Fit2BTide S06.E14: Made App

[00:00:10] Speaker A: Happy Sunday. You are listening to Fit to be tied with Sheena and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. I can't believe I almost forgot my co host. [00:00:18] Speaker B: I'm just gonna tell you it's been a while. Last semester I was on my own. I was super sad. You just forgot my name. It's over. [00:00:24] Speaker A: Well, and you know I told you before we started recording that as I was listening back to our past shows that I sound like drink too much caffeine or I'm on medications or something. So I'm now that I'm more aware of this, I'm very self conscious. So I might try to like, try to tone out my voice and be a little bit more even Tone change who you are. [00:00:47] Speaker B: Be you. Just be your exciting self. Because I think we have a good thing going on and I know you're talking about feels like you're on caffeine, but I mean there's gotta be some excitement in the show otherwise our, you know, one, one or two fans out there wouldn't listen to us. [00:01:01] Speaker A: Well, you are right and no and I've been looking forward to this because I would say this morning in particular and really it's been happening over the past week and a half my toddler has only exclusively been calling me and my husband by our first names. We are no longer mommy and daddy right now. We are Sheena and Terri. And it makes me sound so demanding and I'm just kind of over it. So I really. So I'm glad to have some conversations with actual adults right now and not my 2 year old that is calling me by my first name and demand all the things. So that's all I will say about that. [00:01:36] Speaker B: It kind of that like YouTube video that went viral with the little kid wanting. I think it was like the cookies or something he was asking his grandma. I was like, listen, Linda, listen. Like, like that's what I envision like Sam saying like sheena, Sheena, listen. [00:01:50] Speaker A: Oh, that's exactly it. Yes. And and also too Whitney, you'd probably appreciate this. We. He likes to watch music videos on YouTube. So he likes Bye Bye, Bye Bye NSYNC and he likes Gangnam Style and there's Y. Yeah, there's some older stuff in there too that my husband throw in. But yeah, it's probably. I try. I worry that he talks about that stuff at school and his teacher questioning our parenting methods. But enough about that or they'll think you're super cool. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Making sure that they are well versed in the music scene and Listening to the classics? [00:02:26] Speaker A: I would think so. I mean, it's promoting physical activity and musical rhythm. So, anyways, how are you? What. What's been. What have you been up to this week? [00:02:35] Speaker B: I'm good. You know, we're kind of starting to get super busy over at the rec center. We've got all of our classes happening. We're starting to really kind of fill up. And our participants have been great about, you know, registering online for those classes. They're still free. We do have one that you paid for. It's a Pilates reformer class. And they're wearing face masks, and everybody's kind of feeling this, like, you know, like New Year's resolutions and getting started and being out of quarantine and getting back to it. So it's been really good. We've been very busy. We've been getting a lot of personal training, clients, people setting goals and really looking into their fitness and wellbeing. And I'm sure it's the same for you. Has nutrition picked up? [00:03:17] Speaker A: It has. You know, a lot of people have been using this terminology of they've gained the, you know, pandemic, 10 or 20 or whatever applies to them. And so, you know, we're trying to be creative with those goals because one of the big things that I work on with our clients is making sure that those goals are realistic and really applying grace during this time period. I think that if, you know, the pandemic, depending on what kind of work or life situation they're in, is preventing them from doing the type of modifications they would normally do. Let's look at how we can change up those goals to where it feels more realistic versus setting themselves up for failure and, of course, creating it in a smart goal kind of fashion. But, yeah, nutrition is definitely kind of on the priority list for a lot of folks when it comes to behavior [00:04:06] Speaker B: changes for the year, you know, and it's really the same with fitness. I mean, we kind of have to help our clients kind of almost dial back their goals a little bit because they get, you know, not to say, like, you shouldn't have these awesome goals, because you should, but at the same time, you know, you want them to be smart and realistic because we don't want people to feel defeated. So we're having to kind of dial back a little bit. We're finding ways to help them measure their goals, and that's something that we're going to talk about today on our show. So I guess I'll, you know, leave everybody hanging. Sheena, I'm Going to let you take us out on this one. [00:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So. So, as always, you guys know that we are known for having the best guests in the world, and today is no exception. But we're going to leave you on a cliffhanger with who these people are. So we are going to take a quick break, grab something to drink, go to the bathroom, do whatever you need to do. You are listening to Fit to be Tied with Sheena