It’s crucial for consuming calories, so shouldn’t you use your mouth to lose those calories as well? That, at least, is the thinking behind a new kind of fitness wearable that doesn’t depend on your wrist or even your chest to help you keep tabs on your health and shed those pounds — instead, it’s all about your breath. Meet the Path Breath + Fat Band, a wearable that measures your metabolic information through your breath.
The sleek device may resemble a more familiar fitness band, and is indeed worn on the wrist, but the real magic happens with the Breath device, a USB-esque capsule that measures your oxygen and CO2 levels during exercise, allowing you to keep tabs on your metabolism (and how you’re burning fat). This is coupled with the wrist-bound Fat Band, which tracks your active minutes and guides you to “optimal fat burn” by combining data from the Breath device and its own heart rate monitor.
Like any good wearable, all this information is sent to a companion app, which promises “simple, achievable exercise recommendations” for your weight loss goals. “The app uses both metabolic and heart rate information to predict the intensity and exact minutes of exercise each user needs to achieve specific fitness goals,” the Path team notes on its Kickstarter page. “As users progress, the individualized fitness program will be customized to the user’s unique body.”
Specifically, as users continue to use the Breath device, the app learns how their metabolism changes with various exercise regimens, and then adjusts workout recommendations based on the body’s response. This, the Path team believes, will make for one of the most effective fitness wearables on the market.
Already, 166 backers have pledged nearly $45,000 to bring the fitness tracker to market, with nearly a month left in the campaign. And if you’re interested in grabbing one of these guys for yourself, you can preorder from Kickstarter now for the early bird price of $249.
