The City of Vantaa continued its partnership with MealLogger early this year and offered a weight management group for the city’s residents. The city offered the MealLogger platform in conjunction with a group support program arranged virtually. Continue reading
Category Archives: What we’re doing
MealLogger partners with Finnish Olympic Committee to help top athletes with their nutrition
MealLogger is in use by the Finnish Olympic Committee as a key tool in developing their approach to nutrition coaching within the various sporting academies’ operating environments. About 200 elite athletes have been through a coaching module involving MealLogger so far.
The athletes within the program must be able to train effectively, recover from their training sessions as efficiently as possible, and remain healthy. A diversified and well-balanced diet to support optimal nutrition represents a cornerstone towards achieving these goals. Finnish Olympic committee Sport Nutrition Specialist Anna Ojala brings years of experience using various coaching tools to train the top Finnish athletes that come through the program.
Finnish Olympic committee Sport Nutrition Specialist Anna Ojala describes MealLogger as being a beneficial tool in getting an overall picture of the athletes’ situations and how to design programs to best support their learning and development needs.
MealLogger was selected for its ability to keep up with the hectic daily lives of the top professional athletes, who need a way to quickly and easily document their meals anywhere and anytime.
“Taking pictures of the meals is easy for the athletes. From the pictures, I get information about their meal content as well as important information about the athletes’ daily schedules and environment, such as if their meals have been eaten at the airport, on the bus, or at home,” Ojala said.
Ojala emphasizes that, as a Sport Nutrition Specialist, some of her most important responsibilities include helping the athletes learn how to succeed on their own in the future, learning how to eat at various stages during a season, and building coaching processes for how to work through challenges that arise due to difficult, unforeseen circumstances. Diet needs to support the development, performance, and health of the athletes in different circumstances. One important lesson for both the athletes and the coaches is to learn how to tailor their diets to fit the requirements of their sport and their training regiments, especially as the amount and intensity of training varies or as conditions change.
“Learning must be structured for the athletes such that it is easy to understand for their individual circumstances. The most frequent cases seen in athletes is to develop an understanding of eating adequate amounts of foods at the right time. In practice, this means getting enough energy and carbohydrates to meet the different needs during different periods of periodization training.”
Through MealLogger, these themes can be easily explored by looking at meal timing rhythms and portion sizes. Some of the athletes also benefit from a more accurate calculation of their nutritional needs. Ojala describes MealLogger as being a beneficial tool in getting an overall picture of the athletes’ situations and how to design programs to best support their learning and development needs.
Based on the work done with these elite athletes, MealLogger will be expanding from the Helsinki and Tampere metropolitan areas to 6 major Sports Academies in Finland and to the wider Sports Academy network.
Link to Finnish Olympic Committee Press Release (in Finnish)
Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) uses MealLogger as part of digital weight loss program
The Helsinki University Hospital serves half a million patients annually. They use MealLogger as part of their digital weight loss program. Photo taken from HUS.
MealLogger deploys AI features in corporate wellness engagement for K-Group, one of Northern Europe’s largest retailing conglomerates
Kesko employees taking part took pictures of their meals as a core part of the coaching program. The coach utilized the artificial intelligence (AI) features MealLogger is refining to streamline the coaching process. Taken from Kesko press release.
Five-week program targeted employees at risk of type-2 diabetes Continue reading
MealLogger used in study of mobile phone nutrition app technology with International Rugby Union player
In an eight week study conducted on players from the highest tier of women’s rugby in England, athletes using MealLogger technology increased protein intake by 29% and increased energy intake by 9% while reducing skinfolds by 16%
MealLogger chosen to help build unique digital health ecosystem in Helsinki, Finland
MealLogger selected as one of five digital health services from over 30 to pilot digital health solutions in a unique ecosystem of business partners, citizens, and the Health and Wellness Center of Kalasatama Continue reading
University of Auckland, University of Sydney and High Performance Sport New Zealand Complete Research Pilot on Efficacy of Image-Based Mobile Applications on Dietary Habits
Researchers from the University of Auckland, the University of Sydney, and a group of athletes affiliated with the High Performance Sport New Zealand organization tested how to best educate and promote dietary and behavioral changes using MealLogger as a coaching tool and platform.
What’s our blog about?
Health and fitness professionals using MealLogger Pro often ask us whether research supports the use of mobile devices and apps for improving health and body composition. They wonder whether specific features like photo-journaling, peer support, and challenges influence behavior change and tell us they would love to see examples of best practices from other colleagues. We’re creating a blog to answer these questions and share relevant research as well as some of the lessons we’ve learned about how to best use mobile health technology.
