Cell phone apps are tools for weight loss

Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun vowed last December that he was going to lose weight. "I'd already started, right after Christmas," he says.

But the big wake-up call came in January.

"I fell while trying to Rollerblade," says Rathbun, who opened his flagship restaurant Abacus in Dallas 10 years ago. "I broke my femur in half." That's the thigh bone. "The doctor said more than once that that's the biggest bone in the body, and I had broken it as badly as you could break it."

The chef's weight didn't help. He says he has tried to shed pounds in the past, but this time, a combination of factors — being 48; the desire to keep up with his kids, who are 6 and 2; and the big break — strengthened his resolve.

One other thing: This time, he has been managing his weight loss with Weight Watchers Mobile, which connects him to the program's eTools. Wherever he goes and whatever he eats, Rathbun can access and update his personal plan with his iPhone.

The Weight Watchers plan is just one of a growing number of cellphone-based applications helping people manage their weight. But it's the one that made sense to Rathbun, who says he's not paid to endorse the program.

"I'm a techie guy," he says in a booth at Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen, one of five Texas restaurants where he's executive chef and partner. "I'm the first guy in line for all the techie stuff." Recommendations from friends and physicians — plus the fact that he could track everything online and from his phone — made Weight Watchers his pick.

The program he's on costs $39.95 a month, which includes meetings, online access and his iPhone app.

Since January and despite the broken leg, Rathbun has used the eTools to shed 70 pounds. "I'd like to lose another 60 or 70," he says, adding that his starting weight was "too darn much" when pressed for a specific number. (His brother, Atlanta chef Kevin Rathbun, has also been on the program using the eTools since January; he has lost 125 pounds, but he didn't have a broken leg).

Rathbun demonstrates on his laptop how he can access the eTools, which are subscription add-ons, to monitor his weight-loss plan on the computer or through his phone. Weight Watchers uses a point system, based on size, weight-loss goal and activity level, to limit how much you can eat. Recently, the company introduced an iPhone application through Apple that's similar to Weight Watchers Mobile.