and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. [00:05:03] Speaker C: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Happy Sunday and welcome back. You're listening to Fit to be tied with Sheena and Whitney. And we are, you know, kicking it like we always do, and we're excited to, you know, kind of close out the month of January with our show. It's been a great month and we've had a lot of great guests, and we're just, you know, trying to get our listeners back on track with, you know, goals. And we talk about New Year's resolutions a little bit sometimes, but we know how I feel about setting goals. I don't like that kind of stuff. I kind of just like to do whatever I feel. But anyway, Sheena, we have some awesome guests with us today. [00:05:44] Speaker A: Yes, we do. And, you know, as we start thinking again and, you know, I hate that we pull everything back into Covid, but if we are in that Covid mindset, you know, people may be weary of going to certain facilities to get different assessments done. And so we're actually going to be talking about something really cool today where people can privately get, you know, body comp assessment on their own. But we've got to talk to the creators of it. We have Dr. Michael Esco and Dr. Michael Fidawa, who have joined us today from UA. Hello, sirs. How are you guys doing? [00:06:22] Speaker C: Doing fantastic. [00:06:23] Speaker D: We're glad to be here. Thanks for having us again. [00:06:25] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, you know, first you have to prove to our listeners how legit you are by sharing your. Your background, you know, your educational background, your roles at ua. So I'm gonn over the mic to y' all and get you guys to tell us a little bit about yourselves. [00:06:43] Speaker D: Esco is by far more legit than me, so I'll let him start. [00:06:48] Speaker C: No, we're saving the best for last, for sure. Yeah. So great. Yeah. Again, thanks for. Thanks for having us on. This is really, really cool. So I'm Mike Esko. I'm a professor of exercise physiology in the department of kinesiology. And so I do research in body composition and how to measure Physical fitness appropriately for practitioners and personal trainers in the field and clinicians. And to do that appropriately, you know, there's a lot of exercise programming methods out there that'll tell you what to do, but not too much in the way of like actually measuring and tracking changes in physical fitness. So that's the overall goal of the research that I do. And that kind of began from early career into this as a personal trainer. That was my first love. Well, I guess my first love was lifting weights. I'm so thankful for the day I picked up a barbell. And what that led to was a really a grateful and wonderful life. I had no idea that I would be a professor today, but you know, wouldn't want to be doing anything else. But as a personal trainer, working with, with, with working with clients, I understand that, you know, it's intimidating to have measures like body composition and just to even give somebody your age and your weight is pretty pret struggle for many people. So now that I'm able to do research on this end, overall, we seek to create methods in our products that are user friendly, convenient and will give the power for people to do measure accurately themselves and not really have to worry about going into a fitness center or a laboratory or whatnot. They can do it in the privacy of their own home. And the main focus has been body composition recently, but we're working in other areas as well. [00:08:36] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. I'm co pilot, I'm second in command. I'm Mike fedawood. I'm also a professor here and an assistant professor at University of Alabama in Kinesiology. Esco and I overlap a lot with our research, mostly like you mentioned in body composition, body composition, metabolism. Most of my research in the past has focused on obesity. The cardiovascular disease health risk factors that align with weight and obesity. How physical activity can help lose weight, how exercise and physical activity can help prevent weight gain. I started here in 2015 with more of an obesity clinical focus with my research. But like Esko mentioned, I think a lot of the barriers that we had with, with our research is that we had. All of our tools and techniques were very lab based. So folks had to come into the lab and do an in person visit. It kind of limited the community outreach programming that we could do. The field work that we could do with churches or community centers or athletics teams that didn't have the big budgets or the transportation luxury to get people to our facility. So the research in the past couple of years has been moving pretty much everything that we do in the lab out into the field, to put it in the hands of practitioners. [00:09:58] Speaker C: Practitioners. [00:09:58] Speaker D: And make it simple and easy and inexpensive to improve access, to get it in everybody's hands. [00:10:05] Speaker B: I think that's awesome. And just to kind of clarify for our listeners, because we basically, I mean, the Tuscaloosa City is listening to us. I mean, probably more, of course, but can you guys kind of explain what body composition actually is? Because I know those of us in fitness and wellness nutrition, we know because we work with our clients, trying to kind of show them the difference between some healthy numbers and non healthy numbers. So what is body composition or measuring a