New York: Researchers have developed a weight management programme that helps individuals plan meals with the assistance of a web application and support from a registered dietitian, including tracking fibre and protein content in meals.
Many people struggle to maintain a healthy weight, and choosing the optimal meals for weight loss can be challenging. Most dieting apps available are usually macronutrient calculators, according to the study published in the journal JMIR Formative Research.
“But we want people to focus on finding foods that have a high protein and fibre density to get them to their meal goals. It's less about counting calories and more about finding the foods that will satisfy us and provide the protein we need to maintain muscle mass as we lose weight,” said Ashleigh Oliveira, a doctoral student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US..
“Foods that are high in fibre also have all the micronutrients we need, so we're not missing out on vitamins and minerals as we're eating less food,” Oliveira added.
The programme’s first iteration, the Individualized Dietary Improvement Programme (iDip), was an in-person programme where participants received education and feedback from registered dieticians.
Subsequently, iDip was converted to a fully online programme, EMPOWER, to increase accessibility. The researchers tested the program’s efficacy with individuals in rural Illinois.
“The overall goal is to develop an online weight loss programme that can be used as prevention as well as treatment in a clinical setting,” said co-author Manabu Nakamura, associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and the Division of Nutritional Sciences.
EMPOWER has three components: Educational materials about nutrition; an online app where participants can design meals for weight loss and monitor their progress; and personalized support from registered dieticians, who are available for online chats.
The research team developed MealPlot, an interactive feature that charts protein and fibre content in food.
People enter the food they want to eat into a chart that plots fibre and protein content. The goal is to ensure each day’s overall food intake falls within a specific protein/fibre target range.
The MealPlot app is freely available and anyone can register for an account, but to get the full benefit you should work with a dietitian, the researchers said. The researchers are now fine-tuning the application and plan to launch the full programme by spring 2026.
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