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>> Haynes: Hi there. My name is Markella Haynes and I'm the social media reporter in Boca
Raton for Smart for Life and I'm here with Doctor Sass, everybody knows Doctor Sass and
I've heard we're going to have a Smart for Life BMI app coming out soon.
>> Moulavi: That's right, yeah. >> Haynes: So, um, if you don't mind I'm going
to ask you a couple questions and see what I can get from you.
>> Moulavi: I'd be happy to. >> Haynes: Well, first off, since I'm a little
new to Smart for Life, um, what exactly is BMI and what does it measure?
>> Moulavi: BMI measures body mass index. It's a statistical analysis of weight versus
height and it generates a number and that number can be used statistically and if the
number is above thirty, the person is considered obese. If the number is above twenty-four
point nine, the person is overweight. And if the number is above forty, then it's considered
morbidly obese. The reason that number's important is statistically we know actually, insurance
companies know the number, people who have higher the number, the higher chance they
have of dying at a younger age. In fact, for every number above thirty that the BMI goes
up, you lose three years of your life. So if somebody has a BMI of forty, they typically
expect you to live twenty years less than somebody that is normally is they were thinner.
So it's a very important number and everybody should know their BMI. People who are body
builders, a lot of muscle, their BMI will have an error in it, but for the vast majority
of people the BMI is a very accurate form of measurement to know how healthy they are,
and whether they need to lose weight or not. >> Haynes: All right so why would people use
a BMI app? >> Moulavi: First of all, in order for them
to know, are they overweight. You know, some people may look at themselves in the mirror
and think that their not that overweight when they might be medically obese and they just
didn't know it. And other people who think that they are fat are actually normal. Their
BMI's twenty-four, which is normal. They don't have to lose weight. Now somebody, you know
we have something called the perfect BMI, which is twenty-two, but that's not really
true. The BMI is a range. Some people are much better at a BMI of nineteen and some
are better at a BMI of twenty-four, but we want to be in that range. If somebody has
a BMI of seventeen, then they're underweight and need to gain weight because we know that
those people have a higher chance of dying and are probably anorexic. So people should
measure their BMI and should use our app or should at least go to our website and at least
use the tool on our website at SmartforLife.com and figure out what their BMI is.
>> Haynes: All right. >> Moulavi: Just like you know your height
and weight, you should know your BMI. >> Haynes: Um, so you mentioned to me earlier
that there's going to be health assessments also on the app.
>> Moulavi: That's right. There's some other questions that the app asks you. So basically,
we know that with asking people certain questions related to the family history, related to
the genes, related to how much red meat they eat a week, we can assess the risk for cancer,
for diabetes, and for heart disease. And using that questionnaire, people can actually get
a score based on the BMI and all those questions. Are they at risk for those diseases? And if
they are at risk, then they can do something about it. Because, you know, besides obesity,
those are the three biggest diseases in our country that kill the most people: cancer,
diabetes and heart disease. If we can know our risk for that, and reduce it, I mean,
no one can eliminate it, but we can reduce it, we'll live longer and we'll be happier.
>> Haynes: And you mentioned also too that there's going to be, like, psychological questions
as well that they're going to ask, right? >> Moulavi: Right, very good. Yeah, they actually
are because some of the people have issues with weight loss actually have psychological
issues. They don't have support from a spouse, or they have a lot of nighttime eating, or
have stress eating. By asking them those questions, we can recommend programs to them, and the
app will do that, it will recommend a program that says 'we know that people like you who
are nighttime snacking are going to do a lot better by having some of our cookies at night
rather than during the day and then weening yourself off so that you are eating normally.'
For example, we have tricks for people who are, like salty stuff. Well, I tell them you
know instead of having a bag of pretzels, have two or three pickles because they have
less calories, and actually have more nutrients. Somebody, for example, who wants, like, sweets
at night can have low-calorie and no-calorie jello or they can take a Smart for Life drink,
make a slushy out of it and have that instead of having you know sweets: cakes and pastries
and whatever else they have. Plus they can have a cookie, our cookies are delicious.
>> Haynes: [laugh] Yeah, they are. >> Moulavi: Somebody, for example, who likes
crunchy and salty can take some celery, cut it up into little pieces, put some sea-salt
on it, and have that in their mind and that fulfills salt, that salty need. So we have
all these tricks that we teach them. They're just going to do much better.
>>Haynes: Now, I have a question. Will that app be able to, to give you those suggestions
or is that something that a coach will come up with?
>>Moulavi: The app actually has the suggestions in it, but the coach can expand on it. And
also the app will give the coach ideas on which handouts they should give the client,
so that they client is aware. You know what? If you like to have two drinks at night, well
we know that bitters and soda, which has no alcohol in it because alcohol is a killer
for weight loss, alcohol is an absolute 'no' for weight loss. Bitters and soda can kind
of replace that fix a little bit, so we can give them the handout about alcohol, for example.
