Mobile phones can help us lose weight
by Anonymous

Bucharest June 14, 2004 -– Mobile Diet Pal is a new Java application that turns mobile phones into valuable tools in the fight with obesity. Mobile Diet Pal is a diet supervisor that goes on a diet with its user, counting calories and carbs and virtually guiding the user through the diet of choice. The concept of the Diet Pal is simple: as experienced by thousands of people struggling to lose weight, it's always easier to go on a diet with a friend. The mobile phone becomes the needed pal, one that is almost never out of sight.

The application includes a BMI and BMR calculator that tell you if you need to lose weight, what your current daily energy expenditure is and the amount of calories you should limit your intake to. You can choose to go on one of the low calorie or low carb diets offered in the program. The pre-established diets include daily menus that allow you to eat five times a day. The menus have been calculated to make sure that the low carb diet also controls the fat intake and keeps it low. The low calorie diet is well balanced, providing you with all the vital nutrients you need. After each meal, you must introduce into the program's calculator the aliments consumed and will know exactly how many calories/ carbs you've got left.

"Mobile Diet Pal was designed to offer support to people trying to lose weight, or just to be aware of what they eat and how this is affecting their weight", said Radu Iancu M.D., the program's author. "The mobile phone has gained incredible ground all over the world and is the one device most people would not leave home without. This recommends it as the perfect device to be used in monitoring our diets. Through the mobile phone, the diet application can be used on a large scale and basically anywhere we go, in any kind of situation."

Mobile Diet Pal includes a searchable database of 400 items, including commercial, home-cooked and restaurant food. The aliments are fast and easy to access due to the smart search engine. In the end of your plan you will be able to see a graphic representation of your daily performance as compared with your goals. You can stop or go back on a diet at any point you want, change diets and check your results. You will also get access to useful tips that will help you during the diet.

Mobile Diet Pal can be downloaded on Java compatible mobile phones (J2ME MIDP 1.0) from www.handango.com. Mobile Diet Pal 1.1 is currently available in English, for Nokia series 40, with soon to follow "all mobile phone brands" version, Spanish version, as well as J2ME MIDP 2.0 version.