Ultimate diet aid? A mass spectrometer! Scientist does diet

first14808

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So I stumbled on this-


The creator is a scientist who does quite a few debunking videos, but has become interested in dieting. So he figured out we lose weight by breathing. So now he's curious about how that process works, and been doing simpler measurements of his O2/CO2 ratios.

But now he's taking it further. So idea is to use his new $20K mass spectrometer and some 13C carbon isotope to look deeper into his metabolism. So by eating the carbon, seeing how long it takes for that to appear in a breath sample. This intrigues me, and I'm glad I don't have $20K to blow because I've always wanted my own mass spectrometer. I suspect it'll take a while to detect the 13C and what he deduces from the data.
 
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KK123

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Erm, somehow I don't think I'll be buying one. :)
 

JoKalsbeek

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Wonder what the NHS would think if people stop asking for teststrips and just request one of these..? ;)

**edit:I know, completely different animal and all, but it's money. Lots of it.
 
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JohnEGreen

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Just as long as he doesn't put himself in a centrifuge.
 

Bluetit1802

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Well I suppose we do burn calories when we breathe! We also burn calories when we type on a keyboard or wriggle our toes or blink.
 
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DavidGrahamJones

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So he figured out we lose weight by breathing.

Santorio Santorio (29 March 1561 – 22 February 1636) concluded after a period of thirty years using a chair-device to weigh himself and everything he ate and drank, as well as his urine and feces that:

Insensible Perspiration is either made by the Pores of the Body, which is all over perspirable, and cover’d with a Skin like a Net; or it is performed by Respiration through the Mouth, which usually, in the Space of one Day, amounts to about the Quantity of half a Pound, as may plainly be made appear by breathing upon a Glass.

When I realised that what we breath out actually weighs something (obvious really) it all made sense. I would compare the burning of food and pooing and breathing out CO2 akin to burning something and just having smoke and ashes.
 
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first14808

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Type 2
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Yep. I saw another video, possibly from Low Carb Down Under where a doc makes the same point. We expel CO2 as a result of carb metabolism, amongst other processes.

And I also found this-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea_breath_test

Where patients are fed the same isotope to diagnose for H. Pylori infection, so maybe there'll be 13C in breath fairly quickly.. Although I guess in the case of that infection, the bacteria process it faster.

Oh.. and a mass spectrometer is the essential kitchen accessory for any molecular gastronomist. As well as being able to provide TMI when someone asks 'what are you eating?'.