measurement of body composition? [00:10:37] Speaker C: That's a really great question. I think a lot of people struggle with understanding what body composition is, and there's a lot of confusion around it. And most of the time, what people use to gauge their progress or their health status related to their body is their body weight. Right. So body weight certainly is a metric of body composition, but most people that have even a little bit of an understanding of body composition think that body composition is just related to body fat. And fat is just one component, really. The book's definition of body composition is the relative proportion of all of the tissues that make up the body. Body fat is one. But then we also have fat free mass, and that fat free mass component is grouped. Everything else is grouped into fat free mass. But that includes muscle, the largest compartment in the entire body, which is water and bone. So there are other tissues that are a part of the overall person's body. And when we're measuring body weight, we're really not. It's such a crude measure of what's actually occurring related to like nutrition and physical activity programs. So there's an optimal amount or proportion relative to the different compartments that fat should be in, that muscle mass should be in. I've measured body composition in thousands of people, and just because somebody has a low body fat percentage does not mean that they have a healthy body composition, because quite often it could be a low body fat percentage coupled with a low amount of muscle mass, low fat free mass coupled with low bone mineral density. So there are a lot of other unhealthy features within that. Right. So for people to have a better understanding of their body composition, they really need to have access to some methods, an accurate method of measuring the different compartments of their body rather than just body weight. Not saying that body weight is not good because body weight is, but we need to go a little bit further. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Well, I love the. Oh, sorry, sorry. [00:12:42] Speaker B: Go ahead. [00:12:42] Speaker A: Sorry. [00:12:43] Speaker D: It's your Show. Go ahead. [00:12:44] Speaker A: No, I was just going to briefly say I appreciate that explanation because I would say in my field as a dietitian, I have so many patients that come in and aside from weight, they hold on to that BMI number, you know, and it's almost like their worth as a person morally and identity is in that bmi. And so when we talk about body composition, it's like this mind explosion. So I think the fact that you've really broken that down for our listeners is so helpful. So apologies for that. That was just kind of what I was thinking during all of that. Explanat. [00:13:19] Speaker D: Yeah. And then to piggyback off of both of you, I think the weight on the scale can sometimes be misleading. We do kind of hold onto that BMI number like it's, you know, it's kind of written in stone and it's sacred. But Esco mentioned changes in body composition. I think what we've tried to do also is educate a lot of, you know, a lot of our participants that come into the lab, a lot of people that we work with. The time course of changes that we would expect to see also vary, right? So we, we know that total body water changes up and down within a day and from day to day. So those changes happen very quick. We know that fat and muscle take a little bit longer, but then bone changes very slowly. And so when we're talking about changes in that compartment, we're talking about months to years before we'll see really significant improvements or significant changes in bone mass. So I think that's also important to understand rather than just focusing on weight, that their time course of change varies, [00:14:14] Speaker B: you know, and that's, you know, from our side of things with University recreation, when we get clients coming in and you guys have worked with clients before, it's like that. That's the one thing that is just stuck on their minds is the scales. And you know, to be honest with you, I don't. I seriously think I've weighed the same for a very long time, but it's like the proportion of muscle and body fat has changed. It's so strange to think about how like, yes, you can get on the scales and maybe not see a super huge change, but you definitely are gaining muscle. And, you know, we try to make sure our clients see that. We try to make sure our clients realize that, you know, there's other ways to measure your progress. So on that note, we're going to take a quick break and we'll catch you guys on the other side. You're listening to Fit to Be tied with Sheena and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. [00:15:04] Speaker C: Wvuafm tuscaloosa. [00:15:11] Speaker A: Welcome back. You are listening to Fit to be tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. And if you are just now joining us, you're joining us at a perfect time because we have two fabulous guests, Dr. Michael Esco and Dr. Michael Fidawa, who are both at UA and talking about their research as it relates to body composition and some of the amazing projects that they've been working on. We're going to start talking about one in particular. You know, we, we had the chance to talk to you, Dr. Fidawa, in an earlier show about the app that we are going to discuss. And so it was kind of exciting to have those discussions in the starting phase. And now that it's out there amongst