If you’ve followed my Older, Wiser, Hotter Blog for long, you know I’m a big proponent of various low carb lifestyles such as Atkins and Keto. But, with help from a new weight management tool called Lumen, I’m challenging my previous beliefs and embarking on a new journey to metabolic flexibility.
What is Metabolic Flexibility?
According to Goop (one of my favorite healthy lifestyle companies founded by international superstar Gwyneth Paltrow), metabolic flexibility is “the body’s ability to adapt and use whatever fuel is available to it (sugar or fat).”
Another term that is important to understand is metabolic syndrome. Also sometimes called insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome is a set of metabolism-related factors that make people more at risk for heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Metabolic flexibility is important for more than just achieving weight loss. It is the ideal state for your health and for preventing Metabolic Syndrome. While it’s true that we want our bodies to burn fat for fuel to help us with weight management, it’s also true that we don’t want to eat so consistently low carb that our bodies forget how to burn sugar.
Check out this Healthline article for more information about metabolic health.
Please note that this article contains affiliate links which means we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. This helps us run this website and provide you more quality content so feel free to click away! OlderWiserHotter.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. You can read my full disclosure at the bottom of the page.
The Lumen Program
So, what is Lumen? Lumen is the ultimate program for achieving metabolic flexibility. The Lumen device measures whether you’re burning fat or carbs simply by analyzing your breath. To do this, Lumen uses a CO2 sensor and flow meter to determine the CO2 concentration in a single breath. This indicates the type of fuel your body is using to produce energy. The accompanying mobile app helps guide your eating to help you achieve your specific health and weight management goals. Cool, right?!
My Lumen device arrived yesterday and I’m already loving it! Being able to measure whether my body is burning fat or sugar is so empowering! Finding out if I’m in Ketosis – the state of one’s body when it is burning fat – has always been elusive information to me.
I know that there are strips you can buy that measure it, but they’re a slightly unpleasant (you have urinate on a strip) recurring expense and I’ve never been motivated enough to buy them. In addition, they only assess one measure of metabolic health vs the Lumen app which considers many aspects including the C02 in your breath, your body’s metabolic patterns over time, and the impact of exercise on your metabolic health.
I invite you to follow my Lumen journey on Instagram and check back here often for updates!
If you are motivated to try Lumen yourself, use my links and promo code OWH to get $30 Off your program today!
I’m so excited to share my experience with you!
What I Learned After a Week of Using Lumen
After a week of using Lumen, I learned that I currently burn carbs for energy rather than fat pretty much ALL THE TIME.
I won’t lie. As the week progressed, I felt more and more defeated. I was eating healthfully and was consuming moderate amounts of food. And yet, I blew a 4 on my early morning measurement almost every. For those who haven’t purchased their Lumen device yet, the scale is one to five with one showing that you are burning fat and five showing that you are burning carbs. Sigh.
However, I’ve now realized that the Lumen has shown me that I’ve been eating the wrong things. I’m a firm believer that every person’s body and metabolism are completely unique. For some, the macros (specific measurements of calories, fat, protein and carbs) of the Keto Diet may be perfectly attuned to their bodies. While for others, tweaks may be needed to better suit their unique metabolisms.
I believe that what a week of food logging and Lumen measurements seem to be highlighting is that my macros need adjustment.
This week, I plan to lower my fat and carbs a bit in lieu of clean proteins such as are found in poultry and seafood.
What I learned after 3 weeks of using Lumen
After three weeks of using Lumen, I learned something about my unique metabolism that has really made a big difference.
Carb-free Dinners!
After three weeks of morning Lumen measurements that showed I woke up burning carbs on most days, I finally figured out a weight loss hack that you might consider trying!
I try my best to follow a 16:8 intermittent fasting program. This means that I eat an early dinner when I get home from work around 6:30 or 7 and don’t eat again until about 11 am.
However, I found that even though I’d eat a healthy dinner, I’d wake up in the morning still burning carbs from dinner the night before.
One day I realized that perhaps if I ate my last carbs of the day at lunchtime, then my body would have enough time to switch into fat burning mode over night.
I gave it a try, and it worked!! If you’re a metabolically inflexible woman over 40 like me, maybe this weight loss hack will help you too!
Try just eating protein for dinner and share how it worked in the comments below.
Check in soon to learn more about my Lumen adventure!
To try Lumen yourself, use my links and promo code OWH to get $30 Off your program today!
I hope you enjoyed this post about Lumen, a new suite of tools for achieving weight loss, optimal health and metabolic flexibility.
Related Articles: Lose 5 Pounds This Month. Here’s How I Did It!
Comment, Share, Link Did you enjoy this post? I’d love to read your comments below. You can support the Older, Wiser, Hotter blog by using my affiliate links, sharing posts on your social media accounts using the buttons below and commenting. Or, if you’re a blogger yourself, link to the posts you like! I appreciate all of you!