After thinking about what would interest me the most and therefore motivate me into creating the best app possible for the gap in the market, I decided that I would focus my product on Eating Disorder recovery. I decided to take on this subject as it is typically a very taboo subject that people do not feel comfortable talking about and therefore ignore it, despite it affecting 1.25 million people in the UK alone.

I felt there was a gap in the market for my recovery app because, although some already exist, there isn’t any apps which focus on the root problem of recovery; which is beginning to eat again.

Current apps on the market, such as Rise Up + Recover, seem to focus their attention on the mental side such as mood trackers and helpful podcasts etc. This of course is amazing and I’m sure very helpful, but from witnessing loved ones suffering from this illness, I feel they are not focussing on what really needs to be addressed; calories.

in my opinion and from opinions of those close to me that have suffered, the best way to recover is to focus on the root of the problem but take away all of the negative aspects and just leave the positives. My concept for my app would be the ability of allowing the users to still have control of what to eat, except a doctor or family member is able to set a locked calorie goal that they are not able to see or change. a choice of meals for the day are then created which fit in to the calorie goal of the day. the user can have a a choice of 3 breakfast, lunch and dinner options and, depending on each of their choices, the meal plan is digitally altered to make sure the other choices can fit into their calorie goal of the day. This allows the user to be in control whilst also reaching their goal.

The main way in which this will be done is by providing no nutritional information. By doing this it encourages the users to actually focus on the meal itself and not the calories that are hidden in it. It slowly allows them to think more positively about food and become less infatuated with caloric intake. this would of course be a slow process, but I feel would be most effective in the long run.