It seems appropriate to that the first SITU success story should be mine. After all, I invented SITU specifically because all the diets and fitness regimens I had previously tried failed.

Back in 2013 I was a much bigger guy than I am now. And when I say “big” I mean big. To be exact, I weighed 280 pounds. The U.S. Center for Disease Control says a person of my height (6’1″) and age (at the time I was 35) should weigh 140 to 189 pounds. I was almost 100 pounds over the high end of that spectrum. My BMI was over 38, when it should have been 19-24.

Combine a BMI of 38 with my age and I was primed for a range of possible diseases including heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure, certain types of cancer, stroke, and…well, the list goes on. But even more pressing than worse than the horrors of disease, my body was starting to feel it. I had been big in my teens and part of my twenties, but in my thirties I felt it—the tiredness, the aches in my joints—like I never had before.

I knew I needed to change, I needed to get healthy. But I had tried so many times before and failed. The reason for this, I found, was because even though I cooked at home and made “healthy” meals, I was vastly underestimating the calorie, sugar, and fat content of the foods I would make.

The human eye is a great deceiver. Show a plate full of rice, for example, to three different people and ask them to guess the calorie (or harder yet, the sugar or other nutrients) content and all three will give you wild different guesses (and all will almost certainly be wrong). That’s because we have natural biases that reflect our desires and not reality. In other words, we assume the servings of food we think are healthy for us have fewer calories and “bad” nutrients than they actually do. We also woefully underestimate the actual nutrition content of foods we know are bad for us–again, this is because we are biased by our desires for something to be as we wish it. It’s also because food companies do a really good job of hiding salt, sugar, and fats in foods we would assume don’t have as high of those contents as they actually do.

In order to reliably know the actual nutrition content of the food I was eating, I created SITU Scale to measure just that. It helped me not only know what was actually in my food, it helped retrain my brain so I could more accurately identify the nutrition content of a food’s serving size just by eyeing it.

In the end I used SITU to track my actual calorie intake–and lost 80 pounds doing it. Since losing the weight I now use SITU to track my sugar intake–the nutrient that is hidden EVERYWHERE and wreaks so much destruction on our bodies. SITU has helped me become the healthiest version of myself possible and for that I am so thankful.

Disclaimer: results may vary from individual to individual.

Mark has been using SITU since April and recently he sent us this email:

“Hey guys, I wanted to let you know I’ve been using SITU for almost two months now. I’m headed off to college in the fall where in addition to my studies I’ll be spending much of my time in the pool. That’s because I’ve made the university swim team.

I’ve never been the kind of person that needs to lose weight as I’m pretty active, but I’ve been using SITU to track my protein and Omega-3 intake. It’s amazing what eating right and eating the foods with the nutrients you need can do for the body. I’ve put on over 10 pounds of muscle in the last few months–and that’s after swapping out protein supplements for more food like salmon and grains and nuts.

SITU just makes it so easy to get my nutrition naturally. It’s even actually saved me money since I don’t need to buy supplements anymore–I get everything I need form my food! Thanks so much for SITU!”

Disclaimer: results may vary from individual to individual.

Katy was one of our first SITU users and she recently sent us this email:

“I received my SITU at the end of March. I think it’s beautiful looking, but more importantly after only three weeks of using it I’ve lost 7lbs–a third of my goal. 

I was shocked to discover the ‘healthy’ salads I had been making for myself contained over 1200 calories because of what I was adding to them. Using SITU I’ve been able to see which ingredients I need to reduce and discovered new ingredients I can pile on.

I now have four different versions of ‘Katy’s Salad’ that I love making, ranging from 400 calories to 900 calories. SITU makes understanding the true nutrition content of my food so much easier. I LOVE it. SITU is the best health device I’ve ever bought.”

Disclaimer: results may vary from individual to individual.

Allison sent us the following regarding an unexpected benefit of SITU:

“Dear SITU creators, I’ve been using my SITU since August after seeing it in Runner’s World magazine. It appealed to me as I’m generally an active and very health-conscious person.

However, I’ve discovered an amazing side benefit that is without a doubt more important: I’ve been using SITU to teach my 10-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter about healthy eating.

It’s so much easier for them to understand why, for example, an orange is a better snack for them than a bowl of popcorn. We put both on SITU and I can show them the nutrition content of each (and show them all the empty calories in popcorn) and explain to them the importance of eating proper nutrients. The kids love using SITU now too. It’s the perfect blend of education and technology. They love putting different foods on it to discover what’s in them!”

Disclaimer: results may vary from individual to individual.

George and Brie recently sent us this email:

“A friend of ours who is a ‘techie’ told us about SITU. He loves living a connected life. My wife and I are simpler people, but now that we’re in our 60s we’re open to using the latest advances if they help us lead a healthier lifestyle.

We know a lot of people use SITU for weight loss–but that’s not something we are interested in. Instead, we both need to track our sodium (salt) intake. You would not believe how many foods (natural and processed) have hidden salt. SITU has made discovering our hidden sodium intake much easier and we would recommend it to anyone who wants to track their sodium intake too.”

Disclaimer: results may vary from individual to individual.

Eileen recently sent us this message:

“Hi SITU, I just wanted to say how much I love your scale. I’m 36 and ‘pre-diabetic’, so it’s more important than anything that I strictly monitor my sugar intake. But as you probably know, sugar is hidden in so many foods (I mean, just look at white breads). But thanks to SITU it’s now much easier for me to find hidden sugars–and avoid or reduce them where possible.

So I just wanted to say thanks, from a loyal user.”

Disclaimer: results may vary from individual to individual.