Nutrition Tracking Made Simple: Pivotal Living Adds USDA's MyPlate as Part of Major Upgrade to Health & Wellness App

SEATTLE, Dec. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Pivotal Corporation, the Seattle company that created the affordable and popular $12 Pivotal Living Band and $39.95 Smart Scale, today announced its next generation of software that offers members access to the MyPlate visual communication tool, used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help communicate the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and help bring the science to life. The MyPlate icon illustrates the five food groups that are the building blocks for a healthy diet and is designed to remind Americans to eat healthfully. This partnership expands the Pivotal Living app's functionality to include straightforward nutrition tips and tracking capabilities based on food groups instead of complex calorie counting, and makes Pivotal Living the first wearable tech company to become a National Strategic Partner to the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).

"We want to help people live a healthier life as simply and conveniently as possible," said David Donovick, co-founder and CEO for Pivotal Corporation. "By expanding our mobile app's tracking abilities to include all major facets of health—activity levels, sleep, body composition and now nutrition—within one simple app, we are making proactive wellness an attainable goal for everyone."

With the MyPlate integration, members can now easily track and customize their daily food intake to meet their own dietary needs across the five major food groups—vegetables, fruits, protein, grains and dairy. Members can log their meals in the app using simple slider buttons for each food group, which are then immediately represented in the colorful MyPlate icon and with graphs. Additionally, healthy eating guidelines are accessible to help members stay on track with what they should be eating. For example, based on a standard 2,000-calorie-intake plan:

• Men and women between 19 – 30 years-old should eat 2 cups of fruit a day, which is the equivalent of a small apple or large banana, 32 seedless grapes or 2 large plums. Adults 31 years and older should strive for a minimum of 1 ½ cups.
• Vegetables are organized into five subgroups (and color matters!) – dark-green vegetables, starchy vegetables, red and orange vegetables, beans and peas, and other vegetables; recommended servings vary by age, with 1 cup of raw or cooked vegetables or 2 cups of raw leafy greens serving as base measurements.
• Adults should consume a minimum of 3 ounces of grains every day and at least half of all grains should be whole grains. 1 ounce of grain equates to 1 slice of bread, 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, or ½ cup of cooked rice, pasta or cereal. Additional grain options that are gluten-free include quinoa and oats, and foods made from non-wheat sources such as buckwheat, millet, sorghum, teff and wild rice.
• Protein-rich foods include meat, poultry, seafood, legumes, eggs, soy, nuts and seeds. When tracking beans and peas, members should count their intake in the protein category first (if they haven't already met the recommended totals from other proteins), and then count the remaining intake in the vegetable category.
• Most adults should consume 3 cups of dairy a day from milk products, including yogurt, natural cheese or processed cheese. Dairy group choices should be fat-free or low-fat, and only consist of foods that retain calcium content – which means no counting cream cheese, cream or butter. In general, a 1-cup serving can be considered 1 cup of milk, yogurt, or soymilk/nut milk, 1 ½ ounces of natural cheese or 2 ounces of processed cheese – the kind you'd buy pre-packaged.

Pivotal Living's software upgrade (v. 1.6.4), including the MyPlate integration, also includes new body composition measurements when synced to the new $39.95 Pivotal Living Bluetooth™ Smart Scale, helping members identify when they are burning fat, building muscle and losing weight. Working together, the Pivotal Living Smart Scale and app measure and track weight (in pounds or kilograms), Body Mass Index (BMI), Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), body fat percentage and lean body mass. All body metrics are presented in a new, easy-to-read weight management screen.

Finally, the new Pivotal Living app adds ease-of-use features members have asked for, including a drop-down main navigation menu and simpler push-button syncing. The app continues to sync with the $12 Pivotal Living Band to help members track their daily activity, hydration and sleep patterns to provide at-a-glance data and graphs of their overall health and wellness.

The Pivotal Living 1.6.4 mobile app is available to download for Android (most 4.3+ devices and above) and iOS (8.0 and above) mobile devices.

More information on the Pivotal Living lifestyle, including the app, Band and Smart Scale, is available at www.PivotalLiving.com.

About Pivotal Corporation
Pivotal Corporation was founded by David Donovick and Eli Almo with the belief that personal technology can not only make life better, but specifically, healthier. Powered by research and science, Pivotal Corporation is developing a family of software and affordable, health-driven products that help everyday people improve their overall wellbeing. The company has developed both a smart scale and fitness band that offer industry-leading features and design at an affordable, everyday price point. Both the smart scale and the band work in conjunction with the Pivotal Living mobile app to track activity, sleep, nutrition, and body metrics, and provide real-time feedback and coaching to encourage smart lifestyle choices. Learn more at www.PivotalLiving.com.

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SOURCE Pivotal Corporation

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