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I’m a data geek.
I love having the science-backed facts behind mine and my clients’ progress as we evaluate how different foods and training routines affect us.
In my decades of experience helping women balance their hormones and lose fat, I have discovered that you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Simply eyeballing food quantities doesn’t bring definitive results.
Of course, listening to your body is important, but the truth is that if we are under stress and in the process of multitasking (as most of us are), it’s not easy to hear what our bodies are telling us.
This is why, as a scientist, I rely on expert tools to help me track and measure anything from my blood pressure, hormone fluctuations, how much rest I get, and a whole lot more.
And today I’m going to share with you my three favorite tools to track your health indicators and weight loss progress.
InsideTracker
InsideTracker is a platform that lets you get a handle on your metabolic markers, hormones, and your biological age, as well as gives you a personalized plan to improve your metabolism, reduce stress, improve sleep, balance your hormones, and optimize your health for the long haul.
It’s as if…you’re taking a selfie from the inside.
Using InsideTracker is very straightforward.
There is an easy to understand, clear dashboard where you see all of your statistics.
Once the results of your labs are in, InsideTracker gives you personalized recommendations on nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management.
This allows you to set yourself up for success using data as a key weapon in your arsenal.
I’ve been using InsideTracker for a while now to make sure I’m hitting my goals.
As a perimenopausal woman, I want to make sure my Vitamin D levels are right, as well as that my magnesium, DHEA, testosterone, and ferritin levels are on point.
I also wanted to know if I was biologically younger than my chronological age (I’m a vain woman, ok but really – wouldn’t you want to know how old your body actually is?!).
I always recommend InsideTracker to my clients who are on a fat loss journey.
With InsideTracker, you can easily measure your levels of fasting blood glucose, HbA1c (which is the average of the last 3 months’ blood glucose).
It will also give you insight on your lipid levels which are key for maintaining energy, heart health, and brain health.
So it’s crucial to know where your lipids are – we often see changes with lipids in the first 6 months of going on a keto diet, so we want to see how you adapt over the long term.
Tracking testosterone
Although we typically think about estrogen for women, testosterone is still the most abundant sex hormone in women and is involved in cognitive capacity, our persoality, libido, energy levels and muscle mass.
Another important metric to focus on is Creatine kinase (CK).
This is an enzyme you find in healthy muscles that supports your energy production in the first few seconds of your workout.
If you’re pushing yourself too hard at the gym, you may damage your cells and CK may leak into your bloodstream.
So as your CK levels increase and you feel crampy, you’d be able to tell that you’re going too hard which is your data-backed clue to slow down.
Measuring your levels of these enzymes can help you work smarter, not harder at the gym.
Tracking inflammation
When you do a test that measures your levels of the high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP), InsideTracker will interpret those results for you so you’ll know what the level of systemic inflammation is in your body.
If the hsCRP test shows optimal levels of CRP, (less than 1 mg/dL is considered optimal), the amount of inflammation in your body is very low.
If your levels are off, this will be your sign to start digging into where the inflammation is coming from. IT could be your diet, movement (or lack thereof), environmental exposure, or chronic low grade stress.
Get 20% off the entire InsideTracker store right here.
WHOOP Band – my favorite wearable
I absolutely love my WHOOP Band.
This is a fitness and health wearable that gives you personalized insights on how you train, recover, sleep, how many calories you burn, your stress score, and a whole lot more.
You’ve heard me say this a million times but it’s worth repeating – you need to work smart, not hard.
Ever since I started wearing my WHOOP Band, I have better data on how intense my workouts are, how well I am recovered, and my varying sleep patterns, and if my heart rate variability is staying the same or improving over time.
Many times, unfortunately, I’ve ignored my body cues and pushed myself even when I knew I was tired.
And this is why WHOOP has been instrumental in helping me triangulate how hard I can push myself in my workouts, and, maybe more importantly, how much rest I need to take to fully recover.
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Congratulations, you are about halfway through my geeky magic carpet ride. The nerd in me loves and honors the nerd in you. Just a reminder if you want a full list of my favourite health tools, you can sign up for access to Hello Betty HQ. It’s free.
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WHOOP is extremely comfortable
The other thing I love is that the WHOOP is a wrist band – I don’t have to take it off to work out the way I might a wearable ring.
When I’m holding weights with a ring, it changes my grip and when you are lifting heavy weights, form matters.
WHOOP is a buttonless, screenless bracelet that only connects to my phone when the app is open, so I don’t have to worry about extra EMFs all day long AND since I am in athleisure wear 95% of the time, it is always the perfect wardrobe companion.
At the end of that – that which you measure you can manage. Data is Queen and the WHOOP will help give you insights you simply cannot get from other wearable devices.
You, as reader of my blog post can take advantage of a special offer WHOOP has allowed me to share in my community.
Head to whoop.com and use code ‘STEPHANIE15’ to unlock 15% off any WHOOP membership, plus get a WHOOP 4.0 device for free!
Lumen
We always talk about our metabolism and how crucial it is to keep it revved up.
But how exactly do we measure our metabolic health?
Enter: Lumen.
This is a small device that analyzes your breath to reveal your CO2 levels which then determines how much fat you’re burning.
This system was once available only to top athletes and inside labs and hospitals, but now the team behind Lumen has made it available to the public.
The device is small, light, and extremely easy to use.
I use it the first thing I wake up, right before and after a meal, and pre and post-workout.
You simply need to breathe into the device, and it will show you what your focus should be for the day, including how to eat and train, as well as how much sleep you need.
It really takes all the guesswork out of the equation.
There are personalized meal plans so once you use the device, the app will tell you whether you need to eat low-carb for the day, increase carbs, or up your fat intake, for example.
Moreover, you can use Lumen to see how you respond to certain foods.
For example, you can have an avocado, breathe into Lumen and see how your histamine levels are affected.
Lumen can train your metabolism to burn more fat
The mission behind Lumen is to focus on improving your metabolic health instead of going on restrictive or unsustainable diets.
They do so by helping you create metabolic flexibility.
This is your body’s ability to switch back and forth between fat and carbohydrates based on their availability.
The more flexible your metabolism becomes, the more energy you will have as well as feel your hunger levels gradually decrease so if you’re a big snacker right now, this may change once you start using Lumen.
If you’re looking to finally take control of your health by yourself or your partner, this device will be a powerful ally.
Use code “DRSTEPHANIE25” to get $25 Off your purchase.
Conclusion
You can control what you can measure.
In the last few years, I’ve tried it both ways – sort of measuring but truthfully just eyeballing my portions, and making educated guesses as to how I should eat and train.
I’ve seen okay results with that approach.
But whenever I’ve actually used the tools above to get laser-focused on exactly how much, what and when I eat, how I train and rest…
I’ve seen amazing results.
When I was preparing for my shoot for STRONG Fitness Magazine, I really dialed things in and measured everything, from my metabolism to sleep and cortisol levels.
The results were incredible and I saw more progress than ever in leaning out while building a stronger core, legs, and shoulders.
It’s fair to say that measuring your progress is the key to sustained progress and I highly recommend that you do so with the tools in this blog post.
Other resources you might enjoy:
- Learn more about InsideTracker https://hellobetty.club/blog-inside-tracker/
- Listen to my interview with the Founder of InsideTracker, Dr. Gil Blander https://open.spotify.com/episode/5U0qtSMLo3EkBrbYUiLWUH?si=3a66a885ed654e5c
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