Metabolic Fingerprint

Anthony said:

The gym I use has acquired a gadget which purports to measure a
person's "metabolic fingerprint", this being the daily calories
consumed. The process involves breathing into a tube for 10 minutes or
so, and that's it. They charge $39 for the privilege. Anybody heard
of this? Think it works and if so, how?

Breath into a plastic bag for two minutes and send it to
me. I'll do a reading for $30!

Irv
--
--------------------------------------
Diagnosed Type II Diabetes March 5 2001
Beating it with diet and exercise!
297/215/210 (to be revised lower)
58"/43"(!)/44" (already lower too!)
--------------------------------------
Visit my HomePage at http://members.shaw.ca/finkirv/index.html
Visit my Baby Sofia website at http://members.shaw.ca/finkirv4/index.htm
Visit my OLDTIMERS website at http://members.shaw.ca/finkirv5/index.htm
--------------------
Irv Finkleman,
Grampa/Ex-Navy/Old Fart/Ham Radio VE6BP
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Hahaha.

--
You take stupid to a new level. -- MFW

"Anthony" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The gym I use has acquired a gadget which purports to measure a
person's "metabolic fingerprint", this being the daily calories
consumed. The process involves breathing into a tube for 10 minutes or
so, and that's it. They charge $39 for the privilege. Anybody heard
of this? Think it works and if so, how?

Sounds like the bodygem device.

http://www.healthetools.us/bodygem/

google for more.

"Anthony" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The gym I use has acquired a gadget which purports to measure a
person's "metabolic fingerprint", this being the daily calories
consumed. The process involves breathing into a tube for 10 minutes or
so, and that's it. They charge $39 for the privilege. Anybody heard
of this? Think it works and if so, how?

I think it's the same thing although the one at my gym is at

http://www.metabolicfingerprint.com

I just wonder how a device could measure a persons rate of calorie
consumption just from looking at, presumably, the composition of air
breathed out

Theoretically it could, but I think the measurement error would be so
large as to make the results worthless.

You breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. Where the carbon
comes from is from food. Basically, carbohydrates, proteins and fats
all contain carbon...and the more efficiently you burn up food, the
more carbon dioxide you would produce.

But... the amount of carbon produced from these categories is very
different - so you couldn't calculate how efficiently you were burning
calories via carbon dioxide without knowing the specific compostion of
the individuals' diet.

And even within these categories, the amount of carbon from the various
types of molecules would differ. So all you would get would be a
*very* rough number.

Further, all carbon-intake via food does not end up being breathed out
as carbon dioxide. There are a number of other pathways that carbon
can leave the body as well.

Alternatively, it could be measuring water, which is also a product of
metabolism, but that would be even more wildly inaccurate since the
amount of direct water intake and outtake is so much larger than the
amount produced by metabolic processes.

If this machine is measuring anything at all, it would be based on
averages that would vary so much from what occurs with any specific
individual as to be pretty much a garbage measurement. I'd expect the
tolerance for the measurement to be much larger than the measurement
itself - making the information worthless.

"If this machine is measuring anything at all, it would be based on
averages that would vary so much from what occurs with any specific
individual as to be pretty much a garbage measurement. I'd expect the
tolerance for the measurement to be much larger than the measurement
itself - making the information worthless. "

That sounds about right, thanks. Even if it were accurate I'm not sure
what use the information would be.

Scientific theroy is correct see
http://www.sonoma.edu/users/h/hanesda/B324/metab.html
However, I do not know how accurate the device is.

"Anthony" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The gym I use has acquired a gadget which purports to measure a
person's "metabolic fingerprint", this being the daily calories
consumed. The process involves breathing into a tube for 10 minutes or
so, and that's it. They charge $39 for the privilege. Anybody heard
of this? Think it works and if so, how?