the community, let's talk about how this all got started and what exactly is this app. So I'm going to hand it over to you guys. [00:16:01] Speaker D: Yeah, I think when we did the first show, we were in the very early stages. I think we were prepping for release. So we had just started beta testing maybe, and so the app has just changed. It's night and day from where we were. So we're really excited to be back. Eska, why don't you give a little bit of background about where the project came from? [00:16:19] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. So, you know, I guess it's, we think back about, you know, we're going on to almost two and a half years, I guess a little over two years when we really started developing the app. But it actually really didn't start then. It started, you know, years ago. We'd been involved in body composition research for a while, and we collected hundreds of subjects in our labor. And a few years back, Dr. Fido and I were interested in these newer kind of body scanning devices that are out on the market that are ways to measure body composition and body fat percentage, whatnot. We were reaching out to them, trying to learn more about their process, but we weren't really gaining much momentum with working with those companies. So we thought we could develop something similar. And that's pretty much what what we did. And we went on Thanksgiving break, and as motivated and as smart as Dr. Fido is, instead of I went to eat a bunch of turkey and devour a bunch of food, he's going to do some work. He text me. He thought about it and worked in the lab and came up with some initial algorithms that were really remarkable. He Sent me a text midway through the break with some statistics and I was blown away. I couldn't believe. And he was too. So we were really skeptical initially and then we just kind of continued to develop it from that point. [00:17:50] Speaker D: Yeah. So the app we've kind of mentioned, we measure body composition, so fat mass and fat free mass from a single picture. And so we've seen people post gym selfies of their progress to show tracking changes and stuff like that. We saw that idea and we thought, well, man, if they're going to be taking the picture anyways, we might as well do a measurement with that. Right. So we figured out how to take the, you know, a total body selfie from head to toe and measure muscle fat free mass and fat mass. And so a user can download it directly to their phone from either app store. So Android and Apple, they set their camera to selfie mode and start a timer and then kind of step back and the app snaps a picture and we measure a few landmarks that are on the body. So we have figured out a way to get comparable numbers to what we have in the lab with some way more expensive equipment on the phone that people already have. So we're pretty excited. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Well, I think I asked about this the very first time and I remember you guys initially talking about this at an obesity task force meeting that we were all at a few years ago. And I think one of the questions came up, does the user have to be butt naked when they take that photo? I feel like I got to put that out there, there for our listeners who are hearing about this for the first time. [00:19:11] Speaker D: No. Very simply, no. [00:19:13] Speaker C: They can if they want to, but they don't have to as long as they're wearing snug fitting clothes that contour to their body. We've had some of our users contact us thinking that the app isn't accurate. But when we try to talk to them further and ask them to send us their picture, we realize that they're not taking it appropriately. They're either wearing baggy clothes or they're not fully in the, you know, they're from waist up or their lighting is inappropriate. But a user has to be standing with their feet together and their arms kind of out from arms straight and hands out away from their body, wearing tight fitting clothes. Now the image goes away. So even if they wanted to take it nude, we don't see any image. A lot of people are concerned about that, but it does unless they share it with someone else. But [00:20:00] Speaker B: that's a whole nother topic. [00:20:02] Speaker D: It Is, you know, we really wanted to walk away from that with, you know, there's HIPAA concerns. There's, you know, health information that's in there. It's. It's, you know, their name is attached to it with their. Their account that they created. So we decided that we didn't want to go anywhere near that. So the. The only place that the image exists is on their phone. They can upload it directly from their device. It's not stored within the app. It actually connects to a remote server where we have the image analysis program. It's. It's analyzed, and then it. And then it disappears. So, you know, that's. It's good for privacy reasons. It does make troubleshooting a little bit more difficult. You know, one of the things that we have kind of prided ourselves on is the. With our customers and our users, if they email or if you contact us and there's an issue with the scan or you think your numbers look a little funky, there's not really a way that we can go back and double check unless, you know, you share the image with us, because we don't have it stored anywhere. So, you know, we can offer tips and tricks and give suggestions on how to get more accurate, you know, more accurate numbers, but unless the person is actually willing and can