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Can you use a breath meter to hack your metabolism? Lumen and ketone meters have promised that they can hack your metabolism. But do any of them work? This article will discuss the science, application, options, cost, and whether a breath meter can hack your metabolism.
Science Ketone Meters and If They Can Hack Your Metabolism
There is a lot of science to support Lumen and other breath meters in learning your metabolism. These devices have been around for a while, but companies rebranded them as a device that can hack your metabolism.
Many people who follow the Keto diet know the science behind breath meters. The device is called a keto breath meter. A keto breath meter detects acetone, produced when your body breaks down fat for energy.
Acetone is one of three ketones (acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyric acid, and acetone) produced by the liver during low food intake or carbohydrate restriction periods. Because acetone is a volatile acid, we can detect it in the breath of individuals with ketosis via a device that measures exhaled hydrogen gas (H2 or O2).
Your body uses metabolic flexibility to switch from burning food, body fat, or creatine triphosphate for energy. A law of physics states we cannot create energy or destroy it but only transfer it.
As your body transfers body fat and food into energy, it creates a byproduct that Lumen and other breath meters can detect. For example, you exhale 80% of your body fat through your breath when your body burns body fat.
When you create a calorie deficit, your body burns body fat for the additional energy it needs. So, as long as you stay in a calorie deficit, you will burn body fat and exhale the waste caused by body fat through your breath.
So Lumen and other breath meters can detect if you are burning stomach fat like you can use smoke to see a fire nearby. In doing so, they argue their device can hack your metabolism.
How to Use Breath Meters to Help Hack Your Metabolism
There are many ways to use breath meters to lose weight. However, you can never go wrong with having more information to inform your diet and workout. The worst thing you can do is waste time and energy on things that do not work.
These devices can quickly tell you through your breath if a diet or workout caused you to burn stomach fat. Because the device works in real-time, you can quickly associate the fat loss with your diet or an exercise you just performed.
No other devices give you that kind of information in real time. Thus, you can use a breath meter to repeat diets and workouts that cause fat loss.
If a device can quickly show you how your metabolism responds to a diet or workout, then you can use it to hack your metabolism. For example, breath meters can not only tell you if a diet or training causes fat loss, but they can also tell you when the fat loss started and stopped.
This is key because you can use this information to plan better diets and workout programs. Maintaining energy levels during active periods and creating calorie deficits around your sleep schedule is better. Thus, the goal for many is to use intermittent fasting to create a window for their diet and fat loss.
Finally, you can combine your breath meter results with other numbers like your total energy expenditure and BMI to create goals and take steps that get you the best results. The issue that surrounds any diet or workout plan is pain. You can always closely connect pain to your results.
If you want to burn stomach fat, you will feel hunger, pain, and cravings. But how much becomes the question? It would help if you always created enough hunger pain to cause fat loss.
But with a breath meter, you don’t have to guess how much hunger you need to endure to cause fat loss. Instead, a breath meter will tell you the minute you have created enough hunger to cause a fat loss in real time.
Reading Ketone Meter
One of the most important things you can do with a breath meter is read it correctly and then decide based on those readings. You can better plan your diet and workout by interpreting a breath meter correctly. So here is what the numbers on a breath meter mean:
- 0 – 1.9 Not in Ketosis (No Fat Loss)
- 2.0 – 3.9 Early Stages of Ketosis (Starting Fat Loss)
- 4.0 – 9.9 Light Stages of Ketosis (Low Pace Fat Loss)
- 10 – 39 Optimum Stages of Ketosis (Steady Fat Loss)
- 40 – 59 Danger Zone of Ketosis (Rapid Fast Fat Loss)
- 60 – 99 Unhealthy Ketosis (Ketoacidosis)
A breath meter informs you of the speed of your fat loss and if your fat loss is healthy or unhealthy. Your body’s preferred source of energy is carbohydrates.
So anytime you eat food, your body will stop burning fat for fuel and burn food for energy. However, it takes a while to gain body fat (3500 calories per pound of fat), and it will take time to lose it. Thus, the goal is to reach and maintain the optimum stages of ketosis.
Mistakes to Avoid When Using a Breath Meter to Hack Your Metabolism
No device can help you if you misuse it. There is no magic pill, and your health and fitness are part of a balanced process. While some tools are highly beneficial, you must still use them correctly to get the best results. For example, when using a breath meter, avoid these mistakes:
- Use a detailed plan and create a time frame to reach your target zone. Those who cannot plan, plan on failing.
- Incorporate other tools. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Numbers tell a story when combined with different numbers.
- Keep your mouth clean. Brush your teeth regularly and use mouthwash and sugar-free gum. The meter is sensitive to chemicals or foods in your mouth and can create false readings.
- Wait 30 minutes to 1 hour after drinks, food, gum, coffee, or candy. Abrupt changes in readings can discourage you or provide you with false confidence.
- Replace the blowing tube after each use. Also, clean replacement blowing tubes with alcohol after each use for better readings.
