Using calorific values of local takeaway restaurant meals...

M

Myuser01

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I'm considering creating an online tool that'll calculate the amount of gym exercise you need to do in order to burn off a specific meal from specific local takeaways in ireland.

The idea would be to attract local attention online, boost local SEO in google and generally qualify leads for health and gym brands.

Would the meal and calorific values be considered protected IP of the takeaway?

Tool would be in the public interest and I'm hoping that calorific values would be considered public domain?

Tool won't really work if it just calculates generic meal values. The hook is the named local takeaway angle.

Same tool. Only for Irish alcohol brands. What would that legal position be?

I could get a nutritionist to estimate the values roughly if it helped?
 
Myuser01 said:
an online tool that'll calculate the amount of gym exercise you need to do in order to burn off a specific meal
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Just out of interest, will you be refining the calculations to the individual or just using estimations based on average rate of burn?
 
Myuser01 said:
I'll be tailoring to the individual.
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That would certainly make it a lot more interesting. Anyone serious enough to continue using an app like this after the initial curiosity wears off are going to want to see the numbers change over time to account for physiological changes. Limiting the exercise options to the gym will reduce your target audience though.
 
Leo said:
That would certainly make it a lot more interesting. Anyone serious enough to continue using an app like this after the initial curiosity wears off are going to want to see the numbers change over time to account for physiological changes. Limiting the exercise options to the gym will reduce your target audience though.
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Thanks Leo.

My target market will be local gyms and the health/fit_ness industry so I don't really mind niching down to reach this market. I hope to brand the tool and sell it on to gyms with bespoke rollout. So here's hoping. I can also do a non-gym version for the health and fit_ness niche down the road.

Design path and user path are often very different entities when it comes to these things. But I'd imagine that most of the user sessions will be new users for various reasons. You could lose a good few kilos but i'd imagine the stats would remain within the margin of error.

I should probably think about ways to make the tool more appealing to returning users. I can't think of any killer features off the top of my head though.
 
Myuser01 said:
My target market will be local gyms and the health/fit_ness industry so I don't really mind niching down to reach this market. I hope to brand the tool and sell it on to gyms with bespoke rollout.
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You may need to pay a gym to have them endorse it. Think of it from their perspective, how would they generate a return on that investment? How would this win them new members? Think of the role take-aways play in the motivation to join a gym.

Myuser01 said:
I should probably think about ways to make the tool more appealing to returning users. I can't think of any killer features off the top of my head though.
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Do some reading on gamification. Users like getting kudos, little rewards, or building towards targets, triggers dopamine release. In your context, you could set targets for additional workouts to burn off the weekend's take-away, or build points to earn a guilt-free take-away?

Ultimately, it'll likely come down to how your tool calculates calories burned tailored to the individual. It needs to be more than just a calculator, there are loads of those, and don't make the mistake of basing anything aimed at serious gym-goers on BMI.
 
Folks

We do not discuss medical issues on Askaboutmoney.

I have deleted the "calories are good/bad for you" type comments.

Feel free to answer the specific IP question.

Brendan
 
Leo said:
You may need to pay a gym to have them endorse it. Think of it from their perspective, how would they generate a return on that investment? How would this win them new members? Think of the role take-aways play in the motivation to join a gym.



Do some reading on gamification. Users like getting kudos, little rewards, or building towards targets, triggers dopamine release. In your context, you could set targets for additional workouts to burn off the weekend's take-away, or build points to earn a guilt-free take-away?

Ultimately, it'll likely come down to how your tool calculates calories burned tailored to the individual. It needs to be more than just a calculator, there are loads of those, and don't make the mistake of basing anything aimed at serious gym-goers on BMI.
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Thanks mate. Very interesting. I had thought about gamification previously but it's not really my area of expertise.

Can you recommend a good book on gameification Leo? Preferably on audible.com?

Yeah I'm a gym goer myself and am well aware of the limitations of BMI.

Probably wouldn't go down the route of actually paying a gym to endorse it. Might consider handing it out to select gyms for free as part of a beta test though.

Not really worried about marketing channels and monetization. Once I get the eyeballs and mentions in the online press. It'll just be a process of rinse and repeat.
 
If the calorie information is published then I don't believe it is IP. I just checked my last few deliveroo orders and I don't see any reference to calories, I know in the US certain chains had to post calories, is that the same here?

In general as a user, I order a takeaway, then log onto your website and get told how much gym time I need to do to burn off said takeaway and gyms will get my details to try and sell me gym memberships? What is the selling point for the user?

