In England, men can expect to spend around the last sixteen years of their lives in poor health, and women around the last twenty, according to the Office for National Statistics. Much of what fills those years - type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver, frailty and memory decline - builds slowly from the same two things: how well your body handles fuel, and how much muscle it keeps.
Nico is for people in their forties, fifties, sixties and beyond who feel well enough now and want to stay that way. A sensor shows how your body handles food, sleep, stress and movement today, before a blood test would flag anything, and a coach helps you build the habits that protect muscle, steady glucose and keep your later years active.
What's going on in your body
Your metabolism is how your body turns food into energy and decides whether to burn it or store it. It slows less with age than people assume.
What changes is the equipment. Muscle is the largest user of glucose in your body, and people lose it steadily from middle age unless they work to keep it. Less muscle means glucose from a meal has fewer places to go, so insulin has to work harder. Sleep gets lighter, and a poor night raises glucose the next day.
Over years, that surplus shows up organ by organ. The liver stores fat for a decade or more with no symptoms. The pancreas, which makes insulin, struggles under its own load of fat. High glucose damages the lining of blood vessels, and high insulin raises blood pressure. The smallest vessels, in the kidneys and eyes, feel it first. The brain becomes less able to use glucose well...
What you'll see on Nico
Your energy line shows how quickly your body recovers after a meal: how high the line goes, and how long it takes to come back down. Recovery is one of the earliest things to change as insulin resistance builds, long before a fasting blood test moves, and one of the first to improve when your habits change. You also see what a bad night, a stressful week or a walk after dinner does to it.
A steady line is a result too. If your body is handling food well, you will know it, and you will know which habits are keeping it that way.
What changes
Four levers do the work. Food sets the size of the rises, so protein goes up and fast sugar and starch come down. Movement after meals takes glucose straight into muscle, and strength work two or three times a week builds the muscle that does it. Sleep gets protected with evening habits chosen from your own overnight line. Stress shows up on your line with no food involved, which makes it easier to take seriously.
The full loop is on the How it works page.
What to expect
Most members see their meal recovery improve within a few weeks, and feel it as steadier energy and better sleep. Strength builds over months. The changes that matter for later life are the ones kept for years, so the aim is a handful of habits you can live with, checked with a sensor from time to time rather than worn forever.Questions people ask
I feel healthy. Why would I wear a sensor?
Because the early signs are invisible. Blood tests catch insulin resistance late, once the average has already moved. Your line shows how your body handles food now, and a good result is worth having as much as a bad one.
I'm in my seventies. Is it too late?
No. Muscle responds to strength training at any age, and glucose responds to food and movement within days. Start with what your body allows and build from there.
Do I need to lose weight?
Not necessarily. Your waist and your muscle matter more than your weight for later health. Many members in this group aim to hold their weight while losing fat and gaining strength. A piece of string is a good check: NICE advises keeping your waist below half your height.
Is this for men as well as women?
Yes. The biology of muscle, insulin and sleep applies to both. Women going through menopause have extra changes to handle, covered on our perimenopause and menopause page.
What is metabolic age?
A way of comparing how your body handles energy with what is typical for your age. Our metabolic age guide explains what the term can and cannot tell you.
Most of the conditions that fill later life with bad health take ten to twenty years to build, so what you do in middle age is what determines if you can beat your grandkids in a race when you're 65.
Wear a sensor for a few weeks, and your coach will show you which of this applies to you.
