Canadian-made 'My Weight Loss Coach' lets users track activity, eating habits

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TORONTO - A Canadian video game developer is hoping its new creation will become a technological tool for gamers that puts a healthier lifestyle at their fingertips.

Montreal-based Ubisoft has unveiled "My Weight Loss Coach," designed for Nintendo DS, that allows users to chart a course towards improved physical well-being.

The game is designed for a single user. They can enter their personal information, including age and weight, and set up objectives based on their profile.

From there, they can update the program daily with the food they've eaten in addition to physical activities.

Every day, individuals can set an objective in terms of how many steps are walked or the number of challenges taken, such as parking the car farther away than usual in the lot.

Ubisoft game designer Simon Graveline said the primary objective was to make something both entertaining and motivating, with the lead idea being that "small steps make a huge difference."

The game comes with a pedometer that users can plug into the DS to transfer the data to see how well their footsteps match their objectives. As well, users can manually enter the amount of time devoted to other activities like going to the gym. Everything is converted into kilometres.

"It's the idea of always going forward, so you'll never see the progress going backward even though you gain weight instead of losing it," said Graveline Thursday at the presentation of the game at a downtown gym. "It always remains positive."

Users are able to keep track of their body mass index, and since everything is converted into distances, they are able to track their progress in comparison to a real life milestone, like climbing Mount Everest. One of the last milestones is the Great Wall of China, and it will take the average user about a year to go the distance, Graveline said.

"Being able to compare your progress to something real, it's a really motivating tool because it's really impressive," he said. "When you walk the equivalent of the Great Wall of China, it's big."

The game also has a food balance category allowing users to calculate what they've been eating and to assess if they've had a healthy day.

"It won't tell you you should stop eating hamburgers all day long, but each day when you pick up the hamburgers, you'll see all the foods that you aren't picking up," said Marie Marquis, a registered dietitian and professor at the University of Montreal who consulted on the game.