I've always found that when it comes to calories, the general rules are as good as any other measure unless the individual is in the lab being tested. Would be interesting to see what kind of testing or evidence you have that your tailoring method works.
 
Dublinbay12 said:
If the calorie information is published then I don't believe it is IP. I just checked my last few deliveroo orders and I don't see any reference to calories, I know in the US certain chains had to post calories, is that the same here?

In general as a user, I order a takeaway, then log onto your website and get told how much gym time I need to do to burn off said takeaway and gyms will get my details to try and sell me gym memberships? What is the selling point for the user?

I've always found that when it comes to calories, the general rules are as good as any other measure unless the individual is in the lab being tested. Would be interesting to see what kind of testing or evidence you have that your tailoring method works.
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Thanks DublinBay12,

In terms of providing value to the end user. It might make them rethink their choice of dinner order perhaps. Plus I'm sure alot of people would be interested in this info.

Rather than acting as a "guilty conscience" though. I'll probably eventually try to gameify like previously suggested. It'd be up to the gyms whether they wanted to take details or not.
 
Myuser01 said:
Thanks DublinBay12,

In terms of providing value to the end user. It might make them rethink their choice of dinner order perhaps. Plus I'm sure alot of people would be interested in this info.

Rather than acting as a "guilty conscience" though. I'll probably eventually try to gameify like previously suggested. It'd be up to the gyms whether they wanted to take details or not.
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I just did a quick google, have you come across workofyourdinner? It seems to be a similar concept. I would suggest you do some market research, adding gamification etc, is just over complicating your target market in my opinion. Will this site not act more of a resource for people rather than an immersive experience, i.e. a person googles, gets the information from your sight and goes on with their daily business.
 
Dublinbay12 said:
I just did a quick google, have you come across workofyourdinner? It seems to be a similar concept. I would suggest you do some market research, adding gamification etc, is just over complicating your target market in my opinion. Will this site not act more of a resource for people rather than an immersive experience, i.e. a person googles, gets the information from your sight and goes on with their daily business.
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Thanks Dublinbay12.

I found some tools on Google but never came across workoffyourdinner. It's really good. It seems to have been created by a price alert service in the UK. I especially like the graphics and the walk up and use interface.

The only problem I can see with it though is because it doesn't take user-health details. The results might be a bit off. You burn calories in 3 different ways.
  • Resting metabolic rate (RMR)
  • Physical activity
  • HThermogenesis (calories required for heat production)
So estimating RMR and HThermogensis is probably a good idea and is quite easy to do with a few details.

However I'm not a nutritionist. And it could be just me being picky. Overall though, i love the tool. It's given me some great ideas to work with. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. What Google search term did you use can you remember?
 
Myuser01 said:
Thanks Dublinbay12.

I found some tools on Google but never came across workoffyourdinner. It's really good. It seems to have been created by a price alert service in the UK. I especially like the graphics and the walk up and use interface.

The only problem I can see with it though is because it doesn't take user-health details. The results might be a bit off. You burn calories in 3 different ways.
  • Resting metabolic rate (RMR)
  • Physical activity
  • HThermogenesis (calories required for heat production)
So estimating RMR and HThermogensis is probably a good idea and is quite easy to do with a few details.

However I'm not a nutritionist. And it could be just me being picky. Overall though, i love the tool. It's given me some great ideas to work with. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. What Google search term did you use can you remember?
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'How much exercise do I need to do to burn off takeaway' it pointed to a news article on the website in dailymail
 
I thought restaurants and takeaways had to publish calorific data on their meals according to EU legislation?
 
Myuser01 said:
I thought restaurants and takeaways had to publish calorific data on their meals according to EU legislation?
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That applies to pre-packaged food. Govt. here ran a public consultation on the topic this year as part of the Obesity Policy and Action Plan 2016-2025, but no sign of a report let alone any legislation yet.
 
Yeah. Upon advice. It seems that it might be a bad idea to flag how much exercise you need to do to earn a takeaway.

It reinforces the fact that exercise is a 'punishment' and leads to putting the weight back on.

Is there another gameification option I'm missing?

I'm worried that local takeaways might dispute the calorific profile of their meals.
 
Myuser01 said:
I'm worried that local takeaways might dispute the calorific profile of their meals.
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Unless they publish them publicly, you can't just guess without potentially exposing yourself. With that you will need to keep on top of it as dishes and recipes change over time.
 
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