If you were to seek a consultation with a nutritionist, the first thing he or she would have you do is start a food diary. Without understanding how you eat, it’s difficult to know what to change. But studies show that when people are asked to record what they eat, they often underestimate the portions. So the developers of Thin-cam — a product by the paid-membership dieting website Thin-site — tried to come up with a better way: the app lets you point your iPhone camera at your plate and snap a photo before you pick up your fork. That’s it. Your photo food journal is stored on Thin-site and organized by day. Join Thin-site and pay an additional monthly fee, and you can have professional nutritionists monitor your eating and give you a full rundown of your dietary weaknesses as well as an action plan for better eating, tailored to your weight-loss goals. But even without a nutritionist’s guidance, the $0.99 app will at least help delay your first bite for a few seconds while you fiddle with your phone. That’s another chance to put the cookie down. For 2011, Thin-cam’s developers plan to add a barcode scanner for easy recording of nutrition labels and a GPS tracker that will help users find healthy food options nearby when hunger strikes.
Cost: $0.99 for Thin-cam; for the full food profile analysis, join Thin-site for $29.95 and pay an $8.95-per-month fee.