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Apr 12, 2001
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WorkSmart Labs has a new food tracking app aims to simplify eating healthy. The company has more than 7 million users on Android, but just launched its first iOS App, Calorific Lite [iTunes].

calorific.jpg



Unlike other tracking apps, like Lose It! (which I have been using for the past few weeks), Calorific Lite doesn't focus as much on the number of calories, as on the types of food you're eating. It classifies food into a Green/Yellow/Red system to encourage users to eat better, not just to eat less.

For example, vegetables and fruit are green, while french fries and ice cream are red. Lean beef is yellow, as are things like seafood, low-fat yogurt and avocados. Once you choose your color, assign a serving size (tiny, small, medium, large) and you're done. Adding a meal takes just a couple quick clicks.

Lose It! requires you to pick exact products and serving sizes to get a more detailed assessment of what you've eaten, down to individual calories. WorkSmart Labs co-founder Artem Petakov compared Calorific Lite to Twitter, as a quick-and-easy way to track eating. Lose It! is more like full-length blogging, requiring quite a bit more work, but is a totally different style of tracking food:
One funny thing about that "exactly how many calories you had" -- even if you track it really precisely, there is no real way to know how many calories you had. This is because people digest food differently, have different metabolisms from one day to another, and don't weigh their food exactly.

So it's a lot of work that's only giving you an illusion that you are doing things precisely. That's why we wanted to get away from this. The biggest benefit is from the act of logging itself. Even if you just keep a little journal of what you eat with no calories, you will benefit hugely according to research.
Now that I've gotten into the habit of using Lose It!, I don't necessarily need to use an app like Calorific Lite -- but for someone who isn't used to tracking calories its traffic-light system is super-easy to use.

Calorific Lite is a 'light' application -- it doesn't support accessories like the WiThings body scale or posting to Twitter to encourage weight loss through public humiliation -- but it's a strong start for WorkSmart's first iOS application. They have a more full-featured app, Noom, available on Android, but Petakov said they were starting slow on iOS and are working to bring more functionality to the platform.

Get it free from the App Store.

Article Link: Calorific Lite Makes Calorie Tracking Simpler
 
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Meh, I lost 50 lbs w/ Lose It! and RunKeeper in 5 months. I didn't think the logging was that "hard" for the health benefits. I'm not sure I'd estimate well w/ this system. I'll be interested to see how this works for people. My opinion is that if you don't care enough to put in the time and effort, then you don't really care about your health that much.
 
Beef is Bad?

The screenshot shows Beef as red or "bad". Since when is protein bad for you?
Counting calories misses the point completely and makes dieting so difficult. Cut out the white stuff and sugars and you won't need an app to help you micromanage your hunger. I lost thirty pounds doing that eating proteins like beef, fish and chicken, lots of beans and lots of vegetables. Simple. No tracking required.
 
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Well I've been working out and eating healthier for about two weeks now. Tryin to get in shape and lose weight. I downloaded it, and we will see how it works. So far, it looks like I'm eating way under calorie wise and I even underestimated my activity. If that's true then I should be on my way to losing more than 1lb a week.
 
The screenshot shows Beef as red or "bad". Since when is protein bad for you?
Counting calories misses the point completely and makes dieting so difficult. Cut out the white stuff and sugars and you won't need an app to help you micromanage your hunger. I lost thirty pounds doing that eating proteins like beef, fish and chicken, lots of beans and lots of vegetables. Simple. No tracking required.

haha you get neg ratings for a truthful comment, guess they only want rumour on here
 
WorkSmart Labs has a new food tracking app aims to simplify eating healthy.

Starvation diet is not healthy.


The screenshot shows Beef as red or "bad". Since when is protein bad for you?
Counting calories misses the point completely and makes dieting so difficult. Cut out the white stuff and sugars and you won't need an app to help you micromanage your hunger. I lost thirty pounds doing that eating proteins like beef, fish and chicken, lots of beans and lots of vegetables. Simple. No tracking required.

Truth.
 
