Visualize You App Lets You See What You’d Look Like Post-Weight Loss

Would seeing a slimmer version of yourself motivate you to lose weight? (Photo: Visualize You)

Sometimes a view of “future you” is the motivation needed to jump-start weight loss.

That’s the idea behind “Visualize You,” a new app that allows you to take or upload a photo of your face and enter your current height and weight along with your target weight, to then see a photo of what you’d look like if you lost that weight.

Its makers say the photo manipulation accurately represents the actual effects of the weight change, more so than other programs that stretch or pinch images.

To see what you’d look like post-weight loss, enter your photo, height, current weight, and target weight into the app. (Photo: Visualize You)

The app was created by Visual Health Solutions Inc. with the Wellness Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, and UnitedHealthcare. There is a free and a paid (ad-free, $1.99) version of the app, which launched April 3, available for iPhone and Android.

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Turns out, there’s actual science to back up the notion behind the app. Research shows that visualizing future events can help you strengthen your weight loss mission and delay gratification. 

“Visual cues are very helpful for a lot of people,” weight loss specialist Charlie Seltzer, MD, tells Yahoo Health. “I will often recommend that people put up pictures of what they want to look like or what they used to look like, provided the body image is healthy.”

Seltzer, who wasn’t involved with the new app, says it seems like a great tool to help people see what they’d look like at their goal weight — provided the "after weight loss” image is accurate. “l’d hate for someone to put [his or her photo] in and see themselves not the way they are going to look, and get discouraged and disgruntled that they’re not changing how they’re supposed to,” he says. “But my first thought upon hearing about this app, was ‘it sounds like a really good idea.’”

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