hey guys back with another educational
video and this week we’re gonna do
something a little bit different we’re
not reviewing a study or or a group of
studies or anything like that we’re
talking about a product this week now I
know this product has been popping up in
a lot of your social media feeds because
you guys send it to me and you must
think it’s BS castella you’re like hey
do you bunk this first off I never like
to like set out to just debunk something
I like to make sure that like whatever
I’m looking at you know does it have
validity or not before I just go
attacking because that’s a very
dangerous mindset to get into and the
products actually been popping up in my
social media feed as well it’s called
lumen the claims I saw initially were
that basically find out what fuel your
body is using right now and it can it’s
kind of triggering triggering word for
me but heck your metabolism to know
whether or not you’re burning carbs or
fats well I figured pretty early on it
must be using an R er or respite or E
exchange ratio R er refers to the amount
of co2 produced by metabolism versus how
much oxygen is being used by metabolism
basically the way you do this is you
breathe into something and it measures
like what gases are being expelled from
your body versus what’s in the room and
essentially it can tell you based on
that ratio whether or not you’re
predominantly burning carbohydrates or
fats or a mix of both so an re R of 1
for example means you’re almost
exclusively burning carbohydrate and re
are of 0.7 is nearly exclusively fat and
anything in between there is a mix I did
see a video and apparently there’s an
app that goes along with this I don’t
know if the device has been validated
but if it’s been validated re R is a
completely reasonable measure it does
measure what fuel you’re utilizing now
before you go out and buy one wait till
the end of the video because I’m going
to explain why fuel being utilized is
not the same thing as fat loss or fat
gain the app is also giving you
nutritional and workout instruction
based on what your AR AR is and some of
the screens I saw and I don’t know how
the backend works or anything like that
so I can only make opinions based off
what I’ve seen but some of the screens I
saw were for example you’re doing great
looks like you’re burning a lot of fat
have a high carb day today and then
when hey looks like you’re burning too
many carbs let’s have a low carb day
today and that sort of thing which hey
that seems reasonable but you have to
understand fuel being oxidized is not
the same thing as fat loss so for
example just because you’re burning a
lot of fat doesn’t mean you’re losing a
lot of fat fat loss or gain is
determined by the equation of fat
balance equals fat stored minus fat
burned or fat oxidized now if you eating
really high fat very low carb diet you
will burn a lot of fat you also store a
lot of fat because the body doesn’t
really store carbohydrate as fat there’s
been several studies on overfeeding
showing that basically of the fat you
store approximately 98% of it to 99% of
it is from dietary fat only one to two
percent of the fat you store in your fat
cells is from carbohydrate so carbs
aren’t really stored as fat it’s mostly
dietary fat stored as fat so if you eat
a lot of dietary fat and low
carbohydrate you’ll burn a lot of
dietary fat but you’ll also store a lot
of dietary fat so whether or not you
lose fat or gain fat will be determined
by your energy balance not how much fat
you’re burning now if you’re eating a
high carb diet for example you won’t
burn very much fat but you also won’t
store very much fat
once again the balance of fat loss or
fat gain will be determined by your
energy balance which is how many
calories are you taking in vs. how many
you’re expending this device isn’t
telling you how many calories you’re
expending it’s just telling you what
your body’s preferred fuel source is and
that can also be deceiving in of itself
for example you cannot change your diet
at all but if you start doing really
really high-intensity exercise you’re
RER will go up you’ll be using much more
carbohydrate but that doesn’t mean that
you’re not losing fat it just means that
that fuel at that particular time is
predominantly carbohydrate now what
we’ve seen in exercise studies is that
if you burn a lot of carbohydrate during
your workout you end up burning more fat
throughout the rest of the day if you
end up burning a lot of fat during your
workout you burn more
bow hydrate throughout the rest of the
day okay your body balance is this very
well so the problem that I could foresee
is if this app is using how much fat
you’re burning is kind of being
indicative of whether or not you’re
losing fat and telling you hey you need
to have a high carb day today because
you’ve been burning a lot of fat you’re
doing a great job well if you then have
a high carb day guess what’s gonna
happen to your RER it’s gonna go up and
now it’s gonna tell you you’re burning a
lot of carbs so guess what’s gonna
happen the next day it’s gonna tell you
to have a low carb day and you’re gonna
oscillate back and forth like that and
it’s giving no consideration to what
your energy balance is now I don’t know
if there’s like a calorie tracker in the
app or anything like that that could be
there that could be something but if
it’s only operating off of RER it’s not
really giving you useable data in so far
as body composition now maybe you’re an
athlete I would argue then that there’s
still limited data than it provides but
maybe you just really care about what
your fuel selection is I personally
don’t because again at the end of the
day it’s gonna boil down to energy
balance and how many calories you’re
consuming versus your energy expenditure
based on your BMR and meet TEF and your
exercise energy expenditure so I think
the tool itself may be reliable I think
making determinations on your diet based
on the fuel that your body is using at
the time it’s probably very unreliable
in terms of trying to get yourself
consistent results that’s my take on it
personally I’m not gonna buy it and I’m
not gonna recommend my clients buy it
and I don’t really know what data that’s
really helpful for body composition it’s
going to provide but if you really care
about whether or not you’re burning
carbohydrate or oxidizing fat in
regardless of whether or not you’re
gaining or losing fat then maybe it’s
helpful alright guys hope you enjoyed
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and I’ll catch you next week