The BioTrainer and research studies:

Exercise for weight control:
Numerous studies have indicated that our overweight population continues to expand, while only a small percentage of us engage in regular exercise. With this growing problem of sedentary life-styles and the need for increased exercise, the BioTrainer may well serve to help reverse this trend by promoting regular exercise and providing accurate feedback information that to date, has not been available with pedometers or other exercise monitors. Evidence to support the accuracy of the BioTrainer comes from four years' worth of clinical trials. This unique consumer product is not only convenient and easy to use, but has also demonstrated to be highly motivational and to encourage improved exercise habits, better fitness and good health.

Research has found that very low calorie diets and changes in eating habits usually provide short term weight loss for overweight adults. However, numerous 3 to 5 year studies have all indicated that these approaches produce no major long term benefits; 75% - 95% of the participants in weight-loss programs tend to lapse back to their old eating ways and regain the weight they initially lost.

On the other hand, regular exercise, particularly life-style exercise, has been clearly and consistently shown to be a significant, positive factor in long-term weight control. In the past, the major difficulty with exercising as a means for weight control has been its lack of appeal and the difficulty in precisely monitoring the amount of exercise. Both of these difficulties are easily overcome with the advent of the BioTrainer which is extremely accurate and designed to motivate while making natural life-style exercising fun and exciting.

Although adherence to regular exercise is clearly a problem for most, it can be improved by simple monitoring and recording of daily exercise using the BioTrainer. Studies have consistently shown that weight loss programs that combine diet with exercise are more successful than programs without exercise. For example, one 15 month follow-up study showed that a group using both diet and exercise retained an initial 30 pound weight loss whereas a comparable group using diet without the exercise component unfortunately regained 40% of their initial weight loss.

In addition to its greater immediate and long term benefits, exercise also has physiological and psychological advantages leading to better health and fitness. In addition to lowering body fat, blood cholesterol and blood pressure, other beneficial results of exercise include mood improvement, better sleep and an increase in basic metabolic rate that promotes weight loss.

BioTrainer encourages life-style exercise:
In a recent research study at a prestigious University, 40 obese women were split into 2 groups and randomly assigned to either a diet plus aerobic dance or diet plus life style activity program. Subjects in the aerobics group attended 3 exercise classes per week. The life-style group wore a BioTrainer to measure and help motivate their life style activity. After the 8 week study, the life-style group with the BioTrainer lost the same amount of weight as the group that exercised 3 times a week. This study also confirmed that the BioTrainer accurately tracked the increases in the daily exercise activity of the life-style group.

Audible biofeedback motivates:
Several studies were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the BioTrainer's biofeedback feature. In these studies, the participants wore the BioTrainer unit during their regular workout with and without the audible feedback beep. For every participant, it was found that, when the auditory feedback was turned on, there was a higher amount of physical activity recorded by the BioTrainer and, thus, more calories were burned by the feedback participants than by the participants that were not receiving feedback. On average, when the biofeedback mode was activated, the BioTrainer recorded levels of exercise activity 24.8% higher than those recorded in the non feedback group. Thus, it was shown that audible biofeedback plays a significant role in the increase of activity levels during periods of exercise.

Treadmill validates BioTrainer accuracy:
Extensive testing was done to determine the accuracy of the BioTrainer at various walking speeds. The BioTrainer was able to precisely identify and accurately measure changes in controlled treadmill walking speeds. The chart below shows the average activity counts (data format before conversion to calories burned) recorded by the BioTrainer in a study of 73 participants:

BioTrainer activity counts* vs. Treadmill speed:
* activity counts are converted into calories burned for display on the LCD

The above chart, illustrating the precision and accuracy of the BioTrainer's motion sensor, represents the average data from 73 treadmill walkers. These walkers, both male and female, were a balanced mix of young, old, tall, short, fat, thin and average size subjects. Notice how the activity data progressively increases for each step in treadmill speed. The powerful microcomputer contained in the BioTrainer converts activity data into calories burned.

In this study, it was found that factors such as age, gender, and height had very little effect on the accuracy of the BioTrainer during treadmill walking. However, body weight was found to be the most important factor in determining exact calorie burn for each individual. Therefore, your body weight must be entered into the BioTrainer for accurate measures of calories burned.

