Do you know that obesity today kills more people than hunger? Statistically, one in every three people in the world is either obese or overweight. The figure stands at a staggering two in every three people in the UK. On one hand, this is a health crisis but is also a business opportunity on the other.
Now for you as an entrepreneur looking to build a health and nutrition app, there are two key facts worth considering. First, with obesity and related health problems rampant around the world, the market for such applications is really large and growing. Second, since such problems are more severe in wealthier western markets, it presents a lucrative business opportunity. Here are a few types of fitness and nutrition apps that you can begin with:
Calorie count
This is by far the most common type of health-related app particularly because people understand the concept of calories. If you burn more calories than you consume, you would lose weight- simple! Your calorie count application would need to collect all the information about what users consumed and then reflect the approximate number of calories. This figure can be then compared with how much calories they burned to track their progress.
Diet planning
While a calorie count application leaves users in control of what they eat, a diet planning app can act as a guide for targeted weight loss and thus are often more engaging. The application can feature numerous time-bound weight loss programs- each with their own dietary plans. The users can enroll in any of their programs and follow the instructions. On the plus side, this also eliminates the tedious process of collecting the data on what users consumed.
Community-driven
One of the key roadblocks for every fitness and the nutrition-related app is the user apathy. To counter such problems, you can opt to build a community-driven app or include social features in your calorie count or diet planning app. Yes, people don’t inherently like to exercise but they love to boast about their fitness. A community-driven fitness app gives users the added incentive to showcase their achievements and thus encourage them to continue progressing.
Now depending on your strategy and the market you wish to serve, your nutrition app development can take any of the shape or even a mix of them. Whatever you choose, there are a few basics that must not forget to cover:
Fitness band compatibility
Making your application compatible with all popular fitness bands and gadgets serves two purposes- functional and marketing. Not only those bands provide requisite data for calorie burnt- critical for your app functionality but also gives your application higher visibility among all the users of those products.
Tracking & notifications
As mentioned earlier, people don’t really like to exercise and thus need to be constantly pushed to achieve their daily goals. The application must have an elaborate dashboard to track their progress and must be notified of their achievements or shortfalls.
Cloud vision
This is particularly applicable if you are building a calorie count app. Since it requires the tedious process of users inputting all the details of their daily meals, the application risks simply scaring off the users. To solve this problem, applications can have an inbuilt cloud vision that allows users to simply click a picture of their meals and the application would automatically recognize the dish, find the recipe, and calculate the calories. Yes, these advanced features do add up to the mobile application development cost but eventually more than compensate for it through higher returns.
As a bonus tip, if you wish to build your own nutrition app and have serious cost and time-to-market considerations, we would highly suggest you hire offshore application developers.
