Nutrition coaching platform aids Lean Kitchen customers with personalized meal plans

13 Jan 2020 --- B2B software company LifeBase Solutions will provide a nutrition coaching platform to Lean Kitchen Company, a US-based prepared meals franchise company. The software is touted as simplifying and automating the nutrition coaching process to help teach customers how to eat according to their bodies’ specific needs. This collaboration fuses the personalized nutrition trend with consumers’ growing use of technology to track individual health and nutrition progression.

“LifeBase helps nutrition coaches educate consumers to improve their eating habits, while the software makes it easier for businesses that sell supplements and food to sell more of their prepared meals and supplements. This knowledge transfer enables the consumer to improve their body composition, overall health and build healthy habits for a lifetime. If performed at scale, this can lower the cost of healthcare and positively impact the cost of producing and consuming fresh foods,” Christopher Holman, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of LifeBase Solutions, tells NutritionInsight.

“Not only does LifeBase Solutions’ automated platform simplify the job of a nutrition coach, but we get better results for our clients. We can manage, track and communicate with all of our clients in real-time, for every meal, every day,” adds Lean Kitchen Co-Founder Austin Evans.

Lean Kitchen began franchising in January 2018 and continues to grow its meal-prep franchise in the US. Its menu consists of a wide variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner, snacks and children’s meals, providing all sorts of variations, such as gluten-free options and keto-friendly dishes.

The software provides individualized information.How does it work?
Lean Kitchen customers receive a LifeBase-powered macro plan that doesn't tell the client what specific foods to eat, but rather provides them with the correct amount of protein, carbs and fats they need for each meal. After meeting with their live, certified nutrition coach, the medical-grade bio-impedance body composition machine takes a baseline body composition reading of the client in less than two minutes. Via the cloud, the data automatically uploads to the platform. The coach then inputs the client’s individual lifestyle data to set the specific body composition goals the client wants to achieve. 

“While our platform can be used for remote coaching, we believe our technology and any nutrition coaching technology achieves the best results by supporting or augmenting the human connection. By measuring on a physical device every week, we are adding to the process of creating behavior changes by creating a habit of visiting a store or location and adding that physical touch point to build on the personal relationship with their coach. This in turn helps support accountability,” statss Holman.

 In total, the platform analyzes over 5,400 possible combinations of body composition change data to make client macro-change recommendations. The methodology behind the tailored plans were designed by LifeBase’s Chief Nutrition Officer Brett Delaney, a Registered Dietitian. This individualized macro plan consists of five to six Lean Kitchen meals each day, in addition to pre- and post-workout meals, to facilitate blood sugar management and optimized results. 

A paradigm shift
While most consumers define “results” in weight loss, LifeBase Solutions defines “real results” as maintaining or gaining muscle, losing fat and improving cellular water levels, notes Holman. 

“By tracking actual food consumption and body composition changes, we can learn what provides real results for everyone. Actual food consumption means not just tracking protein, carbs and fats, but also tracking fiber and sugar consumption.”

Lean Kitchen offers healthy, fresh-cooked meals to consumers across the US.Holman maintains that US adults want to be healthy but struggle to find a feasible path to a healthier lifestyle. While nutritious options are readily available, knowing how to use them effectively is “foreign” to the average US adult. Understanding fat loss as opposed to weight loss is a fundamental paradigm shift, he says.  

The platform signals to the nutrition industry that the personalized nutrition trend is here to stay, Holman continues. “There is a tremendous potential that lies within the data we are capturing. Through the collection and analysis of food consumption in conjunction with actual body composition metrics – not just weight – we can positively affect eating habits without removing food groups,” he concludes. 

Technology bolsters industry
The nutrition industry is rife with novel technology. Notably, shoppers at supermarket chain Waitrose and department store John Lewis in the UK can now take a quick, on-site cheek swab to generate a personalized DNA report revealing key nutrition-related health traits. DnaNudge’s pop-up services are set to inspire shoppers to make healthy choices based on their unique genetic makeup. Meanwhile, Mayo Clinic and Viome are collaborating to explore the potential of the latter company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven personalized diets in helping to manage disorders such as sleep apnea and obesity. 

However, regulation and safeguarding must keep pace with these new tools as opportunity for misuse also grow. Last September, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued guidance on how it will regulate “novel, swiftly evolving” digital health tools, such as mobile health software and products that use AI. The FDA highlights that its approach “must foster, not inhibit, innovation.”

By Anni Schleicher