share that image with us, there's no way for us to see what could have gone wrong. [00:21:04] Speaker B: So, you know, I was just thinking, when you're talking about the gym selfies, only in America can you capitalize on people taking gym selfies. Literally done that, where it's like, oh, this is a thing, you know, and I'm, like, walking by, and I'm like, why are people doing that? Like, do it at your own time. Like, not in the rep center. But it's like, y' all are kind of like, you know what? I have an idea. [00:21:26] Speaker D: Well, the other thing, too, I mean, we were seeing gyms do it also. So there's. There's personal gym selfies, right? So people want to show their own progress. But then, you know, gyms, trainers, online coaches, we were seeing the same. Same, you know, similar setup that they were posting before and after pictures to show weight loss, transmit transformations or, you know, improvements in muscle mass and show those kind of transformations. And so we did. We kept seeing these. These images that were just seemingly everywhere. And we thought, we can probably make this work if we standardize the pose, you know, that the image is acquired, and we could. We could probably go somewhere with this and actually, again, put it in Their hands. [00:22:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's, that's, that's most. I think that's what's most important to standardizing the pose. The pose that we do for Maid isn't, I don't think, as attractive as flexing in the, in the mirror and taking a picture. You know, so we can actually show a pretty significant change by just standing relaxed and then flexing up, obviously. But the pose that we do is not a. Not really, like we're jokingly saying selfie, but I don't think it's one that could be really used from that. [00:22:28] Speaker B: It's not Instagram worthy. [00:22:31] Speaker D: It is not worthy of the gram. [00:22:33] Speaker C: No, but standing in that pose, you can, I mean, it is a great pose to just even visualize changes. And now we add the actual measures to that. And it's based on how much space a person takes up within the image. Pretty much. Right. Just like underwater weigh in is based upon how much water somebody displaces. Well, this process is kind of related to that. And that person takes up space within the image and, you know, their weight. The less space that they take up per weight, the more dense that they are. [00:23:07] Speaker A: And now. Go ahead, Whitney. [00:23:09] Speaker B: And I'm just curious, you know, like the target audiences for this app, like, do y' all have an idea of, you know, I know we have talked about, you know, we're still going through our contract stuff and having to get things approved because, you know, it's the university, so it's kind of the process. But, you know, just like, what type of participants are you looking for? I mean, is it anybody? Are you starting with a certain group or, I mean, athletes. [00:23:36] Speaker D: Yeah. So I guess two parts to that. The research that we have, the data that we've collected has just been in the general population. So we have a paper that's been published. We have two more that's in review. Two more that are in review. And so those are general population, just normal everyday people, kind of recreationally active, I guess would be how we describe them. We have another one, another research paper that's in athletes. And so we have the accuracy to go back and forth between those two groups. Normal folks, kind of quote unquote. And then athletes. I think there's about 29 million active users on Fitbit. And jokingly, we would like to have every single one of them, because I think the app offers a service that Fitbit or MyFitnessPal can't, where those are tracking steps and can calories out and exercise and that and my fitness pallor is tracking calories in with dietary intake. Neither one of them are tracking changes in body composition. And so I think we, we would kind of like to have all of those potential users. So we're not necessarily targeting athletes. I think it's, it's our weekend warriors and our recreationally active, just kind of gym goers who are tracking steps and tracking, tracking meals and tracking foods. We want to offer kind of a better way of tracking progress. [00:24:45] Speaker A: I love that. And you know, I'm so grateful that we have you guys for another segment because I have some more questions related to the app. I admittedly downloaded it right before we started recording and I have a question about this profile creation and the question about how many push ups can you do? So I'm going to leave us on that cliffhanger. You guys catch us on the flip side of the break. You're listening to Fit to be tied with Sheena and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. [00:25:17] Speaker C: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Hello, friends. You're listening to Fit to be Tied on this lovely Sunday afternoon. And sad to say, I love y' all and I'm so glad you listened to us. I just thought I'd let you know that. But we are with Mike and Mike. The rap duo. No, I'm just kidding. Not the rap duo. But that's their homework. They had to come up with their apps. No, we're talking about this made app for body composition and just the hard work that they've been putting into it. Their research. Now it's a go. You can actually go and download it in the app store and Google Play Store. Right. I have an iPhone, so I don't ever know about like Google stuff. But. But