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September 25, 2010

These Digital Trainers Know How to Motivate

By ANNE EISENBERG

STICKING to

exercise

and weight-loss goals can be tough. But new computer-based products can

help you

along the road to fitness, offering steady electronic encouragement and

suggestions.

Step on a sleek black scale from the French company

Withings

, for example, and you'll no longer need to keep a paper record of your

progress;

the scale will beam your weight numbers by Wi-Fi to your computer. From

there, the

stats can go directly to

Twitter

or to many other sites, so that your friends can read the bulletin and

cheer you

and your willpower to victory.

The scale, which sells for $159, has a processor and a built-in Wi-Fi

connection

so it can communicate with your home network. If you give the O.K., news

of

your

weight loss travels from scale to computer to

iPhone

or

iPad

(using a free app from Withings), to your BlackBerry or, starting next

month, to

Android phones. The data can also be sent to supportive friends at

fitness

Web sites

like

RunKeeper

or

DailyBurn

. Rah-rah! Fight those Twinkies!

For those in need of a personal electronic exercise coach, the Finnish

company

Suunto

has a new series of watches that monitor your

heart rate

- while also making you look stylish. I tried out the Model M4, which

can

create

a snappy seven-day workout program and provide guidance and

morale-boosting

messages

in crisp displays on the watch face. The watch, which sells for $169 on

Amazon

, has a simple, three-button interface; it receives its heart rate data

from

a transmitter

cushioned in a soft black belt that is pulled snugly across the chest.

The M-series heart rate monitors are intended for beginners and fitness

enthusiasts,

not for elite athletes, said Ewa Pulkkinen, a product manager at Suunto.

" They are specifically for people who need motivation and inspiration to

get

up and

keep going, " she said.

(I am one of these people, and I welcomed the cheerful coaching that the

watch provided,

from its announcement of the " exercise day " before we began, through

" next

set " as

we proceeded, to a final " Good workout! " )

" The program tells you how long and how intense your workout should be, "

Ms.

Pulkkinen

said. It notifies wearers when to slow down or speed up so that their

heart

rates

are within a recommended zone.

Polly Hopkins, a graphic designer in Park City, Utah, uses her new

Suunto

monitor

as she hikes, mountain-bikes and runs - and, afterward, as a regular

watch.

She likes

the simplified controls. " Compared to other monitors I've had, this one

is

by far

the easiest to use, " she said.

Of course, any exercise guided by feedback from a heart rate monitor

should

be undertaken

prudently, said Walter R. , a professor of kinesiology and

health

at

Georgia

State University in Atlanta. " Heart rate monitors can be incredible

motivators, "

he said. " If your target is 150 beats per minute and you see you aren't

quite there

when you are exercising, a monitor is a terrific impetus. " But maximum

heart

rate

will vary from one person to the next. " You should check with a doctor

first

to get

clearance for exercise, " he said, and then consult with a certified

trainer

about

a target heart rate range.

Technology may soon offer another tool for those struggling to stay trim

and

healthy:

small robots that give

diet

advice. Dr. Caroline M. Apovian, an associate professor of medicine at

the

Boston University

School of Medicine and the director of its

center for nutrition and weight management

, was adviser to a study to see whether people would accept a robot as a

diet coach.

A third of the patients in the study kept track of diet and exercise on

a

computer;

a third by recording data in a log; and the remaining third by daily

conversations

with a robot designed by Cory D. Kidd, then a graduate student at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

and now a Ph.D. and the founder and C.E.O. of Intuitive Automata, a

company

that

creates robots for use in health care.

The

robot,

which has a woman's voice and is about 15 inches high, makes eye contact

with dieters

by way of its built-in camera.

" THE test was not to see if the patients lost weight, " Dr. Apovian said

of

the study,

" but to see if they made a relationship with the robot. " Typically,

people

enjoyed

working with the robot and did not want to give it back, she said.

" One person named it; another put a hat on it, " she said. " They treated

her

like

a buddy. "

Dr. Kidd said his robot would be on the market in about a year, priced

at

about $500.

Dr. Apovian said robots might one day help spell busy physicians. " I

have

patients

on diets who come to see me weekly because they need to be accountable

to

someone, "

she said. " But I can't be there for everyone. "

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