New year, new you — and now — new technology promises to assist Australians with their fitness and weight loss goals.

Australia’s government research organisation launched a new artificial intelligence weight loss coach on Wednesday.

The technology named “Hope” was developed after CSIRO research found there were three crucial factors which had the biggest impact on weight loss.

Data collected from more than 10,000 people undertaking the CSIRO Total Wellbeing program found those who weighed in regularly, followed the menu plan and tracked their food intake diligently reported the greatest weight loss.

CSIRO Total Wellbeing dietician Pennie McCoy said the launch of the virtual coach came at the perfect time for people looking to kickstart their health goals for the year.

Hope predicts appropriate weight loss targets, tracks progress and provides feedback while using state-of-the-art machine learning to grow and expand its functionality over time.

“In designing Hope, CSIRO have collated data from Australians, for Australians to provide a personalised experience and help people to improve their weight loss outcomes,” Ms McCoy said.

While diligence across all three behaviours had the greatest weight loss results, CSIRO found people who followed two of the three behaviours also  achieved above average weight loss.

Ms McCoy said it was exciting to see there was room for flexibility in a sustainable weight loss program.

“Our research has found that most people start a weight loss journey with great expectations and motivation to get started but to maintain that motivation is really difficult,” she said.

“Our aim with this analysis was to really understand those behaviours that help Australians stay motivated with a weight loss journey.

“With the additional support of Hope, Australians can feel assured they are embarking on a weight loss journey that is not only proven but also fits into their lifestyle.”

-AAP