TORONTO – “Greetings, chubby human. I, Carrot, am your new fitness overlord.”
Believe it or not, this menacing greeting is the opening line of a new weight tracker app meant to encourage users to lose weight and get into shape.
Carrot, the artificial intelligence fitness coach with a sadistic and snarky tone, will do just about anything it takes to help you shed those pounds – from ridiculing you, to threatening you, and even bullying, some may argue.
“Carrot has a new goal: to transform your flabby carcass into a Grade A specimen of the human race,” reads the app’s website.
To do this, Carrot gets “mad” at users when they gain weight and praises users when they lose weight.
“I am harsh but fair,” boats the female computerized voice.
The app does indeed sound harsh – and even offensive to those who have endured weight-related ridicule or bullying. But its creator assures users that the app is meant to be humorous.
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“Losing weight sucks,” Carrot Fit’s creator Brian Mueller told Global News. “It’s probably one of the worst things you have to go through in life, so I wanted to find a way to make it fun and entertaining.”
After surveying various weight tracker and fitness apps, Mueller said he noticed that most of the apps were geared towards users getting an empowering or “kind” experience. The self-taught app designer decided to put a funny twist on the typical fitness app to give users a comedic break in their weight loss journey.
“I wasn’t trying to make it negative – I think people when they look at it will realize it’s trying to be silly,” he said.
“I don’t want to offend anybody. I just want to help people look forward to losing weight, stepping on a scale and inputting their weight data.”
Mueller also hopes the tough-love attitude will encourage people to lose weight – pointing out that some famous personal trainers, like The Biggest Loser’s Jillian Michaels, have seen great success with clients thanks to that approach.
The Philadelphia-area app designer did not reveal how many downloads Carrot Fit has garnered since its January 30th release, but said it’s been very successful.
Eventually Carrot Fit, which is available for iPhone and iPod Touch users, will expand to include fitness modules and various workouts for users to download.
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