For the aware user, combined with a scale, it helps normalize estimations of calories which can be incredibly deceptive. For example, try getting a group of people to estimate how many calories are in a store-bought muffin or donut, a bowl of nuts, a sweetened coffee drink from a drive-thru, or their typical bowl of a favorite cereal. I'm used to the casual observer's guess being about 1/3 of the true total if you weigh the item and read the label.
So in your scenario, the calorie counter would be a signal that you need to cut portions or cal density if your weight is going in the wrong direction, not unlike how a compass is just a tool if you're lost - you still need to know how to use it.
No calorie counter will stop a ramen quest after 90 hours of work. Unfortunately, I worked in environments where these stretches were obligatory.
Why should that be? Is it not possible to order healthy food in? If not this would surprise me as it seems a number of people would be seeking this.
I'm asking as I don't have personal experience.
For those who are not interested cutting down daily on what they eat this data would not be valuable to them just as the data their phone captures now how many steps you walked in a day.
Myself I eat Cava bowls for lunch that are less then 600 calories, drink 70 percent water (not consuming calories from what I drink) and unsweet tea (zero calories in tea) with some lemonade to sweeten it a bit as the remainder. Other chains you can find similar meals that are less then 600. If you eat as such and keep at (change ur lifestyle for good) it some weight will be lost if the person wants to as well go for a walk on their lunch break. But again all about to how people want to live and enjoy their lives!
I recently switched from a major tech company to an academic position and lost 5 pounds in the first month. Simply due to lower stress making the healthy habits seem “easy.”
1. Expected high stress work day -> Coffee w/ food item in the morning
2. Stress during the day -> No exercise + large lunch.
3. Post-day -> door dash due to not feeling up for cooking.
4. Sleep -> Get 6 hours of sleep due to not having the energy to maintain bedtime discipline, getting paged, or late night meetings + childcare obligations.
5. Repeat.
This cycle continues for a few months leading to 10-20 pounds of weight gain, followed by a year long push to rebalance life and lose the weight. There is nothing that a magic calorie counter could do for this cycle other than guilt me over my door dash order at the end of the night.