Strip for a Healthy Selfie: new app asks users to shed inhibitions for the sake of fitness

The surge of selfies on social media has developed a bad reputation. A recently published study even associates people who indulge in taking and posting such self-snapped photographs with narcissism, psychopathy and self-objectification.

But a new phone app developed by a Hong Kong-based couple puts a positive spin on the trend: by using selfies to motivate people to achieve their health and fitness goals, whether it's to lose weight, tone up, get fit or eat healthier.

Healthy Selfie, the brainchild of Joe and Charlotte Li, is a lot like popular photo app Instagram. You snap, share, hashtag and comment on photos, and build your own individual online community by following and being followed by other users. A "Fit Feed" keeps you updated on everyone in your social network.

Photos on Healthy Selfie, however, tend to show more skin and muscles, fruits and salads than those on Instagram.

The app also enables users to create "before-and-after" snaps, as well as a photographic food diary where uploaded dishes can be accompanied by a step-by-step recipe or a clickable link to the recipe on the web.

Within the first three weeks of its launch in January, the free app - currently compatible only with iPhone 5 and newer models - had more than 5,000 downloads and 11,000 photo uploads, says Charlotte Li, a former chartered accountant. "On launch day, the server was so inundated with downloads that it crashed."