“I felt very dedicated,’’ Noonan said. “You sort of develop a relationship with it. It’s also about developing that relationship with yourself.’’
Between April and August last year, Noonan lost 14 pounds. Now she uses the application to track her fitness and calories when she falls out of her normal routine - around the holidays, for example.
The market for food and fitness-tracking websites and mobile applications has exploded in recent years, with many products tapping into the hallmarks on which weight-loss powerhouses like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig have built their empires: self-tracking and accountability.
A review published in September, of 204 applications that were available on iTunes in 2009, found that few applications did more than offer a way to keep a food and activity journal or track weigh-ins. But weight-loss and technology experts say the potential for mobile products is huge, and the market is changing quickly.
Many popular products today can be linked to hardware - pedometers or other devices that track activity. Some companies, with the help of social media, have developed expansive communities of users who act as a support group. Other websites and mobile applications offer contests in which people compete for points or financial incentives for meeting exercise goals. And there are also products that provide automated feedback, in which a virtual coach counsels users depending on their specific needs and whether they are hitting their food and exercise targets.
The programs have been developed and marketed largely in the commercial sector, but weight-loss counselors and other clinicians increasingly see them as an important tool for their patients.
The online and mobile applications, paired with social media networks, are “the wave of the future, in terms of changing behavior,’’ said Sherry Pagoto, a clinical psychologist in the Weight Center at UMass Memorial Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at UMass Medical School.
