How can technology play a role in weight management?
New healthcare technologies are developing at breakneck speed, but how can technology play a role in weight management? We discuss in this article.
A Personalized nutrition approach that is tailored to an individual´s goals and behaviour will most likely have the best results in terms of weight management. Technology can be used in several ways:
Smart eating apps- Research shows that the best diet to follow for weight management is a calorie-deficient one that you are willing to follow for a long period. If you have specific dietary pattern that you prefer that will help you get there such as Mediterranean, Paleo, Vegan, smarteating apps can create a meal plan, recipes, shopping lists and provide nutritional analysis and track your progress in terms of the impact of your choices on your overall health and weight.
Image recognition apps: With these apps you can snap a picture of your meal, get a nutritional breakdown, you can send them to your health coach for feedback as well as recommendations for alternatives before you tuck in.
DIY testing kits: More precision nutrition approaches include the provision of biological data such as DNA, urine, blood or saliva sample that can more accurately provide a picture of your specific metabolic type AKA how you break down nutrients and therefore which dietary pattern/lifestyle/exercise type would suit you the best for optimal health and weight management.
Telehealth technologies: Here you can submit your online questionnaires, wearable data (OURA, Fitbit, Garmin data) for more contextual data in terms of the daily choices you make. This data is shared with a coach who can then create a personalized plan for you that you are more likely to stick to for weight management. Coaching can be done via video, text, chat or even your smartwatch. This approach involves a good understanding of Behavioural science and data analytics to make sure that any program is tailored to you whether that be gamification, incentives, education problems solving, group session etc. Everyone is motivated in different ways, so the right technology needs to be used for the right person.
Devices & wearables - Popular approaches are the use of continuous glucose monitors in order to get better insights into you well you break down foods as the research indicates that the microbiome has a huge role to play in how well you would respond to any approach. Meaning the better your blood sugar control is, the more likely you are to be successful in your attempts at weight management. Others would be smartscales that can transmit data to your healthcare provider
AR/VR - Think digital twins. You will be able to see the effect of your daily choices on your (near) future self. Strap on a head set and quickly understand what works best for you to help you stick to your plan as an educational measure. Soon you can connect with your coach in the Metaverse, get a personalised shopping tour with shelves lined with products that are only suitable to you as well as complete your exercise program with your fitness coach.
Technology plays a huge role and we can only see this area gathering steam.
We track the Personalized nutrition market. We believe that tech is a great enabler to help more people access quality information and solutions.
Qina is the hub for data and insights in Personalised nutrition. Qina offers the world´s first comprehensive and curated database of Personalised nutrition companies in the industry. Qina has a library of expert content and offers consultancy services for innovation projects.