Noom & Alcohol: What Can You Drink on Noom? [INFOGRAPHIC]
With the New Year fast approaching two conflicting product types are dominating ads. Alcohol and weight loss. Can you really drink alcohol and lose weight? What if you are using a popular weight loss app like Noom? Can you drink alcohol on noom? Let's talk about the answer to get your New Year started on the right foot.
I don't work for Noom. I paid for it and completed the whole program for myself, and now I like to pay it forward to help others make their own healthy journey. When I shared my honest Noom review I joined the Noom partner program. Partner referral links are used in this post. If my information helps you decide to join Noom, I'd love it if you use my Noom partner links used in this post to join. Already a Noom user? I've got a lot of resources for you, so I hope you stick around. You can join my free Noom Support newsletter and grab a free Noom Food List as a thank you for signing up. Okay. Let's talk about drinking!
Most people who know my husband and I would tell you we are “wine people.”
So naturally while I was on Noom, one of the most common questions I would get was, “Can you drink wine on Noom?” Some people want to know if Alcohol is allowed on Noom, but what most people seem to be getting at is, “Can you drink alcohol and still lose weight?”
The short answers, in terms of Noom, are yes*, yes*, and yes*. Okay fine, yes, I used asterisks.
For the more details answers, keep reading.
I also share the Noom food colors of common alcoholic drinks below.
RELATED: Grab your Free Printable Noom Food Lists
Can You Drink Alcohol on Noom?
Technically speaking no foods or drinks are off limits on Noom. Alcohol included. You can log alcohol on Noom and the app automatically color codes it for you based on the Noom red yellow green system. (See How Does Noom Work for more details on that.)
So technically speaking, you can eat candy, cookies, ice cream, wine, cocktails, beer and anything else on Noom.
Alcohol is not off-limits on Noom. No foods are forbidden on Noom. But. That doesn't mean alcohol is unlimited on Noom. It still has to fit your Noom goals for the day.
In fact, one of the main goals of Noom is to help you eliminate the bad habits that keep you gaining weight.
If you are thinking, “I could never do Noom because I like wine too much!” then I hear you. I love wine too. We got engaged in wine country, honeymooned and vacationed there. We have a cooler of wine in the basement.
Trust me, I LOVE wine. I still did Noom, I still drank wine (just not as much) and I still lost weight.
So it is time for a bit of tough love. If you are worried about starting Noom or any other weight loss program because you like to drink, I want to shine the light on that for a minute.
I invite you to consider the possibility that if you (like me) like wine that much that there is a strong possibility that it could be contributing to your weight. Maybe it is easier to numb out and have a drink. Maybe it has become automatic. Maybe you read all that and said, well DUH, stupid blogger.
But. Gosh. Aren't you tired of it?
I was really sick of being sick and tired of myself.
I know it is scary to imagine cutting back. I know it won't be easy each night to change your habits. But you don't have to quit drinking. You do need balance an moderation. Those are two of the things Noom focuses on.
Not just with food logging.
Yes, I did log my food, and if I had wine, I logged that too. And I got to a place where if I didn't have room in my calories for the day, I didn't have any wine. And it was ok. I knew there would be other days when I could. Noom also helped me see all the things that contributed to my wanting to drink.
Because the daily lessons on Noom target your triggers. If you are drinking and eating because of boredom, habit, social pressure, environmental cues… Noom tackles all of these.
RELATED: Not a Noom member yet? My Readers can take advantage of this rare Deal: Get a 14 Day Trial of Noom. (Note: the Promo code is applied automatically at the end of the quiz. If you have visited the noom website before, I recommend clearing your cookies to make sure a previous offer doesn't pop up.)
So like I said above, if you want to know if you can drink alcohol on Noom, the answer is yes with an asterisk.
On any weight loss program, if you continue drinking some alcohol…you will likely lose weight slower than if you quit all together. So it is your decision. If you want to find a way to have that drink, you will have to balance it with dietary and/or exercise changes. If you want the weight off, and enough is enough, then maybe you are ready to quit or take a break from drinking. That is a decision you need to make for yourself.
For anyone who chooses to enjoy the occasional drink while on Noom, let's talk about how that works.
What Alcohol Can I Drink On Noom?
If you read this far, you should know that no kinds of alcohol are off limits on Noom. But that also does not mean they are all created equal.
On Noom, you are logging your food each day and the Noom app automatically labels each thing you log as a noom red food, yellow, or green. (You can see how food logging works on my Noom App Walk Through.)
Most alcoholic drinks are generally coded as Noom red foods or yellow foods but it is important to check the specific drink you are having.
Consider these two different way to log mixed drinks. For example, “vodka sodas” are yellow, but if you log the components separately vodka is red and club soda is blue. (Blue foods on noom are usually virtually calorie-free and do not count towards your daily calorie goals.)
As a rule of thumb the higher the alcohol (ABV) the higher the number of calories. This is why something like a beer that is 5% or 6% alcohol by volume is usually yellow, whereas wine and liquor, which are higher in alcohol are generally red.
Portion sizes and quantities are important on Noom– and that goes for drinks as well as food.
If you love high calorie drinks, you might decide to have one drink on a Saturday night and skip drinking the rest of the week.
But if you want to fit in a more regular drink you may have to work to find something lower calorie that you can enjoy while still staying within your daily calories.
The lesson here is NOT, “Stop drinking alcohol and eating high calorie foods forever!”
The lesson IS, “Decide what food and drinks really matter to you, and let's find a way to make it fit your weight loss plan.”
Is it worth having a salad every day if it means you have more wiggle room for a drink at the end of the day? For you the answer may be yes, for the next person it may be no.
There are no set meal plans on noom, so you really get to decide which foods make you happy and which you can do without.
A Note About “Green” Alcoholic Drinks on Noom:
If you are logging a drink and magically find a “green” alcoholic drink, chances are the item wasn't flagged as an alcoholic beverage, and it is actually yellow. The Noom app uses a mathematical equation to determine the color of each food you log. However some foods are bumped up or down to a different category. For example most standard dairy foods are yellow but if a food is non-fat dairy it is “bumped” to green, full-fat dairy is “bumped” to red. Alcohol as a category is bumped down (Green goes to yellow, yellow goes to red). So if you see a green one, check with your goal specialist before getting too excited. I know that sounds annoying but users add foods to the Noom database so sometimes issues like that happen.
INFOGRAPHIC: Alcohol on Noom: What Color is My Drink?
Here are some of the most common types of alcohol broken down by Noom color code. I'm including white wine, red wine, beer, hard cider, mixed drinks (cocktails), hard seltzer and liquor.
FYI this is a general guide; you should always check the specific drink in the app since brands vary.
If you are following the Noom Diet, please check out my other Noom Resources to support you on your weight loss journey.
- If you haven't started, Join Noom Today by taking this quiz.
- My Honest Review of the Noom App (With results and a 1 year follow up!)
- Tips for Your First Week On Noom
- How Doe Noom Work?
- Free Printable Noom Food List
What a great article about drinking alcohol while on Noom! I love how candid you were about really examining the real reason someone is drinking alcohol. Love your points about “balance and moderation”. That is so important to remember about alcohol consumption for EVERYONE, regardless if your using Noom or not. I had to write down on an index card and put it on my note board your quote “Decide what food and drinks really matter to you, and let’s find a way to make it fit into your weight loss plan” (your daily caloric goals). Thank you Laura for the inspiration!!
And yes, I am one of those who would have a salad for lunch or dinner just to have that glass of wine at the end of the day! (but not everyday!)A THANK YOU!