Mac OS X diet, fitness management software released

FireLogic Inc. has released a Diet & Fitness version of its HealthEngage software system. The new version joins those for diabetes, asthma and HIV/AIDS.

The HealthEngage Technology Platform, designed to assist chronic illness sufferers, tracks the progress of their treatment. It’s a modular, platform-independent health data collection and management technology.

HealthEngage Diet & Fitness is designed to simplify daily exercise, diet and wellness management, said FireLogic President Michael Slage. The software is available for Mac OS X and can also be used with Palm OS devices. FireLogic has optimized the software for use on Mac OS X 10.2 (“Jaguar”) and is working on a Bluetooth-enabled version in order to take advantage of Apple’s Rendezvous and iSync technologies. A free trial version is available for download. The cost is US$59.99 for a single user or $69.99 for a single user license, plus Palm OS software.

For weight loss, cardiovascular fitness or weight training, HealthEngage Diet & Fitness helps users reach their goals, Slage explained. He said that research shows that when users track their diet and fitness, they’re more likely to reach their diet, exercise and health goals.

HealthEngage Diet & Fitness lets users plan meals from over 6,700 foods in the USDA database. It also lets you choose daily activities and exercises, with pre-calculated calorie burn rates, from over 650 activities from the Sports Medicine Association of America. You can set reminders about upcoming tests, supplies reorder or a doctor appointment by setting up an alert. HealthEngage Diet & Fitness will alert you as soon as you log into the application. You can enter complete laboratory test results, inoculations and medications, which can be kept as their personal digital health record. Common blood test and cholesterol templates are included.

You can also combine weight readings, meals, exercise, supplement or medication, test results, personal notes and generate over 20 different types of detailed one-step charts and graphs for grams of nutrients (separate for each nutrient), calories consumed and burned, exercises, any measurement or test, medications or supplements taken and more.

In addition to “at-a-glance” reports, which lay out your meals, HealthEngage Diet & Fitness provides you with meal and nutrient summaries, lists exercises for any period of time, which you can use to track your own progress or can take to your nutritionist, fitness trainer or physician. You can also generate descriptive reports for any medication or supplement, measurement or test in multiple formats.

FireLogic plans on releasing other HealthEngage versions, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fybromyalgia, Cardio-CHF-Hypertension, Cancer, Allergies, Multiple Sclerosis, and Advanced Respiratory Management, Flage said.