Deepinder Goyal's Temple claims discovery of biomarker that calculates cost of being alive; here’s what it means

Deepinder Goyal on Thursday announced that his health and fitness wearables startup Temple has discovered a new biomarker called ‘Entropy’.

“The Temple team has made a breakthrough. We have discovered (literally discovered) a biomarker, only readable on the temple region, and nowhere else, that measures the real-time cost of you being alive. We are calling it Entropy,” Goyal, who is also the founder of Zomato, wrote in a post on X on Thursday.



A biological marker is any measurable substance or characteristic that reveals what is happening inside an individual’s body.

Displayed as a live score on the home screen, ranging from 1 to 250 and updating every second, Entropy is designed to reflect how much energy the body is using at any given moment. Lower scores indicate deeper states of rest, while higher scores correspond to periods of intense physical exertion.

Goyal said that as part of the metric, users will strive for what he calls Entropy Maxima, which represents the highest output a person can achieve during exertion, and Entropy Minima, which measures the body's lowest resting metabolic state. The company says users should aim to increase their maximum capacity while reducing their resting metabolic cost over time.

“Your Entropy Maxima is the highest your body can reach when you push it hard. A high peak is the signature of a capable body, one that can rise to meet effort and recover from it. As we age, that ceiling naturally falls, so this is the number to push upwards,” wrote Goyal, who is not a medical professional (he is an IIT Delhi alumnus, who specialised in mathematics and computing). “Your Entropy Minima is the lowest your body settles to at rest. Across the animal world, a lower cost of being alive at rest tends to go with a longer life. Your Entropy Minima is the number to bring down, every single day.”

The announcement comes a month after Goyal said Temple had received more than 1 lakh applications for device access, with only 100 users selected. While the company has opened applications for early access, it has not disclosed the launch timeline, pricing, or peer-reviewed scientific validation of the biomarker.

In January, a report on the Times of India website said that Dr Suvrankar Datta, a radiologist at AIIMS Delhi, had criticised Temple sharply, describing it as a "fancy toy for billionaires" and possessing "zero scientific standing" as a medical instrument.

The health and fitness wearables market has expanded rapidly, with devices such as wristbands, rings and smartwatches from companies such as WHOOP, Oura, and Garmin to estimate metrics such as physiological load, recovery, stress and energy expenditure.

Per market intelligence platform Statista, the global sports and fitness wearables market is projected to reach nearly $29.5 billion by 2029.