Given What You Know About Metabolism
I love new fitness gadgets, and being a personal trainer and qualified PN1 diet bus, I was super interested in giving the Lumen a get.
I'd seen the adverts, promising to "hack your metabolism", and example studies showing how Lumen has helped people past improving their level of energy, fettle and strength, also as helping with weight loss and making them healthier eaters.
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Just I wanted to know for myself: does Lumen piece of work? I tried Lumen for six weeks to run into if the breathalyser device and associated app can really evangelize on any of these promises…
- Save up to £130 on Lumen in the Wintertime Sale - purchase here
Pros
- Holds you accountable
- Realtime feedback about your metabolism
- Good recipe ideas
- Promotes long-term health benefits, not just weight loss
- Very quick and efficient client support
Cons
- Pricey
- It Will tell you to eat less carbs
- Time consuming: you need to use information technology adequately frequently for best results
Lumen review: quick summary
In brusque, I mostly enjoyed using the Lumen and found the insights provided by the connected app to be very interesting, specially the ones concerning whether or non I needed to consume before training.
The answer was often 'no', so I establish myself fasting for longer periods after waking upwardly and despite non always post-obit the daily nutrition plan (and going over the recommended corporeality of carbs) I noticed some weight loss due to generally but eating less than usual and having my carb-heavy meals earlier in the twenty-four hours.
Essentially, what you lot use the Lumen device for is measuring your breath first thing in the morning, around every meal, before and after exercise and right earlier bed. Yous can also do advertizement hoc measurements throughout the day if you feel the need; you then receive feedback via the connected app as to whether you are burning carbs, fats or a mixture of both.
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It uses this information to devise a diet plan each morn, telling you if it'south a low or high carb day. If you're willing to follow the programme, which can be tough on low carb days, you will see results, whether that exist weight loss, weight maintenance or just understanding and improving your "metabolic flexibility".
This emphasis on improving metabolic flexibility is what Lumen is all nearly. The term describes the body's power to flit easily between burning fats and carbs, using free energy from the all-time suited macronutrient depending on the body'southward needs.
The Lumen promises to teach your trunk to use fat and carbs at the correct times, which in turn aids fatty loss and weight maintenance. The aim is to wake upwards each day in a country of fatty burn, and you really do have to sentry what yous eat the twenty-four hours before to make sure that happens.
In that sense the Lumen is proficient at holding yous accountable: it does experience like information technology knows if you don't follow the plan! It's a fresh alternative to calorie-restricted diets, and so I would say it'south worth a try, especially as there'south a xxx-day free trial on offer. You tin can salvage another £25 past signing up for the newsletter.
- Buy a Lumen with subscription from £249 - here
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Lumen review: total review
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What is Lumen?
Lumen is a device that you breathe into to discover if your body is using fats or carbs for energy at that given moment.
After measuring several breaths a mean solar day, the connected app can devise a nutritional plan to improve your 'metabolic flexibility ' – this is your body'south ability to bandy between carbs and fats and use the correct free energy source at the virtually effective time.
This is useful because it helps increase your energy levels, it can better your quality of sleep and if your goal is weight loss, it tin assistance with this, likewise, past encouraging your body to tuck into those difficult-to-access fat stores.
How does Lumen work?
It can be quite complicated to become your head around, but every purchase of a Lumen comes with a 30-minute onboarding video phone call with a Lumen expert to go you lot started.
The Lumen itself is a smart tube-shaped breathalyser that collects your breath, so sends the data to an app, which uses your measurement and a number of algorithms to report if you are using fats or carbs for free energy.
The device works by detecting the levels of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) that you are breathing out - if information technology's a high level of CO2, it means you're called-for carbs; if information technology's depression, yous're burning fat. Y'all'll as well get measurements in-betwixt.
Lumen works using a 5 number spectrum. A mark of '1' ways y'all're burning fats; '2' is 'mostly' fats; 'three' is a mixture of the two macronutrients; 'iv' is 'mostly' carbs; and 5 is carbs.
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Lumen says that for optimal wellness, you lot desire to exist measuring 1 or two when y'all wake up - this ways your torso is good at burning carbs overnight while you lot're sleeping and has at present turned to burning your fat stores. Ideally you want a iv or five later meals as it shows that your torso is using up the carbs you've but eaten.
Before you start your Lumen journey, the app asks you to cull your 'track' so information technology can decide your goals. You can choose from 'Metabolic Wellness', which is to ameliorate your general health and metabolic flexibility, 'Healthy Weight Loss' and 'Fitness Performance' the latter of which is more based on diet to improve your work out. I trialled the weight loss option, as this is the most popular with Lumen users.
