The groundbreaking health app utilising selfies

We’ve all heard of social media inspiring people to lose weight, but there’s now a new smartphone app that will help motivate users to lead a healthy lifestyle through selfie “progress” shots.

Created by Croatian biologist Anita Busic, the BodyRecog - The Body Shape Tracking App will analyse and track the human body’s transformations, measurements and proportions via daily “selfie” photos. The app measures the body’s percentage of muscular mass and fat, along with other fitness-related factors.

Selfie photos will reflect the extent of a person’s progress on a fitness or nutrition program. The photos will demonstrate what body parts have changed and allow users to monitor how close they are to reaching their specific goals.

By keeping tabs on how their body has transformed while undergoing a nutrition program, the idea is that users will be motivated to continue their diet. “Tracking results of dietary programs have proved to be an excellent tool in better adherence to the new dietary regime, as opposed to not tracking, when up to 50 per cent of people quit,” says Busic.

“Three in four people want to share their selfies [showing the] results of their body transformation on social networks. Those who do, nine out of ten will decide to follow through with their new dietary regimes, and be able to proudly show the world how well they have done. BodyRecog NUTRITION will not only enable them to track their results in a simple and eye-pleasing way, but also to share their results before, during and after following their dietary program.”

The app won October’s British Invention Show award in London and is set to launch to consumers in 2015.