Imagine a fork that can weight the food that you take to your mouth, and when you pinch the food can also check and count calories and carbs?

So to keep fit you just check the calorie count on your fork.
-- noyola, May 19 2009

less technology - more stains tremble_20cutlery
take note of the category. [po, May 19 2009]

(?) my diet fork http://www.kranzkra...m/forkwhirligig.JPG
[xandram, May 20 2009]

HapiFork http://www.hapilabs...oducts-hapifork.asp
Baked! [hippo, Jan 08 2013]

No, all it needs is a tiny tiny calorimeter built into one of the prongs.

EDIT: and a tiny tiny computer built into another one.
-- DIYMatt, May 19 2009


sp tiney

Remove the middle prong for a low tech version.
-- shudderprose, May 19 2009


Yes, and if you're really serious get the model with only one tine.
-- normzone, May 19 2009


[marked-for-deletion]:magic
-- loonquawl, May 20 2009


Can you remember examples? (You write "widely.")

While there's Douglas Adams' nutrimatric and Star Trek's "Earl Gray. Hot." food dispenser, I don't remember anything ever outputting calorie counts, let alone in the impractical* shape of a fork! It seems like people in the future generally are in great shape, Baron Harkonnen nonwithstanding. The only Sci-Fi character I've ever seen actively deal with weight issues was Mark Vorkosigan.

Unrelatedly, haven't we done a version of this here before? Someone was upset when I asked that they learn a second joke after they posted their version of the hard-to-use diet cutlery. Don't remember who that was, or whether that post's still up.

(*Impractical: you don't lose weight for long just by eating less, but not changing your lifestyle or *what* you eat; you'd have to either own about 10 of these or clean it yourself between meals; you don't want to make a decision for every single bite; the analysis takes too long; weighing something that moves is hard; a display would be hard to read because it's moving and/or pointing away from you; if it's a voice interface, it would interrupt conversation, and imagine more than one person using one?)
-- jutta, May 20 2009


//It seems like people in the future generally are in great shape// - The people in "Wall-E" weren't. Of course, they didn't use forks either.
-- hippo, May 20 2009


Oh, that's a good recent counterexample for the general trend. Similarly, probably, "Idiocracy".
-- jutta, May 20 2009


re: interface - use an accelerometer and strain guage, and an accumulating counter. It can't tell the difference between caramel and carrots, but at least it can limit the total mass intake.

And rather than a voice, have a hinge at the junction of the handle & fork with a retracting sleeve - when you've had enough, the fork goes limp.
-- lurch, May 20 2009


One of the best ways to change your eating habits is to switch snacking habits from high calorie, low mass foods (candy, chips, etc.), to low calorie, high mass foods (salads, carrot sticks, etc.). This is important because you still feel like you're eating enough, but your caloric intake is reduced.
Simple food weight is, at best, a poor way to judge intake.
-- MechE, May 20 2009



random, halfbakery