New BariatricPal Tracking App! What Features Do You Want?

[Alex Brecher 10,484]

Hey BariatricPal Members,

We’re developing a new BariatricPal tracking app, and we want to know what features you want in it! Can you please let us know the MUST-HAVE features? Here are a few questions to guide you.

-Are restaurant foods essential?

-What is the easiest way to enter foods? Do you want to have a dropdown menu appear as you are typing?

-Do you need to be able to enter custom foods and recipes?

-Which nutrients are necessary to be tracked?

-Should some nutrients be more prominent than others? For example, do you want the option to choose a certain nutrient (say, Protein and water), and be able to see a countdown of the number of grams of protein and ounces of Water to get to your daily goal?

-Do you want to set customized goals for calories and nutrients?

-What other goal-setting features would you want to see?

Please describe any other features you want to see. What makes a food tracking app worth it to you? What does the user interface (what you see) look like?

Can you please say what is absolutely necessary, and what might be nice, and what you would hate to see? Or…how would you like your user experience to go? Can you describe what your ideal scenario would be each time you use the app?

We want to make this the best tracking app possible, so let us know. You can be part of making the best diet and weight loss tracker yet! Thanks!

[FloraBama Girl 116]

It needs to factor in exercise daily totals. I like everything listed above. Also able to connect with other users.

[talkingmountain 83]

Essentials:

- Water intake (48 fl oz minimum goal)

- Protein gram & percent of goal (goal needs to be set by user)

- Saturated fat & total fat & percent of each (goals set by user)

- Calories & percent of goal (set by user)

- All the main Vitamins & minerals (Bs, D, Calcium, Sodium, etc)

- # servings of vegetables & fruits and percent of daily goal

- Exercise

- Ability to add foods not in database and share that info with others (grows the database)

- Ability to add nutrient data for recipes & frequent food combos

- Track weight, percent body fat, waist & other key measurements.

- Track labs (all the common labs Done for both bariatric and "regular" checkups)

- Ability to see percent of goals reached on daily basis as well as averaged over a week and over a month

- All goals CEM set at a default value, but customizable if user desires

- Ability to add comments (e.g. Dumping events etc) so users can see patterns

Not Essential but Desirable:

- Link to Fitbit type devices

- Share recipes w nutrients

- Photos of self

- Track pants, shirt, & dress size

[PatientEleventyBillion 851]

Have a list of foods in the US and Canada that include nutritional info. Much like MFP. I believe theirs are user input though.

Ability to sync with fitness accessories like Apple Watches, Fitbit, etc. to monitor exercise, HR, etc. to calculate cals burned and monitor changes.

Reminders toward daily goals like Protein, or alerts about exceeding like carbs, cals, etc.

Supplement and medication reminders. Especially useful since Calcium supplements need to be spread out daily meaning other Vitamins essential to maximize absorption need to go with them. Certain foods and other vitamins interfere with absorption of nutrients or medications.

[Sosewsue61 3,185]

I don't need to connect to others.

It needs to be able to produce reports or be exported in a spreadsheet type format for keeping. Need to be able to see all history or archived history for trends.

Need to be somewhat customizable to add our own menu and save that, so we would not have to retype an entire recipe/meal each time it repeats - like 'Sue's chili, or 'Sue's Breakfast #2' - which might be 2 eggs over easy, 2 bacon, 1 tsp oil. Etc.

(Exercise is okay okay to add but I own a fitbit already, and yes it has a food function but I is not as user friendly as I would like).

[CStoned 155]

Needs to let you track ur calories & goals EVEN IF ur on a VERY LOW CALORIE GOAL like 800/day & such...

Needs to remember ur recipies & fav food items longer than just a couple months bc i eat the same stuff on repeat alot...

Needs waaaaaay better variety (& more accurate) exercise count than MyFitnessPal...wanna know what's getting burnt while weight lifting too..

[tuhok1591 34]

Needs to let you track ur calories & goals EVEN IF ur on a VERY LOW CALORIE GOAL like 800/day & such...

Needs to remember ur recipies & fav food items longer than just a couple months bc i eat the same stuff on repeat alot...

Needs waaaaaay better variety (& more accurate) exercise count than MyFitnessPal...wanna know what's getting burnt while weight lifting too..

I would like to also see a reminder for meds/vitamins/supplements and an interaction list/recommendations regarding what not to take together or what times are most beneficial. Several meal plans for each post surgery phase, that uses real food and not just promoting certain brands of supplements/protein products would be helpful to us newbies. I felt overwhelmed just trying to figure out how I was going to get all of my Protein, Water, meds & supplements in a day and timing it so I would allow 60-90 minutes after meals before drinking & still get it all in to meet the daily intake quota.

[Apple1 2,572]

I would also like to track carbs and Fiber so I can know my daily net carb totals. This is important for type 2 diabetics.

I would also like to be able to export the data into a spreadsheet.

I would also like to be able to link with my Apple Watch for exercise.

I second being able to have lower calorie goals.

[JenSev 57]

I would also like to track carbs and fiber so I can know my daily net carb totals. This is important for type 2 diabetics.
I would also like to be able to export the data into a spreadsheet.
I would also like to be able to link with my Apple Watch for exercise.
I second being able to have lower calorie goals.

This! NET CARB tracking please!

Sent from my SM-G900T using BariatricPal mobile app

[Alex Brecher 10,484]

Wow, awesome feedback so far! Please keep it coming.

[TT'S Surgery 10]

I don't like the user interface of MFP at all. It's way more complicated than it needs to be. I used to use Samsung app until they canceled it as it was much easier to use. Needs to be tablet friendly please. All of the previous suggestions were good ones. Being able to enter a recipe would be helpful, so it could calculate your ingredients for you.

Sent from my SM-T560NU using BariatricPal mobile app

[Katriena 70]

Absolutely necessary: a huge database and a reasonably easy way to add foods. The database is the reason I'm on MFP instead of any special bariatric app.


RNY 14 April 2017
SW: 295 lb / 134 kg
GW: 187 lb / 85 kg (I'll see when I get there)

[Simply_Divine 32]

I would love to have an option to scan a label/barcode instead of typing in info. Everything needs to be user friendly.

[Finally17 54]

I agree with so many of the suggestions provided.
Personally, I use LoseIt and like it, but it's not specific to bariatric tracking. It has a seaech for foods in general; once you've developed a shake recipe, for example, you can go to your favorites and find it. If youre searching for a brand name, you can look in Supermarkets or Restaurants to find it. New ap needs a way to update foods and menus as changes are made.
I'm still pre op, but want ways to be successful: when to take Vitamins, medications with a reminder signal. Place to record weight, measurements with a graph to see visual.
Basically I would say to use what LoseIt has, improve upon it, and make it bariatric specific.
Thanks for asking for our input[emoji4]

[Roux-en-McClanahan 79]

Having the option of tracking a single bite of something. I don't know how many grams or ounces is in the average bite of food.

I too use MFP because of the huge database.