yeah, we're just continuing our conversation about the app. And you know, as a personal trainer, as someone who's in fitness, the first time I heard about it, I was a little skeptical. Okay. Because you know, like taking a picture of yourself. But I know that you guys have certain credentials that Sheena was kind of talking about before the break. Some things that you may have to do. And Sheena, I'm curious, you kind of started to lead with something right before we took a break of something you had to like put in that, like some information. What was that? [00:26:24] Speaker A: Yes. So again, just in my own research for the show, you know, I wanted to create a profile with the app. I downloaded it and I love. And let me go ahead and say that I love the explanation that you give for why do we need this information in terms of what is your gender, what's your height? All of that good stuff because I think any kind of transparency with that is just a moment of education for the person that's using the app. And I have not completed my profile yet because down at the bottom there was an optional section for Maid Elite and it asked the question about how many push ups can you do? And I just was kind of curious what information is used for. Does that kind of help delineate different types of users when it comes to the research that you guys are doing with the app right now? [00:27:12] Speaker D: Yeah, so it's actually. So there's two parts to that. The first part, it does help us kind of figure out who our users are. So when you set up your profile, there's also a question when you get there that asks, are we trying to build muscle? Are we trying to lose weight? Are we just kind of exploring to see what the app can do for you? That kind of helps us figure out who our users are, who are downloading. If we're hitting the right, right, I guess, target market, we can kind of tailor future features to who's using the app more often. So that's part of it. The other part, when you create your profile, you have the option of consenting for us as researchers at UA to use some of your information for research purposes. So we'll take your height and your weight to calculate your bmi and then we'll take your body composition numbers from the end. And the goal for our research study is to one, show the disconnect between BMI and body composition and show how that might change. So based on age or based on race or based on gender, what kind of influences the accuracy of bmi? Because I think that's important for users to know that you can't always judge your progress or your status based on the skill. The other part, we ask someone how active they are are just again, so we can know who our users are. But then that could potentially be used for research. We can show the relationship between fat free mass or fat mass and physical activity. And then a marker that a lot of people are familiar with is the push ups as a measure of muscular fitness. We included that for research purposes. But then this fall we realized, Dr. Asco and I realized that we could improve the accuracy of the app by adding that question. And so we were, we figured out a way to improve the accuracy by a few hundredths of a percentage. But in a research world, that's a pretty big improvement. So we added it because it's just A self reported number. People can update that as their fitness level changes and that will also kind of track their progress a little bit more accurately too. So we would encourage all users to put in their exercise days and then put in their push ups also to get the most accurate results. [00:29:18] Speaker C: And to add to that as well. I mean, we're also, our research also seeks to just improve the accuracy of the app. We believe, we know that it's as accurate or more accurate than a really good, well performed skin fold assessment. Okay, so it is an accurate method, but there's a level of error with all methods. So Whitney, you brought up a good point while ago, the skepticism, we were skeptical as well. And, and so because of that, we're going to continue to make our app more accurate. So all of the measures, whether it be underwater weighing or DEXA or the multi compartment model, none of those measures actually directly measure body fat. The only way to do that is to cut it off somebody and weigh it and then compare that to their total weight. We can't do that except on cadavers. And that's really referred to as the direct method. And that's kind of how a lot of the laboratory respiratory techniques are measured. So every method out there, there's a level of skepticism that comes with it. It's like when underwater weighing was first created. I'm sure people were, you know, experts were concerned with it being accurate because how can you dunk somebody in water and get, get a measure of body fat percentage? Same with our process. And we completely understand, it's like everyone, we've spoken with, every expert, every, every professional, every personal trainer, every, every dietician, all of them, is that first? Are you kidding me? Yeah, actually it is accurate. You know, we're putting our PhDs on the line for it and all the body of research that we, that we've done behind to lead up to this. And we believe that everything that we do in the lab, from body composition to VO2 max to strength, all of the metrics that we measure in the lab can be done with it with a, a good enough level of accuracy for practitioners with a smartphone. So one of the other reasons why we're