Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic. Qatar, a rapidly developing country in the Middle East, has seen a sharp increase\nin the prevalence of obesity. The increase can be attributed to several reasons, including sedentary lifestyles imposed by a harsh\nclimate and the introduction of Western fast food. Mobile technologies have been used and studied as a technology to support\nindividuals� weight loss. The authors have developed a mobile application that implements three strategies drawn from proven\ntheories of behavioral change.The application is localized to the cultural context of its proposed users. The objective of this paper\nis to present a method through which we adapted the messaging content of a weight loss application to the context of its users\nwhile retaining an effective degree of automation.The adaptation addressed body image, eating and physical exercise habits, and\nregional/cultural needs.The paper discusses how surveying potential users can be used to build a profile of a target population, find\ncommon patterns, and then develop a database of text messages. The text messages are automated and sent to the users at specific\ntimes of day, as suggested by the survey results
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