- Get upwards to £130 off Lumen in the Wintertime Auction - buy here
Every morning, afterward you lot've taken your measurement, the app gives you a nutritional plan telling you how much carbs, poly peptide and fat to eat that mean solar day. The recommendations are dependent on your breath that forenoon, the exercise yous're planning to do that mean solar day (y'all need to enter this into the app) and data from the day before.
Some days the corporeality of carbs can be as low as four portions (60g of carbs) which is the equivalent of a banana, ii pieces of breadstuff and a cup of milk. However, the app does provide recipes to make those carbs go further and a food checker and food charts showing how many carbs are in unlike foods (and will soon be adding a food logging system).
Afterwards ii weeks of using Lumen, you're given a 'flex score' of between ane and 21 depending on how flexible your metabolism is, with 1 being the lowest. Your aim is to progress to a higher number equally the weeks pass.
The nutritional programme aims to meliorate this score: the higher the score, the better your body has become at using the right energy source and the better your health volition be.
Is Lumen easy to use?
I struggled a picayune chip with the breathing element at beginning, merely after a couple of weeks I managed to get it right. You lot have to hold the Lumen to your oral cavity and take a boring, deep breath in, concord it for 10 seconds (the app counts down) and then breathe back into the Lumen prissy and slowly - you have to exercise this between one and three times for the Lumen to get plenty data.
To start with, I did this kickoff affair every forenoon, afterward I finished my morning fast (fasting is very much encouraged by Lumen), before and afterward every meal, before and after exercise and again earlier bed, then I was using it eight or nine times a day.
Over the weeks I started finding this fourth dimension consuming and just a bit abrasive, so I went downward to five or six times a 24-hour interval, which was all the same enough to become good data. The app is very easy to navigate and has lots of advice and recipes that help you stick with your recommended carb, poly peptide and fat intake of the mean solar day.
I decided to follow but the carb recommendations to starting time (to keep things less complicated) and I did struggle with the low recommendations, but the app does upwardly the recommendation if you exercise, so it inadvertently encourages yous to work out.
The recipes are based on the food preferences you add in, with chicken, fish and vegetable dishes cooked in innovative ways, and the app has lots of videos and blogs to respond whatsoever questions. In that location'southward also direct admission to customer support who are very quick to respond. I had an outcome with the Lumen not working properly and they replied instantly with a fix.
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How much does Lumen cost?
The Lumen comes in packages that include access to the integrated app for different periods of time. At the time of writing (Feb 2022) there is a 'Winter Auction' on, pregnant you can expect to pay £249 for the device and 6-months of tracking (use of the app), £269 with a 12-month runway or £349 with an 18-month track.
Once your paid-for months expire, the toll is £25 a month for utilize of the app - the device is basically useless without the app as you won't become whatsoever readings, insights or nutritional plans.
You can save another £25 by signing up for the newsletter kickoff.
Does Lumen work?
Yeah, I call back it does, simply you take to know what your goal is and be determined to "trust the process", a saying that gets used a lot on the Lumen community Facebook folio.
I opted for the weight loss 'track' and did struggle to stick with the adequately low calorie and carb count every bit I beloved my pasta and potatoes. I oftentimes went slightly over the recommended carbs only still lost weight and managed to come across an improvement in my 'flex score'. I think i of the reasons for the weight loss was the intermittent fasting that Lumen encourages, so I was probably eating less calories than usual overall.
I also followed the Lumen's advice to eat dinner a bit earlier and have my carb-heavy meals earlier in the day. All this helps you reach that one or 2 flex score goal first thing the adjacent morning.
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Lumen review: the verdict
The all-time affair about Lumen is the accountability - information technology'south the mod solar day version of having a Weight Watchers squad leader post-obit you around!
If y'all desire to achieve that score of one or 2 the next morning, you really do have to follow the diet plan the twenty-four hours before, and having a daily goal similar that does brand you attempt harder to swallow healthy (there's no room for snacking on biscuits or crisps on this plan).
The depression carb days also make you want to work out as this ups your carb allowance, which is a great incentive.
Overall, I think Lumen is a good tool to action weight loss if that's your brusk-term goal but then it's also there for a long-term goal of beingness a healthier person in full general.
I really enjoyed using it before workouts to make up one's mind if I really needed to swallow beforehand, and found the communication to be actually authentic when it said I still had plenty fuel to run 15km without breakfast. I'grand going to keep using the Lumen past the trial but I take moved my runway to the fitness setting to see how information technology can impact my performance.
- Lumen with 6-calendar month subscription, £249 - buy here
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Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sun-selects/17511702/lumen-review/
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