Healthy apps and gadgets to help you stay trim
Need help being a healthier you? Your smartphone and other tech tools may be able to help you trim those pounds.
A device called the Prep Pad and corresponding countertop app allow you to judge the nutritional value of your meal, item by item. Users input their ingredients into the app and then weigh them on the scale, and the app calculates exactly how much fat, calories and carbohydrates are going into your meal.
“We’re kind of first in terms of giving you the visual breakdown of every ingredient, your completed meal, everything that you’re preparing in the kitchen,” Orange Chef co-founder Michael Takenoff said.
Another product, the Hapifork, helps you slow down when eating. The electronic utensil times how long it takes you to take each bite. If you're gobbling your food too fast, it vibrates and sends an alert to your smartphone urging you to slow down.An app called My Fitness Pal allows people to input what they are eating each day and how much exercise they are getting. A barcode-scanning feature lets people quickly scan the item they are consuming to get the nutritional value. The app also comes with an extremely large database of foods and exercises.
“Part of the database is entered by us, part of it is
entered by the community, so it’s a lot like Wikipedia where people will
contribute different foods,” My Fitness Pal CEO Mike Lee explained.