PNOE, a health technology company, has built a face mask that it says brings laboratory grade metabolic testing within reach of ordinary gym members and spa guests. The device, due to go on sale on 1 October, measures how efficiently the body burns fuel and turns the readings into tailored advice on diet and exercise. The company is aiming the product at premium fitness clubs, hotels and clinics rather than research laboratories.
The mask records the oxygen a person consumes and the carbon dioxide they breathe out, then uses that data to produce 23 measures of health and fitness. Among them are VO2 max, a widely used gauge of aerobic capacity, resting metabolic rate, which shows how many calories the body burns at rest, and a reading the company calls metabolic flexibility, a sign of how easily the body switches between burning fat and carbohydrate.
The appeal, according to PNOE, is that the test needs no trained operator. A user puts on the mask, presses a button, sits down and breathes normally for eight minutes. The electronics detach from the silicone parts of the mask, so several people can share one unit while each uses a personal mouthpiece and hygiene fittings. That design is meant to let a busy club run many tests a day without dedicating staff to the machine.
PNOE sells the system to businesses on subscriptions that run from 400 dollars to more than 1,000 dollars a month, covering hardware, software and support. Its client list already includes the fitness chain Equinox, the Four Seasons hotel group, the National Basketball Association and the Mount Sinai Health System. The company, founded by Apostolos Atsalakis and Panos Papadiamantis with operations in Massachusetts and Athens, says it has raised about 22 million dollars and is profitable.
“We made it accessible to everyone,” Atsalakis said of the effort to move metabolic testing out of specialist labs. The launch fits a broader shift in wellness spending, where affluent consumers increasingly want data on their own bodies to guide training and nutrition. Whether a breath test becomes a routine feature at high end gyms will depend on how much members value the numbers, and on how the readings hold up against established laboratory methods.
