May 8, 2012, Lebanon, NH — isee systems, developer of market-leading STELLA^® and iThink^® Systems Thinking software, has released LabP: Predicting Weight Loss, a holistic, interactive, laboratory that allows individuals, health care professionals, educators, and students to explore outcomes of weight management programs. Built with STELLA, LabP offers a tailored approach to weight loss prediction; it models known physiological processes and uses personal data to simulate weight loss under varying diet and exercise conditions.

“Weight loss is a perfect application for Systems Thinking,” says Dr. Tarek K.A. Hamid, LabP developer and author of Thinking in Circles About Obesity. “Obesity is a serious and pervasive problem. The processes that regulate our weight and energy constitute a highly complex feedback system which is why weight loss is almost never as straightforward as advertised, why it is never linear but declines with time even if the prescribed diet is maintained, and why people tend to lose much less weight than they expect. We use computers to manage more and more aspects of our lives, like the ‘health’ of our investments. Why not use them to manage something even more important, the health of our bodies?”

LabP users enter their own personal body composition, diet (its size in calories and, when known, its composition of carbohydrates, proteins, etc.), and exercise (type and duration) metrics and then experiment with different weight loss strategies by modifying diet and exercise parameters to reflect or match their lifestyle preferences. The LabP simulation accurately predicts how much weight will be lost and the composition of lost tissue. Because LabP is a dynamic simulation model, users view the body’s entire path as it changes and adapts towards the end result and gain deeper insight into the human energy/weight regulation system.

“Weight loss is dependent on physical characteristics and eating and exercise choices,” says Hamid. “LabP sets itself apart from simple, one-size-fits-all weight loss calculators by presenting individuals with information that is specific to them or to the inputs they provided. Using LabP, the dieter (like the pilot or the engineer) has a ‘physiologic flight simulator’ that can serve as a personal laboratory for assessing weight-loss options. As with ‘flight simulators’, it is the perfect medium for learning and experimenting; any ‘crash’ is a source of insight not pain.”

LabP: Predicting Weight Loss is one of two models included in Mi Weight: Personal Weight Management Tools. LabU: Understanding Weight Management, also created by Dr. Hamid using STELLA, is a free, web-based simulation that can help you better understand how the human energy-regulation system works, why it works that way, and how to better manage it.

LabP: Predicting Weight Loss costs $18.75 and is available at http://www.iseesystems.com/softwares/LabP.aspx.

About isee systems (www.iseesystems.com) — isee systems is the world leader and innovator in Systems Thinking software. Founded in 1985, isee released STELLA^®, the first software application to bring Systems Thinking to the desktop. In addition to STELLA which is primarily used by educators, isee offers iThink^® for business simulation. Thousands of individuals and organizations in over 80 countries use isee software to gain insight and shared understanding of environmental, financial, organizational, biological, chemical, mathematical, humanistic, and other systems.

About Tarek K.A. Hamid — Tarek K. Abdel-Hamid, Professor of Information Sciences and System Dynamics at the Naval Postgraduate School, has authored more than 50 papers on system dynamics and is applications. Together with Prof. Stuart Madnick (of MIT), he was awarded the 1994 Jay Wright Forrester Award which is presented annually by the System Dynamics Society to recognize the best contribution to the field.

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