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As someone fairly overweight, I'm totally aware of all the resources available to me should I want to lose weight (I have a fitocracy account currently, I used

As someone fairly overweight, I'm totally aware of all the resources available to me should I want to lose weight (I have a fitocracy account currently, I used to do Weight Watchers -- which worked -- and others) I am still overweight because I love to eat, I know what needs to be done and I do not care. I'd rather be plump and have a carne asada burrito tonight than thin and have a properly portioned meal and well reasoned meal. It's also much easier to get a carne asada burrito, or order a pizza, because my life is busy and easy where I can get it is appealing. When it's not busy I eat much nicer meals, but no less rich in calories. I do at least make sure I eat lots of veggies and fruits, but I also have a bag of salt & vinegar chips I know I'll tackle late in the evening when everyone has gone to bed. A few years ago I did lose weight, about 100lbs, and it happened because I woke up one morning and decided I needed a change. I focused hard on monitoring what I ate, I used weight watcher's point system at first then figured out in general what was going on there and used my own tracking system and spreadsheets. And after seeing results for weeks and months, I stopped paying attention. I still monitor, but not as much. My point is that people, at least a good portion of people, understand what is necessary to lose weight. It's making a significant life change that's difficult. People may or may not come to the point where that change is something they're going to make. When they make that decision, that's when good tools can help. So don't make a tool thinking it'll convince people to lose weight, make a tool that works well for people who truly want to lose weight.

hn141514 15y ago
Great response. My idea of the tool was quite simple. I want to remove the friction between eating and measuring. So here's what I was thinking (but please feel free to add your thoughts): 1) Just before you eat anything, send an SMS with a list of what you are about to eat and get an estimated calory could back instantly via SMS. 2) Get an end of day SMS with total "theoretical" weight gain/loss for the day. What else should such a tool have?
- noahc 15y ago
  Not that. I lost a bunch of weight (50+ lbs) by eating the same meals over and over and over and over again. If I had to text 1cup this, 3oz that, 1/2 cup flour, blah, blah every time I ate, I'd go buy a large pizza from a chain store and get the calorie count that way. It'd be a lot easier. Your sms system is an incentive to eat processed foods. I'd look at the psychology of weight loss and also read about personal finance too. You're probably not the person to build this unless you've tried to loose weight. All the advice is worthless unless you can build a new lifestyle. In order to do that you need to introduce barriers to food consumption.
- rcavezza 15y ago
  Here's the problem: Even that's too much friction. You probably will have a nice base of users that are hardcore dieters, but I don't think you will reach the niche you are targeting. I think the problem lies in the fact that most eating is a social activity and most social places to eat (ie restaurants) aim to make their food tasty instead of healthy. I think movements to make calorie counts on every menu will help much more than to develop an app like the one you proposed.

hn141514 15y ago

Great response. My idea of the tool was quite simple. I want to remove the friction between eating and measuring. So here's what I was thinking (but please feel free to add your thoughts): 1) Just before you eat anything, send an SMS with a list of what you are about to eat and get an estimated calory could back instantly via SMS. 2) Get an end of day SMS with total "theoretical" weight gain/loss for the day. What else should such a tool have?

noahc 15y ago
Not that. I lost a bunch of weight (50+ lbs) by eating the same meals over and over and over and over again. If I had to text 1cup this, 3oz that, 1/2 cup flour, blah, blah every time I ate, I'd go buy a large pizza from a chain store and get the calorie count that way. It'd be a lot easier. Your sms system is an incentive to eat processed foods. I'd look at the psychology of weight loss and also read about personal finance too. You're probably not the person to build this unless you've tried to loose weight. All the advice is worthless unless you can build a new lifestyle. In order to do that you need to introduce barriers to food consumption.
rcavezza 15y ago
Here's the problem: Even that's too much friction. You probably will have a nice base of users that are hardcore dieters, but I don't think you will reach the niche you are targeting. I think the problem lies in the fact that most eating is a social activity and most social places to eat (ie restaurants) aim to make their food tasty instead of healthy. I think movements to make calorie counts on every menu will help much more than to develop an app like the one you proposed.