I hate apps like this. Protein bad for you are you kidding me? My friend who is 6'0 about 270 entered his stats and the app told him to heat 1,200. That is way to low. A guy his size should start off at about 2,000-2,200. Honestly cut the sugar and junk food out and with that alone you will lose weight. Add a diet + weight lifting and you will be dropping weight. The thing with most people is the think by doing cardio alone you will lose weight. This is okay if you are a few pounds over weight. For those who are 40+ you will have loose skin doing this. If any of you are actually serious about lose weight start off by looking here. Weights + a diet that fits your macro nutrients is all you need. Cardio is supposed to be used as a tool to speed up the process of weight loss and is generally good for your heart and health.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=129247741
 
The screenshot shows Beef as red or "bad". Since when is protein bad for you?
Counting calories misses the point completely and makes dieting so difficult. Cut out the white stuff and sugars and you won't need an app to help you micromanage your hunger. I lost thirty pounds doing that eating proteins like beef, fish and chicken, lots of beans and lots of vegetables. Simple. No tracking required.

Protein is great, and beef is a great source of protein (as well as vitamin b12 and iron), but there are other things in it, like fat, that are bad. Whereas lean beef is better, therefore yellow in the app. Other sources of protein, such as tofu or beans, should show as green or yellow, as they have the benefits of beef without the high fat and that stuff.

I'm not saying eating beef is bad for you. If you balance your diet, beef can be good. Just explaining why the app sets it as red.
 
Hey all,

WorkSmart Labs here. We're really excited about the release of Calorific Lite, and we're pumped to be cross platform!

Just to answer a few of the comments, you guys are totally right that protein is not bad for you. We want people to eat protein! We do think, though, that really fatty beef isn't the healthiest way to do so. That's what lead to us categorizing fatty beef as Red and lean beef as Yellow.

Also, our "recommended food ratio" includes 15% red foods, 35% yellow foods and 50% green foods. We're not saying "never eat red", we're just trying to encourage people to put down the doughnuts and very calorie dense foods, and pick up something that keeps them feeling full for longer.

A lot of our users on Android have found they really like the method. We know it's a bit different, and that some folks don't need apps to help them lose weight. That's OK! The Android users we have really like the philosophy, and we're excited to share that with the iOS market.
 
Protein is great, and beef is a great source of protein (as well as vitamin b12 and iron), but there are other things in it, like fat, that are bad. Whereas lean beef is better, therefore yellow in the app. Other sources of protein, such as tofu or beans, should show as green or yellow, as they have the benefits of beef without the high fat and that stuff.

I'm not saying eating beef is bad for you. If you balance your diet, beef can be good. Just explaining why the app sets it as red.

I see the outdated reasoning behind the color coding. Problem is that simplifying your diet to color codes and number counts will do nothing but make losing weight so much more complicated and confusing.

I haven't downloaded the app - it may run well and be very useful for doing what they designed it for. What I'm saying is that fat is not an enemy. All the sugar and starch we consume is. This thinking is nothing new. Surprised someone is still counting calories that's all. Your body will tell you when you need calories. Follow it and you can't go wrong if you feed it the right foods which has nothing to do with color coding.

Ultimately everyone has their own approach, but IMHO, this app takes you down a very difficult and confusing path. After twenty years of dieting occasionally on and off, I finally figured it out. Counting calories never worked well for me. It leaves you hungry and always wanting more. Listen to your body.

Eat protein, legumes and vegetables 6 days a week and all the other stuff one day a week and you'll lose weight. Simple as that.
 
stop eating so much and save the change

Great comment. (sarcasium).

Some people find it hard to keep the weight off and not everyone eats a healthy diet so this will help. God knows ive tried and this seems easier with its colour coding instead of having to go searching the lists of food.

Perhaps next time if you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say anything.

I see the outdated reasoning behind the color coding. Problem is that simplifying your diet to color codes and number counts will do nothing but make losing weight so much more complicated and confusing.

I haven't downloaded the app - it may run well and be very useful for doing what they designed it for. What I'm saying is that fat is not an enemy. All the sugar and starch we consume is. This thinking is nothing new. Surprised someone is still counting calories that's all. Your body will tell you when you need calories. Follow it and you can't go wrong if you feed it the right foods which has nothing to do with color coding.

Ultimately everyone has their own approach, but IMHO, this app takes you down a very difficult and confusing path. After twenty years of dieting occasionally on and off, I finally figured it out. Counting calories never worked well for me. It leaves you hungry and always wanting more. Listen to your body.

Eat protein, legumes and vegetables 6 days a week and all the other stuff one day a week and you'll lose weight. Simple as that.


God, everyone's a dietitian.
 
