New app counts calories of Hong Kong dishes

Watching your waistline while enjoying an egg waffle, curry fish balls and even 7-11 microwave specials has just got easier after Chinese University launched a weight management mobile application yesterday.

Specially designed for Hongkongers, the application "My Wellness Tracker HK" offers nutritional facts for thousands of popular local dishes.

"We have noticed there are many weight management mobile applications available, but their database of food and exercise is Westernised," said Mandy Sea Man-mei, manager of the university's nutritional studies centre. She added that a localised formula was also used to calculate daily energy requirements.

"Research Chinese University conducted in 2000 found that Hong Kong people need less energy per day than Westerners due to the difference in the way our bodies are built," said Sea.

The new app allows users to input their daily dietary and exercise records, and track whether they are losing or gaining weight, the development team said.

As well as collecting and researching the nutritional content of dishes, the team also recorded the average energy expenditure for more than 800 types of exercise, including doing housework.

And it plans to keep adding to the database, said Forrest Yau Chung-fai, the university's health and fitness specialist.