App dobs in wayward dieters

A new app helps people lose weight by dobbing them in to social networks for late-night fridge raids.

Dubbed Virtual Fridge Lock, the app was created by an app agency for weight loss program Meta Real, in Brazil, as a new form of social humiliation.

The app includes a magnetic device that attaches to the user’s fridge.

If the user indulges their cravings for food with a late-night trip to the fridge, their social network of choice will receive posts about the raid, and then their friends can reply with a comment.

Meta Real refers to the concept of the app as “an eating re-education program”.

The extreme weight loss marketing strategy follows news of a Facebook-operated app called Aherk!, which encourages people to “self-blackmail” themselves into losing weight.

Users are asked to upload “compromising pictures” of themselves that will be uploaded to Facebook if they to meet their goal weight.

While these strategies do indeed sound extreme, they do suggest consumers want that extra nudge in order to lose weight. Perhaps there are other weight loss incentives you can think of?