including push ups is that's really our first step towards a more robust assessment of physical fitness. Our research now we're going to the future direction of MAID is to create a method to carrying a smartphone to predict VO2 max. We also want to have a measure, a method of tracking your muscular fitness, endurance and strength, flexibility. We're, believe it or not, A brainstorming ideas where we can use our phone to actually gauge flexibility as well. Because what we want to do and educate people at the end of the day, you know, people, they don't really know what fitness is. I asked my class yesterday what does it mean to be fit? And people say, well, how far you can run, that's your fit based on that or if you have six pack abs or whatnot. No, physical fitness is multidimensional. Right. And what we want to do is we want to give people access to, to accurately measure the multiple parameters of physical fitness there are in convenient, you know, convenient ways. And we can do that with a smartphone. So that's the push ups. Yeah, there's a bunch of reasons it seems like such a simple thing. Right. But it is an option for our users to do. We certainly encourage that they have to do it with appropriate form, which a lot of people struggle with. [00:32:33] Speaker A: But. [00:32:33] Speaker C: But yeah, that's our end goal is for a complete assessment of physical fitness. [00:32:41] Speaker B: And it kind of feels like the sky's the limit. I mean, I get excited hearing about these things. You know, it's kind of like our smartphones are. I mean that's the future of everything. Everything is on your smartphone now. So the cool thing is you guys looking at it as people in fitness and exercise science and thinking, okay, now how can we invent something and use it to our advantage and you know, give, give people resources so that they don't have to come into these labs and things that are, I mean, we try to get people in the BOD pod and sometimes getting them into the BOD pod, it's a little uncomfortable because it's, it's the same type of thing. You have to wear minimal clothing. You go in there with somebody you probably don't really know that well. You're sitting in this little spaceship looking thing and you know, you have to explain, you're just not really sure about it. So. So what I like about the app is it gives our clients the chance or our trainers the chance to give them one more tool to use that they can do at home and they can do it in the privacy of their own home. And that's something I would like because I mean, I think I had a bod pod done once and I was like, it's cold in here. I hate this. Like, I wish I was at home, you know. So it's definitely a lot more comfortable to do it in the comfort of your own home and then track your progress yourself, which I think is awesome. [00:33:56] Speaker D: You Know, there's a Steve Jobs quote that says you're supposed to start with customer experience and work backwards toward the technology. And I think in a sense we've tried to do that. So you said, I don't want to go into the lab or I don't want to go into the fitness center to get a fitness, you know, to get my measurements done. So can I do this at home? Is there a way that I could just do it all on my phone? So we send a push notification maybe and it says, hey, hey, it's been a couple of weeks since you tracked, you know, since you did a VO2 max or an aerobic capacity measurement or we haven't updated our strength numbers in a while. So it prompts you to do it. You perform the measurements at home. You're, you're, then your data, if you're working with a trainer, is uploaded to a dashboard that you know, your, your trainer or your coach can access remotely. And so it saves time, it saves privacy, it saves money, it saves everything. And so that way your trainers can get numbers in real time. And, and you don't have to worry about checking in and tracking and going visiting someplace that you may not be completely comfortable with. I do think listening to what kind of our users and customers want, I think is just really got the wheels spinning. We cannot wait to build all these extra features. [00:35:01] Speaker A: I love this because I think that you guys on the show today have given our listeners the unique opportunity to actually hear about the research that goes behind an app and the validity that's with it. I think that in this world of technology, when people are to able constantly downloading apps are not necessarily thinking about the humans behind it and the blood and the sweat and the tears. Yeah, so. Yeah, exactly. [00:35:24] Speaker B: So. [00:35:25] Speaker A: And we don't always do this, but as our guests, we would love for you to stick around for our last five minute segment because now I want to know, you know, what's the reception been like as far as, you know, download. Surely y' all are multimillionaires now. You know, let's talk a little bit more about, about this, but we've got to take a break, you guys. You are listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. [00:35:53] Speaker C: Wvuafm tuscaloosa. [00:35:59] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to us on Fit to be tied on 90.7 the capstone. We've had a great conversation about the maid app where you can download it in the app App Store. And if you have an Android, you go to the Google Play Store. And you can also check your body fat at home. You don't have to come out to a big laboratory or rec center. And so I think it's awesome and I