products, Noom was successful because it seemed to offer something different. It presented itself as something other than a diet and promised that long-term weight loss and mental well-being could be within everyone’s reach.
Noom has managed to benefit from both the backlash against diet culture and growing awareness of the benefits of the therapy, which can cost hundreds of euros an hour. For less than 60 euros per month (price varies depending on length of subscription), Noom promised advancements at a relatively affordable cost.
“How would you like to feel this month?”
Before joining Noom, users fill out a questionnaire that asks them what diets or mental health apps they have used in the past. “What feelings do you hope to achieve during your Noom journey?” the app asks.
Noom’s marketing suggests a personalized program, but All users receive a standard set of toolsFor the first 16 weeks, you are encouraged to follow the Noom curriculum and watch a short video tutorial each day.
Tutorials range from goal setting to brief explanations of thought distortions, exaggerated thinking patterns that exacerbate stress and anxiety, and emotional eating. The app also includes a step counter and a food tracker, which sorts foods based on their caloric density.
During the registration process, potential users are asked if they have an “active diagnosis of an eating disorder.” Answering “yes” brings up a box that says, “Noom is not currently designed to help those with an active eating disorder.” However, answering “yes” does not opt you out of the registration process, and it is possible to change your answer to “no” and continue.
The highlight of Noom is its goal specialists or coaches, real people with experience in fitness, nutrition, wellness or psychologywhich are dedicated to constantly encouraging users.
The coaches They explain that they are assigned a list of clients that varies depending on the time of year, and that they are expected to send a certain number of messages per hour through Noom’s chat feature. At Noom’s peak, these coaches They had to juggle 300-400 users at a time, and 600 or more during the peak season in January.
The coaches They would reach out to users to ask, “How would you like to feel this month?” or offer encouragement, “Remember your overall goal!” They would also respond to users’ messages that appeared in the chat. Noom gave these coaches prompts for “motivational interviewing,” a series of questions to help guide a user toward the best course of action.
Many of the queries were simple, like questions about the Noom curriculum, former advisors say. But there were other messages that were deeply personal. Some users They described the details of their daily lives and shared intimate questions about themselves..
Often, users treated chat like an instant messaging service and seemed to expect immediate engagement and empathetic responses. There is no limit to the number of messages that can be sent, nor is there a maximum length. When the response was automated by a machine, or was not prompt, many users became frustrated and lashed out at the users. coaches.
The specific functions of the coach They are described in the application, but to get to them you have to look for the “support” option and then “my program”. It is then explained that the advisor’s job is assist with monitoring and supporting specific user needs.
It is also indicated that the coaches They will follow up weekly, during business hours, and can take up to 2 business days to respond to a user. “Together you can analyze the ups and downs of your week and adjust your goals if necessary,” the page reads.
Based on the large number of Noom users who complained about their interactions with advisors on social media, the generic (non-personalized) responses and wait times were very surprising to users.
“I like to vent about personal issues with my coachbut I get answers like this Disney Channel‘. All very upbeat and happy, not acknowledging what I’m actually saying. I wanted some sort of validation, but they ignore most of what I say,’ wrote one Noom user on Reddit.
Noom advisors say they worked hard to set ground rules and…