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Health Kiosk | BC1 Body Composition Analyzer | CT1 Calorie Tracker | RT3 Tri-axial Research Tracker
 CT1
Personal Calorie Tracker Kit |
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How does the CT1 work? WHY TRACK CALORIC ACTIVITY? The health benefits derived from maintaining weight within recommended levels and remaining physically active are overwhelmingly well documented. The number of calories a person is consuming is a common index for expressing concern about weight or activity. Most people know calories are measure the energy used by the body or the amount of energy contained in food. What most people don't know is knowing calories burned is as essential as knowing calories eaten. For anyone who wants to control their calories and weight, whether for weight control or fitness, tracking calories burned is essential for compliance with any fitness or weight management program. THE CT1 PERSONAL CALORIE TRACKER: AN ACCURATE AND PRACTICAL METHOD The CT1 Personal Calorie Tracker is a simple, easy-to use device that looks like a pager. It is designed to detect motion when worn on the user's waist and convert that motion into electrical energy, which is interpreted by the device into a measurement of caloric burn. The CT1 Personal Calorie Tracker is the first precision calorie tracking device designed with the consumer in mind. The CT1 continuously tracks caloric burn during a particular activity, a specific time frame or throughout the day, including when the user is inactive. However this function is only one part of the utility of the device. This Web-enabled device works with proprietary software and a docking port that downloads data from the device into a personnel file at the Stayhealthy Web site. At this site users can track their personal calorie use, customize a personnel fitness and nutrition program and link to a wide range of health and nutrition information, service and product resources personalized to their needs and interests. WHAT IS THE TECHNOLOGY THAT ENABLES CT1 TO BE ACCURATE AND SMALL? It has been possible for some time (1) to keep track of a person's movements and then convert this into an estimate of calories burned if the height, weight, gender and age are known. The main methods are the pedometer, ergometer and single-direction accelerometers. Pedometers simply keep track of how many steps a person takes and have limited accuracy for other types of movement. Single-direction accelerometers only track motion in one dimension: forward and backward. Ergometers integrate multi-dimensional motion sensing technology into compact devices. The development of small, piezo-electric acceleration detection devices and smaller programmable-memory devices has allowed rapid advance in the design and utility of calorie trackers. Ergometers used as research tools based on three accelerometers, called TriTac-R3D (2), have been in development and clinical testing. The CT1 takes the best of these designs by combing a small, portable device that can be worn comfortably by anyone, with Web-enabling software. Stayhealthy owns the technology for the device and has developed the software using algorithms that allow for gender, weight, height, age and other specific factors and for the specific types of activities and motions detected by the device. HAS THE CT1 TECHNOLOGY BEEN TESTED AND HOW ACCURATE IS IT? During the past several years the CT1 technology has been tested in various formats to allow for refinement of the algorithms to achieve greater accuracy. There have been a number of comparison studies done with such methods as using a room calorimeter, (3) where ergometer technology has proved to be consistent and accurate within the limits of the algorithms used at the time. It has also been tested against other "in the home" methods for calorie tracking, the most prevalent of which is self-reporting of food consumed and activity logs in which that information is converted into numerical data representing calories eaten and burned. The Tri-Trac, a calorie tracker that uses three piezo-electric accelerometers to measure movement in three dimensions (forward-backward, side-to-side, and up-and-down), has proved to be more reliable and more accurate than other methods, probably because of inconsistencies in self-reporting. (4) The CT1 uses Tri-Trac technology to record automatically and the Web site allows for interactive refinement of the calories and encourages compliance with fitness programs. SUMMARY With its personalized web server and individualized response, the CT1 is a significant new product in the calorie-tracking market. Its user-friendly design and ease-of-use will encourage consumers to be more compliant with their fitness or diet regimens. Bibliography:
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