Science: The software that bugs you to lose weight
An article by Various Sources
Posted December 11, 2007 
As the season of indulgence approaches, those who want to stay fit and trim face a barrage of fad diets and quick fixes. Roger Highfield looks at the latest product – a personal trainer offering advice from cyberspace.
I’m plump, sedentary and too poor to afford the tender ministrations of a personal trainer. Besides, it’s a bore keeping appointments. So what is a lump like me to do now that the season of excess is almost upon me?
Before the usual rash of daft celebrity diets and fitness regimes breaks on to the scene in January, I wanted to launch a pre-emptive strike on my sagging torso. I know that one-off diets or sporadic bouts of strenuous exercise do not work.
What I need is a new lifestyle.
A study by Prof Steven Blair of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, published last week, suggests that (within reason) fitness can be more significant than fatness in terms of cutting your risk of death over a given period.
I already eat vast amounts of fruit and veg. What I really need is some way of measuring how sedentary my life is, along with good advice on boosting my exercise levels.
My prayers may be answered by MiLife, an internet-based chum billed as “the world’s first personalised online coaching system”. It monitors your every move and weight wobble, and draws on the experience of people in a similar situation – desk-bound slobs, in my case – to come up with suggestions on how to shed the pounds.
The idea goes far beyond the traditional picture of fighting flab, which is if you consume more calories than you burn even a small excess can turn into a fat stomach. Thus all you have to do is eat less, or burn more calories with exercise.
But a few years ago, it became clear that a significant number of calories can be burnt by everyday activity, such as walking about or up and down stairs, and that this can be just as important as strenuous physical jerks in the gym. I am a believer in this form of activity, having once spent 15 weeks using a workstation-cum-treadmill that enabled me to shed a few pounds and left me fizzing with energy.
But my beloved treadmill left the office long ago. Tracking one’s movements with a pedometer, though helpful, still leaves it up to the individual to figure out how to do more, and only measures the distance walked rather than general activity.
MiLife’s clever software, on the other hand, helps you plan your routine, suggests the best way to shed excess weight, and offers advice on how to improve your lifestyle.
And rather than mimicking the eccentric routines of a newly-thinned celebrity, this method has been tested on around 300 people by a team at Unilever Research, in Colworth, Bedfordshire.
The trick is the combination of weighing-scales with a wristband that monitors physical activity in a similar way to gaming consoles such as the Nintendo Wii. They then talk to your PC via Bluetooth and, in a controlled trial, the online coach has been able to recommend diet and activities for 77 people aged between 30 and 55.
The results of the tests, over 10 weeks, revealed that people are happy to log on every day or two and take advice from a virtual trainer, boosting levels of moderate exercise by more than two hours per week compared with those not using the gizmo. And even though the follow-up work on the degree of weight loss is still under way, the effects on boosting activity were so encouraging that they are about to launch the kit to the public.
“This result has major implications for the nation’s health if we can get people active,” said Chris Tomkins of MiLife Coaching Ltd. “It is not about thrashing yourself but using the stairs instead of the lift.”
The secret is to monitor progress with the wristband and scales and then, using the online “adaptive intelligence” software, hone advice on how to do better, based on the experience of people with a similar build and lifestyle.
Other products on the market, such as the bodybugg wristband do not seem as sophisticated as MiLife in terms of online coaching.
MiLife endlessly thinks of strategies that suit you, as well as nagging you by SMS and email to pick up your gym kit.
If you moan to MiLife that you can’t exercise because there’s something else in your schedule, it will pipe up: “Form a habit: If you always exercise on the same days at the same time, your routine will become a fixture in your life, not a whim. Not exercising will feel unnatural. Choose some days of the week where you’ll always reserve a slot for exercise, starting now!”
The kit was easy to set up, though it took forever to activate my wristband. But, when selecting what MiLife should tell me to do, I regretted having clicked on both the diet and exercise options. Using a diary to record what I ate over a few days to track my calorie intake – and educate me – was tedious.
And even though it also offers a “habit breaker” function that focuses more on good behaviour than energy consumption, I would rather wait for some clever device, like a laser beam blood test, to track my energy intake, and focus on activity instead.
It is fascinating monitoring my exertions on the MiLife website. A hard day at work burns few calories, while a short outing with my children, or cutting the grass, can shed a surprising number. Running for a train hits the much coveted “very high” activity band.
Despite achieving my activity targets, an indulgent weekend sends my weight surging. If I wanted to do better, I could even share my data with a personal trainer to get the best of both worlds.
When it launches in the spring, the basic MiLife kit will cost £49.95, plus £14.95 per month for the online coaching. Or you can get a year-long, all-inclusive package for £199.95.
I have not been using it for long enough to feel the results, but I believe that the system does offer something new and valuable.
I am not sure, though, that it is enough for a time-poor science editor like me. I still pine for my treadmill workstation, a sure-fire way to turn the leaden immobility of the modern office into golden activity.
For more information visit www.milife.com
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