The Truth About Fitness Trackers

The next question is from Philip M. Carroll. What are your thoughts on fitness trackers like Whoop, Apple Watch, et cetera? I think that these tools are great for people who are probably already consistent and probably already totally into fitness. I do not think that these tracking devices are gonna make a huge dent in the segment of the population that is challenged with being consistent with exercise. It's just more data, but it's not addressing the root cause of the issue, which has nothing to do with data. We have lots of information. Everybody can look up calories and exercises and what to do. The issue is not data and information. The issue is how to get coached through that, how to develop the relationship with those things. And so I don't think they're gonna change much, but like trainers and people who are consistent, really cool technology. I personally like them, but I do feel like there's a very much of a window of relevancy to them. And that being in terms of understanding your own habits and just like when you track food, just like when you really pay attention to any of your behaviors, I think that it brings awareness. So if you feel a certain feeling and it's able to help kind of give you a number to that and you can start seeing that matching your feeling, but really you already had the feeling in terms of like, I don't feel like I'm 100% today and I'm overstressed. And like, I'm pretty sure your body can tell you that and you can hone in on that. But, and I'm talking about HRV in terms of it, feeling like I have, I'm fully ready today and I could press it and I could go a little more intense today. Or like step count or all these other kinds of things. Like I think you know whether you're active or not at a certain point. And I think you should know that. And that's really the point of it is not to be reliant on the number telling you how to dictate, how to navigate through your programming. I mean, I've said since the beginning of the show that I love these things. I think they're incredible. I wish a lot of them existed when I first started as a trainer. I think Sal, you both bring up great points. I think that you're right. I think it benefits the fitness enthusiasts the most. It doesn't benefit my mom so much at all really because I don't think that she's in that place of even, like the idea of it is education. It's to get you closer to understanding what's going on. Like how is my body burning and what happens when I eat like this and when I exercise like that, when I do this and I don't do that. We've got all these incredible tools to help you get closer to understanding that. Most fitness enthusiasts are excited about that and they wanna know that. So this obviously is an incredible tool for them. Where I see it go wrong is when people wanna compare all of them. Like this person who's asking, Whoop, Apple, Fitbit, like which one's better? Which one's more accurate? And they wanna compare the reading it's giving them to exactly what they think their body is like. And that's the wrong way to go about this. It's like, listen, none of these things are precise. Even if it does line up precisely with your metabolism, generally speaking, none of these things are 100% accurate. And the idea is just to, like Justin's point, is just to bring more awareness to what you're currently doing. So if you go into it with that idea that, oh, I'm using this to look at my own patterns, my own behaviors, oh, when I do this and I think this is what's gonna happen and then I see the outcome because it's being tracked digitally for me and I can go back and look at graphs and go, oh wow, I was wrong here or, oh wow, I was spot on here or I was a little off there. That's where this thing becomes valuable is to be able to use that as a way to get a better education on what is going on with your body. Where you go wrong with it is looking at it like hard facts. Like, oh, my Fitbit said I burned 7,000 calories today so I could eat 5,000 and I'm not gonna get fat. Thinking like that is the wrong way to look at it. Use this data to get closer to understanding your metabolism. Metabolism is one of the, like we talk about the seven wonders of the world, right? You think this is the universe and metabolism, right, is up there. Metabolism, the universe, gut, brain, right? It's like one of the most complex things that we don't fully understand and I think that these tools help us get a better understanding of it. You can't expect them to be exact and precise to everybody so stop looking at these tools like that. Use them as a piece of education. But at the end of the day, the promise is it's gonna help the average person, it's gonna make this huge dent because of all this data. And it's not because look it, our obesity is on the rise still and these tools are getting better and better. Look, obviously a trainer working with you is the best possible thing you can have, okay? But here's what makes trainers effective. It's not because they tell you what to do. If you had a trainer, look, if I could hire a trainer for every American but the trainer only told them what exercises to do and how many calories to eat and how many calories they burned, they would be ineffective. Trainers that are effective coach people. They coach them through the process. These don't do that, they just give people data. There's already ---- tons of data. Go on the internet, you get all the data you want that ever existed, you could access it all, does nothing. People don't need data, people need coaching. And if you've been listening to this show long enough, you know this. This is why we don't sit and talk about proteins, carbs and fats and percentages and ratios because that ---- ain't changing people's lives. Does that mean that doesn't help me as a competitor to get in competitive shape? No, of course, I needed that stuff. But to reach the general population, it's more about behavior and understanding yourself. And that's why we speak to that all the time. These tools are not changing that game. And they're not going to disrupt that whatsoever. Yes, for the fitness enthusiasts, will help you to get more precise and a better understanding 100%. Hey, if you enjoyed that clip, you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here. And be sure to subscribe.