Smart health devices have come a long way since the wearable health tech was first introduced. One of the newest devices to take the health world by storm is Lumen. It’s a portable device that the user has to breathe into to measure their metabolism, thus delivering personal nutrition plans and health insights to an app. This excellent tool for weight loss focuses on personalized wellness, which is what most Lumen device reviews mention.
We were excited that a USD 300-400 Bluetooth device, along with a monthly/annual membership fee, would provide information about our metabolic health via a smartphone app – sounds amazing, doesn’t it? So, what exactly is the Lumen and how does it work? This article delves deep into this nifty little gadget, which promises, and has successfully provided, an effective analysis of the metabolic states of many of its ardent followers and supporters.
What Is Lumen?
Lumen helps us “hack” our metabolism to boost energy levels, increase fat burning, and lose weight naturally. Loft as these claims might sound, the device works by simply analyzing our breath. This means that it’s non-invasive, so there weren’t any needles that were stuck into our arms all day like glucose monitors, and neither were there any patches or finger pricks. Plus, there wasn’t any urine or saliva analysis either, and neither did it require us to wear a smartwatch or a fitness tracker 24/7.
Basically, it’s a high-tech breathalyzer that measures the carbon dioxide output in our breath. Then, it analyzes these respiratory gases via various algorithms and formulas to determine the primary type of fuel we’re burning – protein, fat, and/or carbohydrates. This information goes into the Lumen-Metabolic Coach companion app (available for iOS and Android), thus giving us personalized insights into our metabolic state and how we can increase our fat-burning and energy, and better our metabolic health.
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How Does Lumen Work?
Lumen uses a metric called the respiratory exchange ratio (RER), which is the gold standard for assessing one’s fuel burning and metabolism. Previously available only in medical clinics, research, and exercise physiology lab settings, this method has been used for decades, but only in complicated setups involving Star Wars-esque masks, tubes, and large machines.
What makes Lumen exciting is that it brings this technology to the hands of the common man. It provides us with a daily measurement of our energy sources, carbs, or fats, on the basis of our RER on a scale of one to five. Over time, the smartphone app uses these individual measurements to provide us with a flex score, showing us how flexible our metabolism is.
When we start out initially, the score is a comprehensive evaluation of two weeks of data, continually evolving as we use the device.
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Understanding The Lumen Score
The Lumen score (1-5) represents the relative percentage of fats versus carbohydrates that we’re burning. While a score of 1 meant that we were mostly burning fat, a score of 5 meant that we were burning carbohydrates almost exclusively. Meanwhile, the scores of 2, 3, and 4 represent a mixture of fats and carbs.
The Lumen device connects via Bluetooth to the smartphone app. We went through a series of steps to record metabolic measurements using the Lumen. Within a matter of seconds of completing the measurement process, we’d see our Lumen score. Then, the app prompted us to answer a series of questions that related to our perceived stress levels, how much sleep we got the night before, and how many grams of carbohydrates we ate the day before. Finally, it offered us recommendations every day based on our Lumen scores and answers.
As time went by, the Lumen app provided us with personalized meal plans designed to help us achieve a Lumen score of 1-3 so we’d be in a fat-burning state. What we loved was that the Lumen app prompted us to take measurements at specific times in the day for best results. These usually included times after and before eating and exercise. Since we were prompted to take more measurements consistently, the device’s algorithms provided us with better advice.
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The Lumen App
One of the niftiest things about the device is its pairing with the Lumen app. We loved that it provided us with meal plans based on our metabolic needs, activity levels, body weight goals, and body sizes. It even offered recommended macros for the day — i.e., how many grams of protein, fat, and carbs we should be eating. Moreover, our daily Lumen meal plans divided our protein intake into snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinner so that we knew how many grams of protein we had to aim for with every meal.
When we first began using it, the app walked us through a detailed survey about our food allergies and dietary preferences so that we got meal recommendations based on what we ate and didn’t eat. In other cases, we even got many different options to choose from, and then we could decide to make that recipe or eat some other meal of our choice that provided similar macros. All we had to do was manually log our meals so the app could evaluate how our diet influenced our metabolism scores, adjusting our plans accordingly. And since the Lumen app meal plan changed every day, we got a nice change of pace with fewer carbs on some days and higher on others.
The best bit? The Lumen app can also be linked to Garmin IQ, Google Fit, and Apple Health accounts, so you can even sync your calories burned and daily step count.
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Informational Videos
Starting to use the Lumen can be confusing because not many of us are familiar with metabolic health. That’s why we liked the “Explore” section of the Lumen app, which featured short and extremely useful informational videos. They not only answered questions about using the device, but also showed ways to decrease stress, the benefits of high-carb days in low-carb diets overall, and how to increase fat-burning, besides explaining Lumen’s scores, of course. We found this video library very helpful, with the video explanations clearly answering questions in an understandable way. Additionally, the advice provided in these videos was sound and accurate according to the latest research.
“Thanks to Lumen, we began to understand the effects of what we eat on our bodies and how best to further our health goals.”
Dizzzi
This kind of vetted and high-quality weight loss and nutrition advice is quite hard to come by in today’s age, where the market is flooded with a plethora of dieting myths and unsubstantiated claims. Clearly, Lumen’s team wants us to not just reach their health goals but also to understand why and how the choices we make impact our own bodies.
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Support Community
Whenever we’re starting something new and venturing into uncharted territory, it’s always good to have a place where we can ask questions, share our doubts, and read about others’ experiences. That’s why we loved the presence of the active Lumen Facebook group, where we could ask questions and get support from others using the device. If we had a specific question about the device, we could post it within the group or even search to see if it had already been asked and answered earlier. This gave us more confidence in the device as a whole, increasing its value for everyday users like us who have been frustrated with previous attempts at weight loss and don’t exactly have a background in nutrition sciences.
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Does Lumen work without a membership?
The Lumen device and plans start at USD 199, which includes a free month of membership. However, you’ll still be able to take metabolism measurements without a subscription once the free membership expires, although you’ll not get the personalized plans or the lifestyle insights.
Can Lumen Help Me Lose Weight?
Yes, Lumen helps you do so by ensuring that your metabolism betters and becomes more flexible. Additionally, the nutrition plans on the app support a sustainable and healthy weight loss.
Is Lumen a Good value?
As a handheld device that costs USD 199 and offers expert insights into nutrition and metabolic health by just analyzing your breath, yes, Lumen is an extremely great value!
Some images on this article are copyrighted by Lumen.