Just after Canadian experts told us that putting our food adventures on social media outlets makes us fat, British doctor are working on a smartphone app that photographs your food to work as a slimming aid. No, we’re not kidding!
The aims to promote “food memory” to help people recall what people have eaten throughout the day and are encouraged not to snack on high-calorie treats.
The app basically consists of three parts:
i. Before eating or drinking, the user snaps a picture of the meal
ii. After finishing the meal or drink, the user than looks at the picture that was taken and answers questions like: “Did you finish it all?” or “How full are you now?”
iii. Before further meals, users also look back at the file of pictures that have been taken in the course of the day and get a text message urging them to remind themselves of have already eaten.
Researchers of the app have recruited 12 overweight or obese men and women and monitored them over four weeks in a study. The volunteers accessed the app more than five times a day on average, and recorded 2.7 daily “episodes” of eating and drinking. Over the study period, the participants lost 1.5 kilos on average. Six lost a whole kilo or more, and four lost between zero to one kilo, although the other two gained weight, by 100 and 400 grammes respectively.
University of Liverpool investigator Eric Robinson said: “Raising awareness of eating and weight loss achieved suggest this approach to be fruitful”.
“Given that our trial was a very brief intervention with little contact time and no nutritional advice or support, this is a promising finding”.
The app certainly does sound promising, but when will it be available for us to really put it to the test?! Time to queue a wave of excitement.
(Source)