Graded treadmill walking with the BioTrainer:
A recent study conducted by a major Medical School tested the BioTrainer for measuring graded walking on a treadmill. In this study, obese women wore the BioTrainer while walking 3 miles per hour on a treadmill at elevation grades of 0%, 2.5%, 5.0% and 7.5%. Besides activity data supplied by the BioTrainer, special laboratory equipment was used to measure their oxygen consumption while walking. The resulting data verified that the increased oxygen uptake at each walking grade correlated significantly with increased exercise activity recorded by the BioTrainer.

The BioTrainer in a controlled weight-loss program:
The BioTrainer was used for two groups of participants in a 32 week weight loss study in order to evaluate the effects of both visual and audible biofeedback in relation to lifestyle activity. For this study, 79 persons entered the 16 week weight loss program plus a 16 week follow-up period. All participants received the same treatment of diet and exercise counseling; the only difference being that half of the participants wore a modified BioTrainer that recorded their exercise activity but did not provide the LCD readout or tone feedback. The other half wore the standard BioTrainer unit with an active LCD display and tone feedback.

Participants were randomly assigned to either feedback and non-feedback groups. Both groups wore their BioTrainers at all times during the course of the study and the follow-up period. Throughout the course of the program, the feedback group, in general, were found to exhibit a greater duration of exercise activity per day than the non-feedback group. The feedback group also was observed to engage in a greater amount of moderate exercise (equivalent to walking at speeds of 2 mph or greater) throughout the study except during the last week of the program. During the 16 weeks follow-up, differences between the groups were observed to increase even more. The feedback group continued to maintain higher levels of exercise while those in the non feedback group generally relapsed to baseline levels.

The bar graph on the next page shows the positive effects of feedback versus non feedback for the entire 32 week study. The data bars represent the average number of exercise minutes per day for each group.

Feedback Group vs. Non-Feedback Group

 

The Effects of BioTrainer Feedback on Body Mass Index (BMI):
The average program participant lost 19.3 lbs. during the 32 week study. In terms of the body mass index, the difference between participants with and without BioTrainer feedback did not become significant until the follow-up period. The group with immediate visual feedback on the BioTrainer's LCD display had average BMI decreases similar to those without feedback during the active treatment program. However, as the follow-up period progressed, those with LCD feedback continued to lose weight whereas the non-feedback groups began to regain weight.

Observations and comments from the weight loss group:
In this study, the participants could not print out their BioTrainer data, but had to attend a weekly class for counseling and downloading their weekly activity. Some of the following observations and comments were noted from the group:

" ..... It feels as if the monitor is a part of me." One group member felt so "naked" without the monitor, he left work to get it.

..... the feedback beeps motivate group members to push themselves harder. Several of them exercised together and held contests on who can get the highest readings.

..... several group members compared numbers each week and stayed after class to compare computer printouts. Several small healthy competitions begun.

..... members could recognize what their daily activities were from the past week from their printouts; they could tell when they drove their car, went shopping, for a walk, or if they were just sitting around doing nothing.

..... as the overall activity level, both natural and exercise, continued to be steady or increase throughout the study, many looked for new ways to increase daily exercise. One member who was formally sedentary at night, started walking 2-3 miles per evening and enrolled in a swimming program.

..... one participant's children would "monitor" their mother for the beeps. They would encourage her to keep moving to make more beeps.

Summary:
In conclusion, the findings from this extensive 79 participant study clearly support the accepted finding that moderate levels of activity are more valuable for weight loss maintenance than are low levels and that longer duration of exercise activity is also very useful for weight control. The frequently noted finding that exercise slows the rate of weight regain after a diet program is again demonstrated in this research, and it measurably establishes that both the audible beeps and the visual LCD feedback of exercise activity provided by the BioTrainer, increases adherence of the program's exercise goals, particularly during the maintenance phase.

The BioTrainer, with its visual capacity for LCD feedback, continuous long-term recording memory, computerized data assessment, and calibrated measurement of the intensity and duration of exercise activity also allows for a particularly high level of monitoring precision. This provides for greater confidence in the results and it is clearly a more accurate and objective form of assessment than self report measures, simple pedometer recordings and descriptive observations of exercise.
Several studies were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the BioTrainer's biofeedback feature. In these studies, the participants wore the BioTrainer unit during their regular workout with and without the audible feedback beep. For every participant, it was found that, when the auditory feedback was turned on, there was a higher amount of physical activity recorded by the BioTrainer and, thus, more calories were burned by the feedback participants than by the participants that were not receiving feedback. On average, when the biofeedback mode was activated, the BioTrainer recorded levels of exercise activity 24.8% higher than those recorded in the non feedback group. Thus, it was shown that audible biofeedback plays a significant role in the increase of activity levels during periods of exercise.