Really Mean Calorie-Counting App Shames and Insults You Into Not Eating
Apparently, last Wednesday was “Warn a Friend They’re Fat Day.” British weight loss coach Steve Miller tried to make that a thing last week before the internet became enraged with his plan to help people eat more healthy foods, according to Munchies.
Despite the backlash from individuals who are sensitive about their weight, some app developer somewhere thought to themselves, “I should make an app for that,” and Carrot Hunger was born, only it doesn’t beat around the bush when telling you to eat better or less — it straight up insults you in that typically monotonous female computer voice.
“Greetings meatbag,” the app chimes as you input your measurements. It insults you at every turn based on how tall you are or how much you initially weigh. It’s a calorie-counting app, so you input what you eat from its vast calorie database and it logs it in a diary and insults you accordingly.
Munchies editor Hilary Pollack gave the fat-shaming app a try and details the interesting yet abusive ways this app keeps you from gaining weight.
“If you blimp up, I will be upset.”
The app suggests that you stick to a certain calorie limit a day based on how much weight you want to lose a week. Stray from that limit and the app has consequences, unless of course you bribe it with 99 cents.
“Just to be a jerk, I try to tell the app that I have just consumed 11 Milky Way bars on top of my fairly decadent breakfast. This “snack” pushes me far beyond my daily caloric limit. I’m given the option of bribing the app not to include it in my intake log for 99 cents (a smart monetization model, I will admit), or to “ACCEPT CONSEQUENCES.”
If you don’t bribe the app, it goes into “Angry Mode,” threatening:
“As punishment, for the next batch of foods you log you’ll now have a significantly increased chance of encountering a dreaded full screen advertisement.”
Alternate punishments include the app notifying your friends that you have terrible self-control or the placement of sarcastic ads at the bottom ranging from “4 Vegetables You Should Never Eat” to “Buy a Horse Mask.”
Does it work? It actually might, according to Pollack’s experience.
“Although I didn’t actually eat the near-dozen Milky Ways, I feel a little bit defensive, indignant, and (yes) ashamed. But truth be told, I kind of enjoy this sense of punishment; the interface is so jolly that it feels more like a playful mental spanking than an emotional beatdown.”
If negative reinforcement is your thing, then you might also want to check out Carrot Fit, another “tough love” app from the same developer that whips users into shape with a verbally sadistic fitness coach.
If weight loss is how you’d like to start the new year, at least the reality of your waistline is better coming from a mean app than from friends uncomfortably letting you know you are growing sideways.
Written by NextShark’s Sarah Lesnar / Images via Munchies