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re: calorie tracking app

ok thats nice - but i would really pay for an app that automatically burns body fat wirelessly - then i would finally buy an iphone4
I dont need to count calories - i need to burn calories
 
The screenshot shows Beef as red or "bad". Since when is protein bad for you?
Counting calories misses the point completely and makes dieting so difficult. Cut out the white stuff and sugars and you won't need an app to help you micromanage your hunger. I lost thirty pounds doing that eating proteins like beef, fish and chicken, lots of beans and lots of vegetables. Simple. No tracking required.

Beef is bad for you compared to other sources of protein because it is high in saturated fat, which raises risk of heart disease. Most Americans at least consume too much saturated fat and would do well to substitute poultry, nuts, beans, or fish in place of red meats because they are lower in saturated fat and some of these sources are high in polyunsaturated fats which are actually good for cholesterol levels. Most Americans consume more than enough protein because our diets are amongst the highest in meat in the world (some Scandinavian countries eat more, maybe some very rich countries like Luxembourg too).

My sources on this is "Eat Drink and Be Healthy", the Harvard Medical School guide to nutrition.
 
It should be kilocalories not calories!

In the US at least we refer to them as calories even though they are in fact kilocalories. So yeah, for much of the world it should be labeled kilocalories but at least for US audiences calling them calories is acceptable.
 
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Well I've been working out and eating healthier for about two weeks now. Tryin to get in shape and lose weight. I downloaded it, and we will see how it works. So far, it looks like I'm eating way under calorie wise and I even underestimated my activity. If that's true then I should be on my way to losing more than 1lb a week.

To lose a pound a week you need to burn 430 or so calories a day more than you consume. This is probably not a reasonable goal. Try taking steps that are sustainable instead.
 
Beef is bad for you compared to other sources of protein because it is high in saturated fat, which raises risk of heart disease. Most Americans at least consume too much saturated fat and would do well to substitute poultry, nuts, beans, or fish in place of red meats because they are lower in saturated fat and some of these sources are high in polyunsaturated fats which are actually good for cholesterol levels. Most Americans consume more than enough protein because our diets are amongst the highest in meat in the world (some Scandinavian countries eat more, maybe some very rich countries like Luxembourg too).

My sources on this is "Eat Drink and Be Healthy", the Harvard Medical School guide to nutrition.

Good point but studies by the National Instute for Health have shown that beef and pork (yes bacon) can be beneficial for your health if the animals are free range and eat their natural diet of seeds grass, etc. The focus on cutting fat sometimes causes us to lose sight of the bigger issues of what we choose to eat today.
 
Good point but studies by the National Instute for Health have shown that beef and pork (yes bacon) can be beneficial for your health if the animals are free range and eat their natural diet of seeds grass, etc. The focus on cutting fat sometimes causes us to lose sight of the bigger issues of what we choose to eat today.

Color me skeptical unless the diet resulted in leaner stock. Could you send me a reference on this? I'd be interested to read.
 
Color me skeptical unless the diet resulted in leaner stock. Could you send me a reference on this? I'd be interested to read.

The study was at least ten years ago. When I google it, I get a million links to related information, most of them nutritionist's blogs. My wife is excellent at searching NIH's pubmed, so I'll ask her if she can find it for me.

The idea for the study came from looking at cholesterol in eggs and whether or not the diet of the hens affected the amount and type in the eggs they produced. They found that hens who were free range and ate a 'natural' diet as opposed to factory farmed hens had significantly lower cholesterol eggs and a higher proportion of the heart healthy cholesterol. They carried this over to studies of bacon and other meat and found similar evidence related to their dietary intake. The study caused a huge stir because the press played it up as 'study finds bacon is good.'
 
Hey all,

WorkSmart Labs here. We're really excited about the release of Calorific Lite, and we're pumped to be cross platform!

A lot of our users on Android have found they really like the method. We know it's a bit different, and that some folks don't need apps to help them lose weight. That's OK! The Android users we have really like the philosophy, and we're excited to share that with the iOS market.

Kudos for the great work you do!

As a hard core Tech Geek & Fitness Geek for life, I congratulate you for the positive, upbeat approach evident in your post. Since I have implemented the additional ideas / concepts / practices I've gleaned from Calorific, its expanded my baseline of knowledge even further.

Highly enthusiastic about Fitness, further enhanced and implemented via technology aids, I have enjoyed your Android app since it was first released. Now with it on my iPhone as well, it simply assures that I will always have it available.

Thanks & keep up the good work :)
 
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