Hume Band 2.0. Hume Pod.

I’m working hard on my health. I’m still injecting Mounjaro to suppress my appetite, playing lots of Padel and most recently, dragging myself to a gym class three times a week.

When taking a GLP-1, like Mounjaro, by eating less, I risk losing muscle mass as much as fat. This is particularly true as I get older.

The Band

The Hume Band 2.0 promises:

“Hume continuously monitors the biomarkers that shape long-term health, giving you insights into how your habits affect your body.”

I had been frustrated by “Whoop!” which is very focused on cardio and recovery. Hume sounded more holistic. I was particularly interested in the fact that it tracked cardio strain and muscular strain separately.

The Pod

Its sibling, the Hume Pod, a scale to you and me, goes further.

“Understanding your health and fitness at this level has been impossible—until now. The Hume Pod uses 8-frequency sensors to deliver precise weight, full body composition, and heart health insights to advance your weight and health management journey. The advanced sensors embedded in the handle are able to scan your torso, arms, legs, and even heart at an accuracy of 98%!”

The pod offers me lots of detail on body composition (apparently my leg left is fatter than my right).

The Test

This is great!

Except...

None of it works.

First, the band. My trainer is called Maria. She’s lovely, and a tiny bit sadistic. She makes me work. Exactly what I need. My Hume however, ignores her. After a hard 45 minute workout, with aching legs and shoulders, the ban reports zero muscular strain. In fact, it has never registered a single point after seven sessions. While we are at it, it has never registered any mental strain either. Hmmm....

Steps. It can’t count steps. Particularly if one is holding a dog leash (or two).

Support are all charming. I’m not convinced they have ever seen the product though. Most recently, they recommended that I enable active mode on the Hume app on my Samsung Ultra. Their Android App doesn’t have “active mode”. I suspect their task is to keep being charming until the return window has passed. They’re OK sending you a new unit, but tacitly agree that the new unit isn’t going to track steps either.

I resigned myself to writing off the band. If it can’t measure steps, doesn’t detect workouts, either cardio or muscular - then frankly, I’m not sure I’m buying into to the conclusions that it draws from obviously flawed data.

This morning, I stood on the scale and grasped the handle. To register a weight, I am required to have my phone with me and the app open. On the scale, my weight came up - and as I expected it was down a little. (Good day yesterday). However, it wasn’t talking to the phone. I force closed the app and reopened. Reset the scale. Recharged the scale. Threw salt over my left shoulder with my right hand. That did the trick. I weighed myself again. In eight minutes I had gained three kg. I hadn’t on my other scale.

Oh.

The Result

The marketing is slick. The support is kind. The concept is great. The execution? I cannot trust the data. Step counting is a solved problem. This has been worked out, but the Hume Band can’t do it. Central to the Hume promise is to measure strain, Cardio, Muscular and Mental. Two of those three do not work.

It’s as if the marketing team said, “wouldn’t it be great if it did this and that?” And the product team replied, “sure, but it doesn’t”. Marketing rolled their eyes and exclaimed “you guys are so negative. We’ve written the copy already.”

The Remedy

Both my Hume items took an age to arrive. Often the case in Cyprus. They shipped from China. As the return window opens on the date of purchase, it is long closed now. Old and wise fellow that I am, I already know from my interactions with Support that they are empowered to keep thanking me and providing possible solutions that are completely unrelated to the functionality of the product. Maybe they will prove me wrong - but I predict a never-ending discussion that would result in increasing frustration for me and little else.

The Solution

I would prefer a wearable without a screen, but the humidity here makes a ring impractical. Apart from Whoop! and Hume, there is a Google Fitbit Air just launched, that looks as though it would hit the spot. I actually already have a FitBit Charge, which does have a screen and interfaces with my phone in the same way as the “Air” does. It measures steps and sleep, and in a real bonus, doesn’t throw AI pap at me constantly.

I am keeping an eye on a few simple metrics:

Weight, Waist circumference, Body Fat %, Lean Mass %, Weekly Steps, Av Heart Rate, Av Respiratory Rate, Av Sleep per night, and Heart Points (A google thing)

Dog Walks per week, Gym Sessions per week, Padel sessions per week, Golf per week, and Alcohol-Free Days per week.

I use my Withings Scale, the Fitbit, a tape measure and notebook. I write up a weekly dashboard to chart my progress.

Doubtless, I'll be tempted by the new Fitbit eventually - but for the moment, I'm being most un-Stu like and not spending any cash.

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