Metabolic age: what it is and whether it matters
Metabolic age is a number that claims to tell you how old your body is metabolically, regardless of your actual age. Several apps and devices now calculate it. The problem is there's no single standard for how, which means the number is more useful as a motivational starting point than a clinical measurement.
How metabolic age is calculated
Different tools use different inputs. Body composition scales estimate it from weight, body fat percentage, muscle mass and basal metabolic rate. CGM apps like Lingo calculate it from glucose variability and response patterns. Fitness trackers factor in resting heart rate and VO2 max estimates. None of them use the same formula, and none have been validated against a clinical gold standard, because no such standard exists.
The concept borrows from the idea that your basal metabolic rate (how many calories your body burns at rest) changes with age and can be compared against population averages. If your BMR is higher than average for your age, your "metabolic age" is lower; if it's sluggish, it's higher. It's a simplified proxy, not a diagnosis.
What it gets right
The underlying insight is valid: your metabolism can function better or worse than expected for your age, and the gap between your chronological age and your metabolic function is meaningful. Someone who is 45 with excellent insulin sensitivity, stable glucose, good muscle mass and efficient energy use is metabolically different from someone the same age with insulin resistance, glucose variability and low muscle mass. Capturing that difference in a number has motivational value.
What it misses
A single number compresses a complex, multi-system picture into something that feels precise but isn't. Your metabolism involves glucose regulation, insulin sensitivity, cortisol patterns, thyroid function, mitochondrial efficiency, muscle-to-fat ratio, and sleep quality, among other things. Metabolic age tries to summarise all of that into one figure, which inevitably loses the nuance that matters for deciding what to actually change.
Two people with the same metabolic age score might have completely different metabolic profiles: one with excellent glucose control but poor sleep, another with great sleep but high glucose variability. The number is the same; the intervention is different.
What matters more than the score
Rather than optimising a single number, the more useful approach is understanding the individual metabolic signals: how your glucose responds to meals, how quickly it recovers, how stable it is overnight, how it changes with exercise and sleep. These are the actual inputs that a metabolic age score tries to approximate, and they're directly actionable.
Nico shows you these signals through a continuous glucose monitor and coaches you through improving them. Instead of chasing a score, you're working with the specific patterns that the score was trying to summarise. The result is the same (improved metabolic function) but the path is based on your data, not a population average.
Ready to see what your metabolism is actually doing?