Cleveland Clinic launches wellness coaching app with diet and fitness tracking

02 Jul 2024 --- Cleveland Clinic and FitNow have launched the Cleveland Clinic Diet App, which features individualized guided support with the input of health experts to help users make sustainable changes to their lifestyle and dietary habits for improved health and well-being.

“We know that health is about far more than just weight. The goal of the Cleveland Clinic Diet app is to approach each individual’s health status and goals beyond the numbers on the scale,” says Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian at Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Human Nutrition, who helped design programs on the app.

“We aim to help individuals overcome barriers and support them in creating lasting improvements in their health. We take into account their individual needs and preferences to both look and, importantly, feel their best.”

Nutrient intake and heart care
The app also provides a curated series of courses from experts in nutrition, endocrinology, metabolism, heart health, digestive health, weight management and mental health. It uses FitNow’s easy-to-use tracking system where consumers voice log or take a picture of what they eat by scanning a nutrition label.

App users can use two tracks — the BodyGuard plan or The HeartSmart plan. The former is designed to help the user achieve a balanced intake of essential nutrients by displaying diverse macronutrients and sugar intake mindfulness to boost stable energy levels and increased vitality.

The latter is informed by Cleveland Clinic’s global authority relating to heart care. The plan helps boost cardiovascular well-being, whether for an actual diagnosis, a concern about family history, or if someone wants to make lifestyle changes to protect their heart.

“For most people, one of the biggest challenges is determining how to not only manage weight, nutrition and health goals but to sustain them. We know a lot of factors go into being healthier, so the goal for this app is to guide users through the process, step by step,” says Zumpano.

Health journey coaching
The app issues “empathetic and easy-to-understand” content from health and medical writers who meet users where they are in their health journeys. It comprises a food search and recommendation engine containing billions of food entries and AI-powered speech-to-text recognition voice logging.

“Our goal was to launch the most accurate and rapid food voice logging available. This works hand-in-hand with our nutrition label and barcode scanning and our ‘Snap It to Track It’ food and meal photo capture. We’re seeing the app voice logging deliver extremely high accuracy when it comes to detecting food and quantity. We believe this is a game changer for those seeking to more easily log their meals,” says Dr. Will Lowe, chief data scientist at FitNow.

In addition, a team of US-based researchers pioneered a device that could track eating behavior like a pedometer tracks steps, highlighting that such technology could offer “invaluable” insights into dietary habits, potentially revolutionizing nutrition and health approaches.

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