80BITES is not About Counting bites
Really — 80Bites is not about the number of daily bites! People have been trying our 99-cent 80Bites app because of Ozempic and Zepbound. The 80Bites app was launched 15 years ago. Two years ago, I decided to update it and removed the tracking feature of bite counts with daily and weekly totals.
The tech guy doing the update — who knew nothing about diet — said, “No, that’s a mistake. You shouldn’t do it.” And I said, “You’re not in America. People are being driven crazy by tracking and constantly measuring and comparing themselves to other people. This is not good for their mental health.”
He disagreed, and three other people in the office disagreed, but I went ahead. Now that more people are using it, their first question is: “How can I tally my bites? Does it track daily bites? Where is the data?”
Of course, we’re very responsive and reply: “Bite counting is really diagnostic.” There’s no magic that comes with 80 bites. Think: 80 bites of avocado is probably a lot of calories, while a balanced meal is typically around 20 calories a bite. We are not calorie counters; we are quantity monitors. And the program is only based on bites within meals.
Anyway, I decided to ask someone how to answer these queries. She’s in her 50s, a New Yorker, very successful in marketing and TV production. Then she decided to become a Pilates teacher, so she trained for her second career. She’s PhysicalMind certified, one of the best teachers, very smart, articulate — and fat. She used the app and wrote what she thought I should say when people ask why there’s no tracking:
“The app does not currently organize bites past one meal. We appreciate your feedback, and we are constantly updating the app to make user-friendly improvements.”
Well, that reads beautifully, but it’s a lie. This kind of feedback makes us nuts because it shows that the user doesn’t get it! And we are not going to make any more updates or improvements. I’ve already spent $40,000 on this one app. There are hundreds of tracking apps — micros, macros, points, calories, gluten, etc. And as I’m writing this explanation, two articles pop up: a recent study saying tracking de-motivates, and another saying Apple finds their Watch tracking is failing them financially.
I am always ahead. I became a Pilates client 60 years ago.
So — within months — the GLP-1 shots will be in pill format. A pill will deliver faster weight loss with fewer — if any — side effects. One pill daily will save you so much money on food you don’t buy and medical costs you don’t incur. And where do you begin? Learning how to lose nonstop hunger with 80Bites. Learning how to stop the binging with 80Bites.
Next post will be what this terrific Pilates teacher told me to do to sell more apps. Stay tuned…
This is a thing I had a hard time understanding/accepting at first too. Hard to break diet culture habits. I’d say the wording should be “The 80 in 80 bites stands for the maximum bites someone should have in a day. That being said, it’s sustainable because you eat less in a meal. You can’t move bites between meals, because you can’t count forever. If you follow our recommendations and train your stomach to be satisfied with 25 bites, then stop counting, you will eat freely and still find you can’t eat much more and don’t want to. If you keep to 80 bites for your day, and go hungry to eat 50 bites at dinner, you may lose weight in the short term, but when you stop counting, you’ll continue to eat 50 bites to be satisfied, and start eating that amount several times a day. To avoid this, we stopped offering the option to track daily amounts over time. We wish you luck, and hope you enjoy our app and your food!” Or something like that. Might need to be cut down, I tend to ramble, but you get the idea lol. Happy Thanksgiving!