Breathalyzer can tell whether you're burning fat
We do all kinds of things to get in better shape this time of year. We diet, exercise, and with the latest gadgets, try to count every step, bite, and snore along the way.
A new fitness gadget called LEVL is taking a different approach. It’s a smartphone-connected breathalyzer that measures whether your body is burning fat — from your breath.
I tried it out this week at CES in Las Vegas. The way it works is really simple: Blow into the film-canister-shaped tube that’s connected via Bluetooth to an app on your smartphone and within a few seconds, a nearby sensor the size of a tissue box detects and translates levels of acetone in your breath. When your body’s burning fat, it generates acetone; measuring that tells you how well your exercise and diet routine is working for you, say LEVL creators.
This is the sort of information you used to only be able to find out in a lab or doctor’s office, but LEVL will offer it in real time.
Fitbit takes on Apple with smartwatch
Will this help track your health better than stepping on a scale or counting your steps? LEVL says yes: Current fitness trackers look at what’s going on outside your body while LEVL gives you a better look at what’s happening inside. Your Apple Watch can tell you how many steps you took and what your heart rate was, but it doesn’t know whether you were burning fat, losing weight or actually getting more fit. Even a scale doesn’t give you a clear picture of your health because a lower number might just mean you’re a bit dehydrated, while a higher reading could be an indication that you’re gaining muscle, even as you’re losing fat.
Brad Root, the founder and president of LEVL, says conversations about fitness need to change to talk about fat loss rather than weight loss. "We have relied for too many years on the number on the scale, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. With LEVL, people can understand their body’s metabolic state and make plans based on what will work for them," he said.
That still sounds a bit complicated to me, but I’m always game to try out something to help me get and stay healthier. I remember the whole Atkins-diet ketosis fad — when all my friends were buying pee-sticks to measure fat burning. This is a whole lot cooler and cleaner.
The detail of LEVL’s data is something fitness tracking could sorely use, considering trackers are notoriously inaccurate — some off by as much as 23%. Even so, these gadgets can make good general gauges of your activity, showing your personal trends over time as well as when you’re less active and more active. Even if they aren’t perfectly accurate, they make for good cheerleaders, pushing you to do more, even if that just means taking the stairs or taking a walk over your lunch break.
The downside for this particular type of tech will be the cost (expected in the $500 range) and the time it takes for your breath’s acetone levels to change. Acetone levels will increase over the course of three to seven days when you’re burning more fat and decrease over the course of one to two days when you’re burning less. So while you can get your fat-burning data in real time, the trends you’re seeing may be based on diet or exercise changes you made days before. While you get less accurate health data from a traditional fitness monitor, they do offer clear statistics on what you’re doing right now.
To get the most out of LEVL’s data you’ll still need to keep a close log of your diet and exercise habits. LEVL’s own app tracks your fat-loss data as well as offering tips and motivation to help you stay on course, but you’ll still need to connect that back to your health habits.
This makes LEVL a companion to your current fitness tracker rather than a replacement, and LEVL plans to make the sensor work with wearable fitness trackers to offer a comprehensive picture of your health. In the end, you’ll still want your Fitbit, Misfit, Apple Watch or whatever else to track your day to day activity — but you may also want the extra fat burning data LEVL offers to learn how your body’s responding to that activity.
LEVL expects to open pre-orders soon, with units available this summer for under $500.
Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award-winning consumer tech contributor and host of USA TODAY's digital video show TECH NOW. E-mail her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenniferJolly.
