Patients loved the MyHabeats app, for about three weeks. Then engagement dropped, and old eating habits quietly returned.

That pattern haunts post-bariatric care. Patients leave hospital motivated and supported. They track meals. They follow the plan. Then life resumes. And people stop using the app around the same time they go back to their old eating habits. Which for bariatric patients is not only a failure, but potentially damaging to their new bodies and health.

MyHabeats needed to that gap by understanding why motivated people stop doing the things they genuinely want to do.

As Katie, MyHabeats CEO puts it:
“The surgery is only around 30% of the work. The rest is behaviour change so we need to get it right.”

“Genuinely blew us away.
Full of ‘why didn’t we think of that?’ moments.”

Katie Milioni
CEO, MyHabeats

The work

We ran three Behaviour Sprints, each focused on a different pathway for change.

• Start: what needs to be true before surgery for new habits to stick afterwards

• Evolve: how small, realistic changes compound over time

• Stop: what triggers the return to old patterns, and how to interrupt them

Each sprint aimed at the same thing: get specific about the moment behaviour is shaped, and design for that reality. Not the clinic. Not the app’s home screen. The real setting where choices happen, in people's home.

What changed

Across the three sprints, the same pattern kept showing up. The most effective interventions connected to context: the kitchen setup, family dynamics, and the emotional role food played in someone’s day.

That shifted MyHabeats’ focus:

• Earlier engagement mattered more than expected, especially pre-surgery

• The home environment needed deliberate support, not just education

• Community and clinician feedback worked best when tied to real moments, not generic reminders

The lift in 90-day retention that followed did not come from one feature. It came from changing what the app was competing against: familiar environments and long-held habits.

View more work