So the coach will know which handout to give. >> Haynes: Um, so, traditional pen and paper,
used to be people would write things down, now there's apps. Why is it better to use
an app rather than just pen and paper? >> Moulavi: Because everybody has, you know,
smart phones in their pocket right now, not everyone has pen and paper in their pocket
anymore. It just makes it a lot easier. It's a lot, you know, once you collect the, there's
quite a bed of information collected from the client with those apps. You really find
a lot about them. And we need, you know, some sophisticated calculations to calculate the
risk and give them their assessment cause each person is different and that app basically
personalizes the results so that, you know, somebody that, for example, is eating fairly
well and doesn't have nighttime snacking, does not need the same program to somebody
who's a python eater, which he doesn't eat all day and then they eat a big meal at night,
you know, and then what they do is when they eat a big meal, typically, they don't stop
eating the big meal. They're snacking all the way up until bedtime. They all need a
different program. Somebody who doesn't take a daily vitamin has to have a daily vitamin
suggestion. Somebody who has no issues with hunger doesn't need a hunger blocker, but
somebody who does, does. The app can make all those suggestions that say 'hey. you really
need a hunger blocker cause question number twenty-one, you said you were hungry at night,
let's deal with that' and they just do better. >> Haynes: That's awesome. That's a good way.
That's some of my, my next thing, um, how will it bring value to the coaches. I guess
you kind of answered that. It keeps a history of their clients? So it's going to be able
to check up and be like 'oh well this person did this.'
>> Moulavi: Exactly. Right. Exactly. It will give a coach a way to do the assessment that's
linear, so they can see, first of all, you know, the number one thing to look at is,
just think, weight loss. This patient was two-hundred two months ago, now they're one-seventy.
They did great. Or the patient was two-hundred two months ago now they're two-hundred. What
happened? They didn't lose anything. So the app will allow that. The other thing is also,
it will kind of direct the coach and tell the coach 'hey, this client will do a lot
better with these things. >> Haynes: That's awesome. That's amazing.
So some of the features that will be on the app, just, BMI, health assessments?
>> Moulavi: There will be BMI. There will be health assessments. Be questions on hunger
control. There will be a question on daily vitamins. There will be a question about support.
There are questions on nighttime eating. There are questions about exercise. So it's kind
of a very good introductory app, eh, on purpose we did not make it very complicated. There's
a lot of apps out there that are just too complicated to use. You have to be a scientist
to use them and people just give up. We wanted an app that could take a lot, ask a load of
questions, they're easy questions, they have two or three choices, ***, ***, ***, ***,
you get your, your, your first stage, they're two stages in the app, and you go to the next
one if you want to go to the next one and then you get your results and you get your
suggestions. And then you follow it and then you can run it again a month later and see
where you are, recalculate your BMI, recalculate your risk. Now I lost twenty pounds. Your
BMI came down. I stopped eating red meat. Your risk of cancer came down. I stopped smoking.
Your risk of cancer came down. I don't eat as much sugar. Your risk for diabetes came
down. Hey, I'm doing better. It's very motivating. Your numbers are better and you move on.
>> Haynes: That's very amazing. That's awesome that you can do that now. Um, so where did
your idea for the app come from? >> Moulavi: Really, I saw a lot of other apps
out there. There's a lot of apps out there that are very good. For example, journaling
apps. I really didn't want to recreate the wheel cause they're so good, why, you know,
I actually refer my clients to them already. But there was no app that assesses risk. That
tells the client, 'hey. You're at risk for this disease and your BMI is this disease.
And another thing, a lot of those other apps, they give a very complicated result. Our result
is very simple. You're on a bar graph that goes from green to red and if you're in the
red are at risk and if you're in the green you're ok. You get your results in visual,
you can see where you are and it makes life for a client a lot easier. It's a very easy
result to read. Anybody can understand it. >> Haynes: Yeah, it's as simple as that. Green
or red. Good or bad. >> Moulavi: Exactly.
>> Haynes: Um, you actually mentioned to me, just real quick, the appropriate age groups
that the app will is intended for. >> Moulavi: Right. The app that we created
is really designed for eighteen and older because BMI for children is actually different.
It varies. So, you can't say twenty-four is considered overweight. For example, thirty's
considered obese. They have different numbers for BMI. So we will eventually come out with
a children's BMI app, but we're not there yet.
>> Haynes: Ok. Um, and I guess to wrap up, where can you sign up? Who can sign up?
>> Moulavi: You contact your Smart for Life coaches, your Smart for Life center or go
to SmartforLife.com and become a coach and you can get that app. We really reserved the
app for coaches, we just don't want anybody to use the app cause we want people who use
the app to understand how the app works and what they can do about it. So, we've restricted
the app to be used by coaches and Smart for Life centers and Smart for Life affiliates.
>> Haynes: Right. >> Moulavi: So that's when where the app is
going to be available. >> Haynes: Well, great. Well thank you Doctor
Sass. That was awesome.
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