A DIY app to help you lose weight

MUMBAI, INDIA: “Want to lose weight now, Ask me how?”

While weight loss is good for health, these days it has become a national obsession for different reasons altogether—peer pressure, lifestyle and the likes.

According to rough estimates, the Indian weight loss market is valued at more than Rs 10,000 crore!!! Leveraging the opportunity are self proclaimed experts and weight loss clinics that are mushrooming at every nook and corner of cities and even small towns.

What if you do not want to enroll with any of these clinics?

Here is a DIY tool, a mobile app named Obino that will help you to lose weight in a scientific manner.

According to Ritu Srivastava, CEO, Obino, “I meet people who were fed up with meeting the experts and consultants. While some customers complained that their consultants enforced aggressive dietary and exercise limitations, some others admitted that they were lured back to their old lifestyle and stopped visiting their consultants after three to four sittings.”

Addressing the gap, Srivastava empanelled certified dieticians and consultants. “Initially, we were focused on building the community and still offer the first few sittings for free. But if the users want additional access to fitness or health experts, there is a fee attached.”

What is Obino?

Obino is a mobile app that helps a user to keep track of his or her dietary intake and exercise, and also acts their wearable companion.

22,000 + users who have downloaded the app have collectively lost about 1,350 kilogram weight in the last two months. “With high addiction rates, more than 70 percent users visit the app at least 2 times a week,” Srivastava claimed.

Going social:

Srivastava has now formed a WhatsApp group that includes the users and the experts who regularly discuss dietary and health related issues, but broader topics like the benefit of wearables, and updates in the medical field.

Additionally, Obino will also leverage social media. “We are fairly active on Facebook but are now planning to scale up our presence and outreach on Twitter and Pinterest as well,” she said.

Going forward, Srivastava plans to launch in-app and E-Fitness plan to offer customized e-coaching technology and custom fitness plans for its users. “We are currently a virtual weight loss coach but soon plan to bring in a strong social connect so that people lose weight in a socially motivating community. We will also be launching a much more enhanced activity tracking tool in the near term.”