- Try a big-picture and long-term approach. For example, your body uses metabolic flexibility, which means it can add body fat just as quickly as it burns.
How to fix a ketone meter
A ketone meter requires some maintenance. Like any air regulating or testing system, they get clogged up. Here are some steps you can use if your breath meter stops working:
- Replace the battery
- Spray the air import with alcohol
- Spray the air export with alcohol
- Keep the device in a dry, well-lighted place
- Clean the breathing tubes with alcohol after use
The ketone meters have the same problem as mufflers, air conditioners, and car filters. Oxygen and carbon dioxide are gases that carry bacteria, fungus, debris, fluid, and other pollutants that can cause most air devices to get dirty and stop working overtime.
Other Options to Hack Your Metabolism
A breath meter tracks the burning of body fat. Fat loss is a process, and there are other ways to determine if your body is burning body fat. The signs will not be as specific nor provide exact values, but they will tell you if your body is burning fat. Here is a list of some symptoms you can use to help hack your metabolism:
- hunger pain
- bad breath
- mental fog
- craving
- growling stomach
How Much Does a Breath Meter Cost?
We recommend the Digital Display Kone Breath Meter Model: KET – 9100, which you can find on Amazon for $51. This is an excellent price because the device is a tool to educate you on your diet and workout.
Once you understand how your body uses energy, you can use the information to hack your metabolism and get better results. Lumen and other devices promise to do more while costing more, but all the meters do the same. They all tell you how your body is burning and exhaling body fat.
Can a Breath Meter Hack Your Metabolism?
This is not the right question. The right question is, can a breath meter help you hack your metabolism? The answer is yes. They can help you hack your metabolism by showing how it responds to your diet and workout.
Of course, only your diet and exercise can hack your metabolism. But once you know how your body responds to nutrients, calories, and portion sizes, you can use them to hack your metabolism and burn more stomach fat.
For example, if you know that your body burns body fat, if you eat less than 1,750 calories or perform over 300 calories of exercise, all you need to do is create the conditions to burn body fat. A breath meter makes hacking your metabolism with your diet and exercises concrete and straightforward.
Strategy: Best approach to Hack Your Metabolism
Here is a simple plan to use the breath meter to hack your metabolism and burn more belly fat:
- First, use a TDEE Calculator to determine your total daily calorie expenditure.
- Then, eat 500 calories less than your total daily calorie expenditure.
- Take the daily recommended value of water and fiber
- Eat during a 6-hour window and fast for the remaining 18 hours.
- Test your breath three times daily (morning, afternoon, evening) around feeding and sleep.
- Perform 30 minutes of resistance training and 1 hour of walking each day.
- Use a 40 protein, 40 fat, and 20 carbohydrate macronutrient ratio.
- Eat most of your carbohydrates in the morning.
- Use breath meter readings to adjust your diet, exercise, and activities.
- Try to optimize your ketosis levels (10 – 39) from 5 pm – 10 am
What to Do with the Number After Your Breath Meter Readings
Use your numbers to adjust or repeat behaviors that create the best results. Sometimes this may require you to lower your calories, change your feeding window, increase activities, or change your macronutrient ratio (protein, carbs, fat).
Because the breath meter gives you real-time data, you can use it to stay on course or change your approach. The goal is to let your readings guide your decision-making.
Also, record your readings in a diary and any notable changes to your body. The numbers tell a story when combined with other anecdotal evidence. For example, if you feel lightheaded, hear your stomach growling, or feel hunger pains.
These experiences, when documented, can become associated with specific readings. Therefore, record your weight so you can also associate your weight loss or gain with precise readings. This will help better inform you and know how specific readings are causing you to burn stomach fat.
Finally, you can safely use the information to motivate your efforts once you learn how your body responds to and loses weight based on your breath meter readings.
For example, if you know that a reading of 20 causes hunger pains and 2 pounds of weight loss each week, you can use that information to increase, decrease, or maintain your efforts. You can do this by changing how you eat and perform activities.
The Bottom Line on a Breath Meter and Hacking Your Metabolism
The price of a ketone meter is cost-efficient and widely available. Gone are the days when the only tool you had was a scale. While a scale is practical, it does not give you real-time results like a breath meter.
A breath meter tells you when your body burns body fat. This is the key because it prevents you from dealing with unnecessary hunger, pain, and cravings.
Hunger pain and cravings present a more significant problem than fatigue or muscle pain for many people. Thus a breath meter takes the guesswork out of fat loss.
Now you can feel confident about how your diet and workout cause you to burn stomach fat. If your diet or training does not work, you don’t have to waste 2 to 3 weeks to figure it out.
Instead, you can figure it out on the same day. After all, if your breath meter does not detect ketones, you are not burning stomach fat. You can use a breath meter to eliminate foods and activities that don’t cause fat loss.
In addition, a breath meter can help you discover foods and activities to burn more stomach fat.
