my Food Traffic Lights calculates personal nutrition recommendations for you in the form of traffic lights based on your gender, age, height, and lifestyle. Further, your own weight and personal target weight or Body Mass Index (BMI) can be considered, if you would like to keep your own weight or achieve a weight loss or weight gain to a specific target weight or BMI with a diet and healthy eating plan. If you are a woman, the app can even consider whether you are pregnant and breast feeding.
In the following, we provide explanation how easy the setup and use of the app works and why the app needs which information from
you to calculate your personal nutrition recommendations and Food Traffic Lights.
Downloads
my Food Traffic Lights is available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, so just try it! You find buttons, which redirect you to the two stores, here and at the bottom of this website.
In order to use the app, you no registration with your email address or any other personal information is required. You also do not need to sign a membership or anything similar. We do not trace back our users and we do not collect your IP address or phone number. Your anonymity is important for us!
Name
In this field of the setup, you can enter whatever name you want. Please remember that we do not want to trace you back and take your anonymity serious.
Having a specific name for your personal Food Traffic Lights will become especially convenient if you decide to add further Food Traffic Lights for other people, like your family members and loved ones. E.g., if you are married and have children, it would be useful having available the personal Food Traffic Lights of your children and partner while buying food.
Gender
In this field of the setup, we ask you to select your gender.
Please select one of the two alternatives because the formulas used by the app for calculating personal nutrition recommendations are different for men/boys and women/girls. The app will only work properly if you select the right gender.
Age
In this field of the setup, we ask you to enter your age in full years.
Please enter a value between 1 and 99 because the formulas used by the app for calculating personal nutrition recommendations are specific for each age. The app will only work properly if you enter the right age. Also, please keep in mind to update your age in the app after your birthday.
Weight
In this field of the setup, we ask you to enter your weight in full kilograms (kg) or alternatively in full pound (lb).
Your weight is one of the key determinants of the formulas used by the app for calculating personal nutrition recommendations. Please note that the app by default calculates your Food Traffic Lights with an integrated Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator for a healthy target weight depending on your age. If you are 16 years or older, the target weight is a BMI of 21, which is the optimum according to the United Nations. If you are 15 years or younger, the target weight is the average weight of children and teenagers per your age according to studies of the United Nations.
If you are happy with your own weight or would like to target another weight or BMI with your diet than the standard target weights and BMI mentioned above, you can unlock using your own weight or personal target weight or BMI per user as a personalization feature by a low-priced in-app purchase of only 0.99 $ or similar amount in other currencies.
Height
In this field of the setup, we ask you to enter your height either in full centimeters (cm) or alternatively in feet (ft) and inch (in).
Your height is one of the key determinants of the formulas used by the app for calculating personal nutrition recommendations for calories and nutrients. The app will only work properly if you enter the right height. For children and teenagers, please keep in mind to update your height in the app after you have grown again.
Lifestyle
On this screen of the setup, we ask you to select the one lifestyle from the following 5 example lifestyles, which is on average closest to your own lifestyle.
1. In need of care
- Mainly laying in bed with no exercise
- E.g., infirm and immobile persons
- Just sitting activities with no or little sports exercise
- E.g., students, office workers, and house wives/men with no household chores, sports hobbies, and children
3. Average physical activities
- Mainly sitting activities with some movement during the day or some sports exercise from time to time
- E.g., students doing a some sports from time to time, truck drivers, and house wives/men doing household chores with quiet children
- Mainly standing or walking activities and people with regular light sports exercise
- E.g., students with regular sports hobbies, waiters/waitresses, craftsmen, mechanics and house wives/men doing household chores with active children
- Physically exhausting work or regular exhausting sports activities
- E.g., construction & agricultural workers and athletes
Please select one of the 5 example lifestyles because your lifestyle is one of the key determinants of the formulas used by the app for calculating personal nutrition recommendations for calories and nutrients. The app will only work properly if you select the lifestyle, which is on average closest to your own lifestyle. Consequently, please keep in mind to update your lifestyle in the app if it has changed.
Pregnancy & breast feeding
If you are female, you will be provided a further screen of the setup, in which we ask you to select whether you are pregnant or breast feeding. If you are pregnant, we also ask you in which trimester of pregnancy (3-month period) you are.
Please select whether you are pregnant or breast feeding because this affects your requirements for calories as well as nutrients and will be considered in the formulas used by the app for calculating personal nutrition recommendations for calories and nutrients. The app will only work properly if you make the right selection matching your circumstances. Please keep in mind to update the selection in the app if your life has changed to pregnancy, from one trimester to the next or to breast feeding. Also, please remember to change it back when you are not breast feeding anymore.