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Wellness and diet coaching app features state-of-the-art food and fitness tracking, support and education
Cleveland Clinic and app developer FitNow, Inc. have launched the Cleveland Clinic Diet app, which offers health and diet advice built upon evidence-based nutrition science and clinical success, paired with a comprehensive food and fitness tracker.
The app provides individualized guided support with the input of Cleveland Clinic health experts to help users make sustainable changes to their lifestyle and dietary habits for better 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," said Julia Zumpano, RD, LD, 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."
The app also provides a curated series of courses from experts in nutrition, endocrinology, metabolism, heart health, digestive health, weight management and mental health. In addition, the app utilizes FitNow's easy-to-use tracking system, through which individuals log what they have eaten by scanning a nutrition label, taking a photo or voice logging.
The app lets users pick from two tracks:
- The BodyGuard plan—Designed to help achieve a balanced intake of essential nutrients. This track emphasizes a diverse array of macronutrients and mindful monitoring of sugar intake to promote stable energy levels and increased vitality.
- The HeartSmart plan—Informed by Cleveland Clinic's global authority relating to heart care, this plan is designed to boost cardiovascular well-being, whether someone has diagnosed heart disease, is concerned about their family history or wants to make lifestyle changes to protect their heart.
The Cleveland Clinic Diet app was built in collaboration with FitNow, a leading mobile health and wellness app developer and maker of the popular weight loss app, Lose It!
"We're thrilled to combine Cleveland Clinic's expert experience and content with our proven behavior change platform," said Eric Puidokas, managing director and Chief Product Officer at FitNow. "With this exceptional combination, users are guided every step of the way as they work toward their individual health goals."
"For most people, one of the biggest challenges is determining how to not only manage weight, nutrition and health goals, but to sustain them," Zumpano said. "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."
To help support users throughout the process and make them feel comfortable, Cleveland Clinic's plan is built by health experts with no judgment and no "fads" or strict nutrition plans. It includes:
- Empathetic and easy-to-understand content from health and medical writers that meet users where they are in their health journeys
- A food search and recommendation engine containing billions of food entries
- AI-powered speech-to-text recognition voice logging
- Image logging via a proprietary machine-learning algorithm that detects individual food items from images of full meals
- Rapid barcode scanning and recognition software
"Our goal was to launch the most accurate and rapid food voice logging available," said Will Lowe, Ph.D., FitNow Chief Data Scientist, who collaborated with teams of data scientists, product developers, designers and engineers to offer voice logging within the Cleveland Clinic Diet app.
"This works hand-in-hand with our nutrition label and barcode scanning, and our Snap It to Track It food and meal photo capture. So far, we're seeing the Cleveland Clinic Diet 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."
The Cleveland Clinic Diet app was recognized as a Gold recipient of the Spring 2024 Digital Health Awards for excellence in the Mobile Application category.
The Cleveland Clinic Diet app is available for a free seven-day trial on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