think it's a great. I'm just kind of giving my little pitch. Like if you're like me and you don't like to go to a lab and you want to stay in the comfort of your home, download this app and it does everything you need it to. [00:36:34] Speaker A: Yeah. If you don't like people, then here you go. Now tell us a little bit about the timeline of when did this launch to the public and what has the reception been like in terms of number of downloads. And you guys have been talking about learning a lot about your users. What kind of individuals have been downloading the app since the launch? [00:36:57] Speaker D: Yeah, so we launched in October, so we've been live for a few months now. We are, we have either just cleared 2500 downloads or we are quickly approaching. So we're really excited about that. What is the reception been? It's been good. I think, you know, the folks who we've reached out to, we have tried to partner with rec centers, with gyms, who have kind of been hit a little bit harder with COVID you know, with not wanting to do a lot of in person measurements. We saw that as kind of an opportunity to provide some services. So we're working with a couple YMCAs. Our customers, our users, so far, they're probably skewed a little bit younger. So we're 20s, 30s, 40s, but pretty good split of men and women. It's just normal people, it's us who are using and downloading. So we have learned a lot from listening to our users. [00:37:51] Speaker C: We've talked to personal trainers and strength and conditioning professionals too, that use it, that are interested in using it for their, their clients and their athletes and the, you know, the people that they work with. And you know, we're, they're, they're very, you know, they're encouraged. Right. It's exciting to use this, especially in the time that we're faced with now. And Covid has made many training programs virtual. Right. And a lot of coaches especially have a difficult time working with their athletes from a distance, but especially measuring progress. So they're really excited for this tool. [00:38:31] Speaker D: Yeah, I think we reached out, we knew that there's so much misunderstanding about what body composition is, so we tried to reach out to coaches and practitioners who understood what body composition was and understood the differences between techniques. And we kind of Showed them the app and showed what it can do and then encouraged them to use it with their clients. And so we went that route. Instead of just kind of blasting the, you know, all over the Internet and saying how great we were, we really wanted to partner with coaches and practitioners who were already doing it and who were designing the programs and so we could just kind of be the ones that tracked progress. So within the app, we don't offer any, any prescriptions, any dietary recommendations, any workout programs. We really wanted the coaches and the trainers to be delivering those. [00:39:16] Speaker C: And our background is in the lab as researchers. We're not, you know, we don't know, fancy marketing, marketing schemes or whatnot. Right. So that's a good thing for our procedure. Right. Because it's not a kind of a, you know, based on fallacy or whatnot and just marketed appropriately. But once we, you know, we're learning a lot about how to promote it and get it in the hands of users and, you know, the more avenues that we learn about and more people that we can get using it, the better. We really looking forward to 2021 because we think this is going to be a very productive, good year for us. [00:39:49] Speaker B: How many users do you have? Or I guess if you download, is that how you track it? Just whoever downloads it or. There are two separate numbers. [00:39:58] Speaker D: Yeah, so there's actually. So there's two numbers. We have user downloads and then we have user profiles. And so those are usually right around the same. We're hanging out right around 2,500. There's a 30 day free trial with the app so you can download it to your phone. You get 30 days to do as many measurements as you want before you actually have to pay anything. It's 99 cents a month after that. What that means we are a little bit ahead in downloads versus user profiles created. Just like Sheena said, she has it on her phone but hasn't set it up yet. So until you go to actually complete a scan and perform a measurement, your 30 days has not started yet. So it doesn't start when you download. It actually starts when you create your profile and click to start a scan. So like you said, you can time it to where you're at home, you have the right clothing on, you're kind of in front of a blank wall, so you can wait. And so our numbers, they're similar, but they're not exactly the same. [00:40:48] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. Well, I just, I can't thank you both enough for joining Whitney and I today. And for those of you who have been listening and you're thinking, oh, my gosh, I gotta check this out. I gotta get it on my phone. Let me make sure I'm getting this correctly. It is. If you were to go to Google Play or the Apple Store, it would be made health and fitness. Is that correct? That's. That's how you would see that listed? [00:41:11] Speaker D: Exactly. Perfect. [00:41:12] Speaker A: Okay. Perfect. Well, you guys, thank you so much. And thank you to our listeners for joining us on this Sunday afternoon. You have been listening to Fit to be tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7. The capstone. Sam.