Noom has unveiled body scan technology that it says will help monitor and manage muscle mass loss in patients taking weight-loss drugs such as GLP-1 inhibitors.
The new feature expands the digital health company’s in-app capabilities that people use to alter behavioural lifestyle to induce weight loss. Noom claims its service, which is not mandated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is used by 45 million people worldwide.
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The company claims that its new scanning feature, developed in partnership with Prism Labs, uses AI and machine learning to analyse self-recorded video footage and transform the file into a 3D body avatar. The software then calculates health metrics such as body fat percentage, fat mass, waist-to-hip ratio and lean mass.
Prism Labs similarly claims that its findings demonstrate that body scans with the platform are highly consistent, with an error rate of ± 0.20% for body fat percentage and ± 0.45% for body circumferences.
Noom CEO Geoff Cook says that the app’s muscle programme emphasises resistance training and points to high-protein recipes, adding that the new scanning feature now offers a way to monitor muscle-mass retention.
Whilst muscle mass decreases while taking GLP-1 agonists, this is not directly due to the drugs themselves. Scientific research shows that reduction in muscle mass is expected with weight loss, with many experts arguing that the decrease is less than the relative reduction in fat mass – meaning an improved physical function is ultimately reached.
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By GlobalDataNoom looks to be honing in on muscle mass changes in those with prolonged unbalanced diets, particularly with low protein-intake diets. The company says the measurements shown by the scan can develop actionable health insights including a comprehensive personalised health report and visualisation. Noom said it will be rolling out the body scan technology over the next few weeks.
Noom hit the headlines last month when it announced it was launching a compounded pharmacy-made version of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy (semaglutide). The move, designed to make the GLP-1 drug more accessible to its customers, was met with pushback from the FDA. Unlike Wegovy – which is FDA approved – compounded semaglutide is not, and the agency has already received reports of adverse events in patients taking it.
“The FDA received multiple reports of adverse events, some requiring hospitalisation, that may be related to dosing errors associated with compounded injectable semaglutide products. These dosing errors resulted from patients measuring and self-administering incorrect doses of the drug, and in some cases, health care professionals miscalculating doses of the drug,” the agency said in a statement earlier this month.
