When Jennifer Teplicki, 34, downloaded Noom, the first weight loss app she’s ever tried, a notification popped up on its carrot-colored user interface. It asked her to choose her sex, height, current weight, goal weight, and whether she wants to lose weight rabbit-style (as quickly as possible) or at turtle-speed (slowly but surely).
After she clicked on the rabbit, the app asked if any recent life events led to her weight gain (she chalked up the extra pounds to “stress and mental health”). A series of questions also asked whether she cooks or dines out more (she chose, “home cooking”), and how motivated she felt to start the weight loss process (she answered, “I’m ready”). Once Noom set her daily calorie intake to 1,200 calories — the minimum budget allowed for females —Teplicki diligently recorded every meal she ate in the app’s food tracking feature and chatted with a virtual nutrition coach every week. From January to August 2020, Teplicki lost 85 pounds.
