Food Trainer

University of Exeter

About this app

Do you want to eat less unhealthy food? Do you want to lose weight? Then why not try the FoodT app! Download this app and choose 3 types of food/drink you want to consume less of and then play away! Simply press the item on the screen when there’s a green circle and don’t when there’s a red circle.
By playing this game on your phone you will be a part of exciting new scientific research. Each time you play you’ll be contributing to research at The University of Exeter. This app is based on a similar online game, which was shown to reduce users’ food intake and weight after playing the game four times.

The FoodT app will ask you a few questions before and after you play so that our research team can see whether it helps you reduce your food intake, craving and weight. You will also be asked for a few basic details about yourself (age, sex) but the app will not collect any information about your identity. All the data you provide will be anonymous.
All data from the app will be sent anonymously to our researchers at the University of Exeter and so by downloading the app you consent to this (Check the terms and conditions for more information).

The current version of the app is only available in English. If successful, we will look to translate into other languages. For the latest updates and comments about the app please see our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/foodTapp/

Ratings and reviews

I noticed a definite change in my "comfort snack" seeking behavior after a month of using the app. I like that this app is part of a scientific study. Recommendations: I'd love to see charts of my "stats" (speed, accuracy) over time. Also, the question prompts do not account for whether the food/drink I'm "craving" is a nourishing, healthy choice at an appropriate eating time (it often is, even before I started using the app). Updating the questions to reflect that would be helpful/interesting.

It has a lot of potential. I'm excited to see how far this goes. A few suggestions ... Make it so we can add pictures of our own. This would help immensely for personalization. Make it more challenging, or even a totally different gameplay, like a maze or memory game. Give better "rewards" Fireworks and gold coins for getting it right or spiders and snakes for getting it wrong. Thanks to all the creators for the time and effort towards something that might someday be really amazing.

wonderful! love this app! it totally helped me to get my eating habits under control. I loved how it gave me my life back. I'm not controlled by cravings and binge eating or by calorie counting and then self loathing. I feel mentally and emotionally better with myself and in control of what I chose to eat. it's my choice again. this app has even helped me managing my depression since food choices were some triggers. very sustainable, wish I could write more as I have so much more to say.

What's new

The Food Trainer now collects some anonymous data in order to help us understand usage patterns. This will help us evaluate how people play the game, how often they interrupt playing, if they resume at a later date, and if notifications and customisation are helpful functions for users.
We have also updated the app to address some issues with reminders on phones running the most recent Android versions.