Tag: Lumen

Lumen Update #3

Shirleyjdietz2 Comments

This last January 13, 2024 I ordered a Lumen device to help track my metabolism. It arrived on January 18 and I began using it on the 19th. My first flex score, a measure of how easily my metabolism switches from burning carbs to burning fat for energy, was surprisingly good – 18.6, which is considered high. It has gone down every week since then and is now at 11.4 which is medium flexibility. I’m not sure how to fix this because I don’t know why it’s happening. Clearly, I still have some learning ahead of me.

MACROS: CARBS, PROTEIN, FATS

This eating style is definitely low carb, and I know now that I am, or have been, mainly a high carb eater. It’s been dismaying to realize that carbs are everywhere, in all my favorite foods. On my most restricted days when I should eat only 75 grams of carbohydrates, I am often over that even when I’m eating good stuff.

Protein recommendations, on the other hand, are hard to match. I can only eat so much meat. When I try to add vegetable protein, like beans, tofu, cheese, etc… I’m also adding carbs, which puts me over in that category.

I don’t worry about the fat category as much. Most of the fats I eat are good for me and I seldom go over, in spite of the way I love butter. I’ve gotten good at avoiding salad dressings by using balsamic vinegars.

TIMING

I’ve learned to be more aware of when I eat, and how to increase the periods of intermittent, overnight fasting. I know I should eat most of my carbs in the first half of the day. I should also stop eating at least three hours before going to sleep for the night. My problem comes in the evening. If I am watching TV, I am going to get hungry and there is hardly anything I can eat that is not loaded with carbohydrate. A whole careful day goes amiss with one injudicious snack.

I eat vegetables for breakfast most every day, and. protein second, with every meal and snack

ORDER

This is the habit I am trying to build now. In each meal, eat vegetables and fiber first, protein second, and carbs last. If I do it right, I’m so full at the end that I can’t eat all the carbs anyway. And I’m finding that I’m satisfied with less – maybe an orange, or some grapes.

HAPPINESS FACTOR

I know if I can’t get happy about eating this way, it won’t be sustainable. I miss having a cookie or two. I miss having dessert. And I really miss having good bread as often as I want it. But guess what? I’ve lost nearly 20 pounds and have consistently lower blood pressure readings. I’ve stopped taking one of my blood pressure medicines altogether. I am happy about that, for sure.

I’m still waiting for the cravings to go away, but meanwhile, I’ve found a way to work some of my favorite food habits into the picture. I do have

1) my morning latte and a piece of toast with butter

2) my hearty dinner of meat/fish and vegetables before 6 pm, in front of TV. I eat alone anyway so this gives me some company and also solves the question of what to eat while watching TV.

3) I hardly ever have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. This goes a long way toward making me happy.

SUMMARY

I’m enough interested in what I’m learning through Lumen to pay the year in advance. The app that analyzes my device readings has a monthly charge and I’m committing to that length of time to see if I can learn what makes my metabolism go into fat burning mode. I’m always surprised at the readings I get – they are not what I would expect – so clearly I’m not understanding it all yet. And, hey, it’s a cool, little gadget.

Lumen Experiment, Post #2

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I should learn never to say that I will do more writing tomorrow when I know writing is not my first priority.

I have been using Lumen for a little over a week now, learning as I go. It is also learning me, which is interesting. It is 95% ready to give me my first flex score, which will give me an idea how adept my body is at switching fuels when needed.

It took two days on a low carbohydrate plan to get my system to switch to burning fats. When I was pretty consistently using fat as the major fuel, I was awarded a carb boost day to see how easily I would switch back. The goal is to move back and forth easily, as needed, which is why it’s called a flex score.

One aim each day is to wake up in a fat burning mode after a night time fast, in which any carbs eaten for dinner are used up. The carbs are always going to get used first because they are the body’s preferred fuel. Preferred because they are the easiest fuel available, but not the cleanest burning.

The Lumen device showed me that I succeeded in being in fat burning mode every day, even after the boost day when I had more carbohydrates.

This is the graph I see when I check in each morning.

1, 2, and 3 are fat burning modes. 4 and 5 are predominantly carb.

How do I feel about the program thus far? There are some revelations that it is showing me. The first one, and one I kind of expected, is that I was a bit addicted to carbs. I always want more bread, cereal, and sweet fruit and berries. It’s not exactly a craving, because I do forget about it during the day, and am not exactly hungry. But I do miss the taste and textures of these foods.

Another problem I’m having is how to get all the protein the plan suggests. I can’t seem to meet the requirement without going over the limit on fat, carbs or both. There just aren’t too many proteins that don’t come combined with other macro nutrients.

On the plus side, logging what I eat is much easier than it was with Noom. Any thing I buy with a barcode is read easily – the app takes a picture of the barcode and records all the nutrients for me. I only have to put in the amount I eat. If the app doesn’t recognize the food by name, I can log the food by putting in the macro nutrients (protein, carbohydrate or fat) myself.

Using the device is not hard, as I can still inhale for 4 seconds, hold my breath for 10 seconds, and exhale for 10 seconds. It’s a sleek, small, and somewhat expensive, piece of technology. I’m trying to be very careful with it but did drop it once (eek!). It sits on the charging station most of the time and has a little bag to shield it when I take it somewhere with me. It’s kind of fun to see it work. Results show up on the app within seconds.

I don’t think I’ve lost much weight yet, but I don’t weigh in very often either. As I said, I’m not feeling hungry very often, and if I do, I can have a lot of vegetables that don’t count in the carb column. So the plan is very vegetable friendly because it allows complex carbs. I’m kind of sad about desserts, and the occasional soda which are discouraged because they DON’T HAVE NUTRITIONAL VALUE. I knew that.

So we shall see what another week brings in the weight loss category. I’ll post results here but I’m not saying I’ll do it tomorrow, because I’m smarter now. (Maybe my mind is getting better, since better focus is one of the promised results of the Lumen program.)

Always Experimenting

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Isn’t that what life is? An ongoing experiment?

Every now and then, there are enough disturbing changes in my health to make me reexamine what is happening and act. I would say that stress precipitates most of the changes, and that a lot of the stress is unavoidable. Still, to not pay attention and consider taking action that might help is, well, it’s stupid.

That is why I sometimes spend money that I would have thought excessive at another time in my life. The difference now is that I know how much it costs to deal with chronic illness and how limiting it is when my body succumbs to things gone awry. Health care is expensive. I would rather spend now to avoid spending later.

The “thing” I’ve done now is called Lumen. It’s getting a lot of coverage on Facebook, and the marketing is extensive. It’s a small device that measures CO2 in the breath and tells what fuel the body is burning at the time of testing. It helps me know when I’m burning fat instead of carbohydrates. An accompanying app on my phone helps me understand what I need to do to switch from one fuel to another, and when are the best times to do that for optimum health.

Last year (or maybe the year before – I’ve lost track of time.) I experimented with Noom, and learned a lot about metabolism, weight loss, and the psychology of eating. It worked well for me but I gradually stopped using the platform because I felt my good habits had been formed. Then came the illness and death of my husband, the birth of my grandchild, lots of travel, lots of decisions. My good habits took a back seat. Comfort eating kind of took over.

Lumen is very similar to what I learned in Noom, but now I’m not guessing whether I’m in a fat burning mode. I know, because of the Lumen device.

I thought it might be helpful to others and valuable to myself as I look back, to record my experience with Lumen, so here we go.

More tomorrow.

Lumen, a cool piece of technology…