Is life better with a coach? The makers of iFit Coach say so. According to the company, iFit Coach is “the first ever mobile smart coach to connect, monitor, and dynamically adjust four key pillars of fitness: exercise, nutrition, activity and sleep.”
Unlike most of the fitness/diet devices available, the iFit Coach is not static for most of the time. In other words, it’s not purely connecting to established libraries of fitness, diet, and medical knowledge databases. It is a mobile experience that links users with the expertise of personal trainers, registered dietitians, and sleep coaches to provide a custom daily plan.
Essentially, it is the first service actually to update and adjust recommendations throughout the day. Updates and information are based on real-time analysis of what the user is actually eating, if they are exercising, idle, and how they are sleeping.
Not Just Another Fitness Novelty
According to Mark Watterson, Director of iFit, ““iFit Coach is not a wearable, it’s not an app. It’s a new, daily mobile experience for optimum health. The consumer gets 12 months of coaching in four health categories and the iFit Vue Wearable when they join. That’s what makes iFit Coach so different, useful, and appealing. Yes, we track your activity, but also exercise, nutrition and sleep, every day, in real time, and transform those stats into a coaching plan just for you.”
For example, each morning’s exercise workout is paired with daily calorie targets to achieve the consumer’s fitness results. If a consumer slacks on the exercise recommendations, then by late afternoon, iFit Coach updates, and lowers, that day’s calorie targets for dinner to compensate when weight loss is the goal.
The Mechanics
The product works in several ways and in several steps. Users first set goals and create profile data. iFit Coach then monitors progress automatically. Aspects of each function are as follows.
Exercise
- Consumers choose a fitness goal -- Lose Weight, Tone & Sculpt, Build Muscle or Maintain.
- Consumers select a workout time -- 10-20, 20-30, 30-40 or 40+ minutes.
- Unique to iFit Coach -- custom daily workouts using equipment the consumer has specified they have at home, such as kettlebells, dumbbells, medicine balls and more. “No equipment” is also an option if a consumer just wants a bodyweight-based workout.
- iFit Coach provides workouts and connects to smart fitness equipment such as treadmills, ellipticals and incline trainers from premier brands like NordicTrack, ProForm, FreeMotion Fitness and Gold’s Gym.
- The exercise stats collected by your wearable connect to the iFit Coach app and your iFit powered equipment. So after a treadmill run, the calories you burned will show up on your wearable and the app.
- Consumers can manually log a whole range of exercises, from walking to swimming, biking, skiing and more.
Nutrition
- Consumers receive calorie intake targets based on their individual answers to their overall goals and exercise time. More than 6,000 items in the iFit Coach nutrition database make it simple for consumers to log their calorie intake.
- iFit Coach provides goals and recipes from Registered Dietitians for 5 meals each day: breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.
- iFit Coach provides two new cooking videos each day, a breakfast and dinner recipe. Videos show all of the steps necessary and are less than two minutes for quick viewing.
- iFit Coach has more than 550 total recipes. Highlights include paleo, vegan and vegetarian recipes, gluten-free recipes, recipes prepared in under 30 minutes and specific recipes for slow cookers.
- iFit Coach provides the ability to sort by meal type, allergies, cuisine, season, calorie level, preparation time and more.
Activity
- Expert recommendations for iFit Coach members include daily steps in the Activity category, as measured by the iFit Vue wearable included in the membership. iFit gives consumers credit for workouts completed on iFit enabled fitness equipment, automatically tracking steps taken without wearing the wearable.
Sleep
- Consumer sleep data is logged automatically with the iFit Vue wearable or manually.
- Using smart software, iFit Coach automatically wakes the consumer at the optimum time each day in the lightest sleep cycle segment.
- Based on quality and quantity of sleep, automatic adjustments are made to the next day’s Exercise, Nutrition and Activity recommendations.
- Coming in Spring 2017, Sleep will connect through NordicTrack mattresses and specialized sleep sensors powered by iFit Coach.
Membership
Membership fees for the mobile experience range from $9 per month for a two-year membership to $15 a month for daily coaching. The iFit Coach mobile app is available on the App Store and Google Play for iOS and Android devices.
Does It Work?
Like any health/fitness aid, you can’t say it does not work unless you have evidence that users who used the product and service as directed, consistently and accurately, and persistently experience no results or negative experiences. If one buys the iFit Coach and membership for updates, coaching, and ends up using it as a paperweight or drawer filler, the results should be obvious. Life will not be better ... even with a coach.
ICON Health & Fitness
Logan, UT 84321
Customer Service: 877-993-7999
Sales: 888-308-9620