Frequently Asked Questions

What makes FatWatch different from any other weight tracker?

FatWatch is the only weight tracker for people who are serious about monitoring their weight.

  1. FatWatch has a well designed interface, making it quick and easy to enter your weight even with groggy, early morning reflexes.
  2. FatWatch uses mathematics to compute a moving average and your daily energy deficit/surplus. If you're going to enter your weight every day into a computer, don't you think it should do more than a clipboard?
  3. FatWatch supports kilograms, pounds, and stones. If somebody comes up with another way to measure weight, I'll add support for that, too.
  4. FatWatch allows you to record notes and checks to annotate your weight history.
  5. FatWatch doesn't hold your data hostage: you can export your weight history to any computer at any time over Wi-Fi.
  6. FatWatch doesn't require you to start over: if you've been tracking your weight with some other tool, you can import it into FatWatch via Wi-Fi. (If you send me an email, I'll help you personally with this.)

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How is FatWatch related to Eat Watch, the Hacker's Diet tool for Palm?

I am a former Eat Watch user, and I say without hesitation that FatWatch was inspired by Eat Watch. However, FatWatch shares no code with the Eat Watch, even though John Walker was gracious enough to place it in the public domain. The FatWatch interface was designed from scratch to make it a first-class citizen on the iPhone OS.

FatWatch does share some of the same ideas from Eat Watch, and if you are a former Eat Watch user you will feel right at home in FatWatch. I even have a web tool to help migrate your weight history.

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Why doesn't FatWatch let me enter calories I've eaten?

Personally, I've never had much luck with calorie counting: the vast majority of what I eat isn't labeled with Nutrition Facts, and I have a hard time figuring out how to estimate calories; those food databases are usually more confusing than helpful. At the end of the day, I never know for sure if my calorie count is accurate or not.

Because calorie counting is so difficult and error prone, it is easy to get frustrated and give up. On the other hand, weighing yourself once a day is a relatively easy habit to form, and with that information alone, FatWatch can give you very useful information about your calorie intake.

Since it there are approximately 3500 calories in a pound of fat, FatWatch can do some math and determine, on average, your daily calorie surplus or deficit.

Let's say you have a surplus of 100 calories a day over the past month. Knowing that, you can read the label on the back of a can of Coke and realize that, if you did nothing differently but switched to Coke Zero, you'd be losing weight!

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How do I get it?

First, you need an iPhone or iPod touch: either the new iPhone 3G or an original iPhone or iPod touch with the latest iPhone software update installed. iTunes should offer to install the update when you sync your phone.

Next, you can download the app using iTunes on your computer or the App Store on your phone.

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FatWatch is boring. Can you recommend any good iPhone games?

Ruboku and Lock 'n' Roll.

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Who are you?

My name is Benjamin Ragheb, I live in New York City, and I spend my time writing software and performing improv comedy.

Several years ago I began tracking my weight every day using Eat Watch for Palm and lost over thirty pounds. I wrote FatWatch because I wanted to continue tracking my weight on my iPhone.

I am not a doctor and cannot give you any advice on whether you should lose or gain weight.

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