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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

metabolism

Lumen, the Handheld Metabolic Breathalyzer, Goes on Sale

If you’ve been sheltering in place for the past couple of months, you’ve probably been eating a ton of carbs. Between that and the constant wearing of sweatpants, you may have put on unwanted pounds (or maybe you welcome them!).

If that’s the case and you want to get back to your pre-pandemic weight, perhaps you can pick up a Lumen, which is now available for purchase. Lumen is a handheld breathalyzer that promises to help you “hack your metabolism” by measuring the CO2 in your breath. The device then tells whether you are burning fat or carbs and provides personalized nutritional guidance based on your metabolic efficiency.

You can check out this video Catherine did with with Dror Ceder, the Founder and CEO of Lumen at CES last year.

The Spoon look at Lumen, a handheld breath detector for measuring metabolism

The device started out as a crowdfunded project on Indiegogo back in 2018, and has gone on to raise more than $2.5 million dollars. In September of last year, Lumen raised an $8.5 million round of funding (the company has raised $15 million in total). At that same time, Lumen said that it had sold 11,000 devices.

Now the Lumen is available to general public for purchase. The device is available through Lumen.me, costs $299 and is shipping worldwide.

We can’t speak to the device’s accuracy, but we do know that Lumen isn’t the only company out there that wants you to breathe out. The Keyto breath sensor is $99 and gauges whether or not your body is in ketosis.

Exhaling has certainly taken on new weight during this pandemic (wear a mask!), but perhaps breathing out can be a way to help people find some post-pandemic fitness.

Lumen Raises $8.5M, Says it Has Sold 11,000 Breathalyzers for Metabolic Hacking

Lumen, which gives you personalized diet recommendation based on your breath, announced today that it has raised $8.5 million in funding. The news was first reported by CTech, which writes that the new money was led by Hong Kong-listed H&H company and Unorthodox Ventures, with Disruptive Venture Capital and Gigi Levy participating. This brings the total amount raised by Lumen to $15.5 million.

Lumen launched its handheld breathalyzer on Indiegogo a little more than a year ago. At the time, we described it like this:

The eponymous Lumen device looks (sadly) like a vape pen. Blow into it and the device measures the CO2 of your exhale to see if you are burning carbs or body fat. According to the promotional video, you can breathe into Lumen in the morning to get a personalized meal plan for the day, adjust that meal plan with breath check-ins throughout the day, and check your breath before a workout to see if you need to carb up for additional energy.

The device was a crowdfunding hit, selling roughly 11,000 devices and generating $2.3 million in sales, according to CTech.

We checked in with Lumen cofounder Dror Ceder at CES earlier this year and learned that in addition to meal planning, the company is also working on ways integrate food ordering (meals and groceries) based on your results.

The Spoon look at Lumen, a handheld breath detector for measuring metabolism

It’s not a lot of hot air to say that several different companies are looking at your breath to help you hack your metabolism. The Keyto is another crowdfunded device uses your breath to measure acetone in your breath to determine if your body is in the fat-burning state of ketosis.

Having tried the Keyto, I’m curious to test out the Lumen as it seems to offer a broader application of useful advice. If it works as promised, I’d love to know if I’ve carbed up enough before a workout, and also get ongoing meal recommendations throughout the day based on my metabolic rate.

Lumens are available now for $249 directly through the company but the devices aren’t shipping until January, so I’ll have to hold my breath a little bit longer.

Lumen Analyzes Your Breath to Help You Lose Weight

When it comes to losing weight, a lot of us just want to be told what to do. That’s why we go to a spin class, or follow specific diets. Lumen is a startup that wants to make that type of advice more personalized for you with a handheld breathalizer that measures your metabolism.

The eponymous Lumen device looks (sadly) like a vape pen. Blow into it and the device measures the CO2 of your exhale to see if you are burning carbs or body fat. According to the promotional video, you can breathe into Lumen in the morning to get a personalized meal plan for the day, adjust that meal plan with breath check-ins throughout the day, and check your breath before a workout to see if you need to carb up for additional energy.

The results, according to the site, are sustainable weight loss and optimized workouts.

Lumen launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund its eponymous device. It has already blown past its $50,000 goal, raising $213,816 with a full month left to go. Early birds can pick up a Lumen for $199, after that the price jumps to $219. Devices are estimated to ship in February 2019.

The Lumen site has an entire section on the science behind its device. We can’t validate the company’s claims here, but the idea behind Lumen fits in with two trends we’ve been following here at The Spoon: handheld analyzing devices and personalization.

With technology getting more powerful and smaller, there is a crop of new devices coming to market to help us better understand what and how we are eating. The Nima sensor helps consumers detect the presence of peanuts or gluten in foods to help avoid allergens. And the SCiO uses spectrometry to scan food for nutritional information.

All these personal devices aim to help people make better choices when eating. Personalization has become a hot topic at our Smart Kitchen Summits: companies like FoodPairing are creating tools for hyper-personalized recipes, and further out, Intellectual Ventures has a patent for a personalized food manufacturing system. They’re also eyeing a future where 3D printed foods deliver the exact food we want to fit dietary and nutritional needs.

If Lumen works as promised, getting personalized meal recommendations and losing weight is not something you’ll need to hold your breath for.