LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center is developing a smartphone app aiming to make it easier for consumers to stick to their diet plans by gauging calorie consumption. Co-principal investigator Dr. Corby Martin says the PortionSize app helps tackle a critical problem in weight management, getting people an idea of what they are actually eating.
“Right after they log their meal, the app will show them what they selected for their meal, how much they’ve discarded as plate waste, and consequently, how much food they’ve actually consumed during that meal,” said Martin.
Martin has been working on the app with his co-principal investigator, Dr. John Apolzan for about a year and a half and says they’ve still got more work to do. The study will recruit around 150 participants throughout the study of the app.
“We want to get their feedback on what they think of the app, how usable it is and how intuative it is and critically during that time we’ll also see if the app is accurately estimating food intake like we hope,” said Martin.
Martin says as soon as they have data that suggests that the app is accurate, it will be available to researchers and clinicians. How long it will be before it ends up in the hands of the public is still to be determined.
“So if it functions like we hope, we are willing to put it on the App Store as soon as we can, but of course we do have some hurdles to pass before it can go on the App Store,” said Martin.
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