The combined adverse health effects of obesity, physical inactivity, and poor diet are well established and are thought to be associated with at least 20 different diseases and health disorders. Furthermore it has been estimated that obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and poor diet contribute to the premature deaths of approximately 300,000 Americans each year. The direct costs of physical inactivity and obesity have been estimated to be at least $94 billion per year, representing approximately 9.4% of total U.S. health care expenditures. No currently available Internet-based technology combines complex mathematical algorithms, state-of-the-art health and fitness science, and the substantial capability to log personal data to provide individual users with highly personalized and specific nutrition- and exercise-related advice and recommendations. The project proposed herein involves the creation of a handheld health and weight management device, the LogaPDA. The LogaPDA will be the result of the transformation and augmentation of a Department of Defense funded web-based virtual personal trainer and nutritionist, the Personal Health and Fitness Wizard (PHFW). The PHFW is a complex, adaptive system that fuses an individual's health status, personal performance parameters, and fitness goals with educational and personal training databases that work in tandem to motivate and encourage users to reach their optimum level of fitness through highly-personalized advice and information. The proposed research involves enhancing the PHFW for the specific population of overweight individuals and transitioning of the current software to a handheld device (e.g., a personal digital assistant).
