JP/Jerry Adiguna

For many, gadgets are essential tools for work, leisure, communication and social life, but for tech entrepreneur Aryo Ariotedjo, they are also his solution for reaching his ideal weight.

The founder of Grupara Inc, a venture capital firm for start-ups, used to be obese, weighing 110 kilograms. But after undertaking an exercise regimen and monitoring his diet with weight loss apps, he managed to reduce his weight to 78 kg within six months.

He said he discovered the apps after learning that a weight loss program was not only about doing exercise but also monitoring eating habits.

“I realize that if you want to reduce your weight you need the correct calculation on your calorie intake and how much you burned. We have to strictly monitor it to reach our target and these apps help us with that,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Aryo’s first weight loss gadget is jawbone, which allows him to track his eating habits and daily activities, including steps taken and calories burned. He then switches to a similar device called Fitbit because it provides more accurate calculation on heart rates.

“I discovered all these gadgets from browsing around,” he said.

Dealing with technology on a daily basis, the man behind successful start-ups like Maskoolin and Project Shoe seems to have got his head around gadgets. He has been into gadgets since he was young; his first being the Nokia 3310 mobile phone when he was still in junior high school.

“I had it for two or three years,” the 29-year-old said.

After being a Nokia user, Aryo, like many others, later became a devout Apple user. “I choose Apple because of its design, not so much for the technology,” he said.

MyFitnessPal

This free app helps measure daily calorie intake. It gives us detailed information about how much fat or protein we should consume every day. For example, it tells us that we shouldn’t consume more than 60 grams of fat per day, but for many Indonesians, consuming 100 grams of fat daily is considered normal.

FitStar

The app is dedicated for those who are too lazy to exercise, like me. The app identifies people’s different strength ability in doing exercise. It helps provide suggestions on the type of workout for people who are not into sports. So, it is like your own personal trainer, but smarter and cheaper. You need to pay around US$7 per month for this but it is still cheaper than gym memberships that can cost up to
Rp 700,000 (US$53.25) per month.

Withings

This scale that can be connected to your mobile phone provides daily information on both weight and fat mass. So, every time you step onto the scale, you will get this information that can be neatly documented in your phone. You can also look at the data in charts. With a Rp 2 million price tag, it’s pretty expensive. But, knowing that it is not cheap, you’ll take this dieting thing pretty seriously.

— JP/Ika Krismantari

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