A few centuries years ago, a new device had caused a flutter amongst fitness oriented folks both in real life and in the online space, mainly on Twitter and Instagram.
I would be sitting at a cafe, working, when I would inevitably spot a few individuals with this device stuck to their tricep, prominent for all to see.
No, this device wasn’t one that revolutionised your Tricep growth, nope. This was a device that had been in use for years, probably decades in the past, but they were now in the hands of fitness optimisers. And if there is one thing that optimisers love doing more than optimising their fitness, it is talking about optimising their fitness. (Exhibit A: Yours truly)
That device? A simple CGM. (Continuous glucose monitor, for the uninitiated.)
A device that was, and continues to be, a life-saving device for folks with diabetes, had now turned into a symbol of status; people who didn’t need to wear one were all brandishing it and talking about “seeing their glucose spikes and how eye-opening it was”.1
What was once talked about in a random Tim Ferriss book or on an obscure podcast episode had now gone mainstream. Indeed, some people have made their entire careers around this.
Amidst this rage, a client had reached out asking me for my opinion on whether it would be a good option for him to consider wearing a CGM. He was an individual who had no history of diabetes, was leading an active lifestyle, had steady bodyweight and exercised regularly, but the FOMO was strong.
I outlined my Pros and Cons, and one of the cons I highlighted was that I feared these devices could make people paranoid about everyday, normal blood glucose fluctuations and/or could lead to or worsen someone’s eating disorders if they’re not careful with how they use it. My client listened to my suggestions and decided to wait it out.
A few weeks later, during another 1:1 check-in, he was glad he did. The very fears I had listed out to him happened to a friend of his right before his eyes, while sharing a meal. His friend couldn’t stop touching his phone to his monitor to get a reading after every.single.bite. he had. Instead of enjoying the company and the food, the client’s friend was obsessed about where his numbers lay. And this wasn’t a one-off incident, but one that apparently happened to him daily.
CGMs have now receded from the mainstream, and thankfully, the people who do require these devices are not being shortchanged due to supply constraints. However, the optimisation culture has not only endured, it has gone further than ever before.
Now, devices are capable of tracking more.
What was once primarily available to elite athletes is now available for us everyday folks, and boy, are we making the most use of it!
Steps, calories expended, sleep score, ovulation tracking, recovery score, HRV - name it, and there are multiple devices that can do this for you.
What’s lost amidst all this is this:
What, exactly, are you optimising for?
Is the data you track even accurate?
Now, before I come across as a Luddite2, I have a couple of devices myself. I use an Apple Watch on the daily, tracking steps, activities, stand scores etc. And I was gifted a Garmin which I use exclusively for my runs and anything related to running.
When I initially got my Apple Watch I would wear it almost all day. The only time I took it off was to charge it. I was keen on looking at my sleep scores, my RHR, my overall steps, etc. (I never cared for calories because most devices are inaccurate with their estimations, and I don’t exercise or move to burn calories anyway).
Now, however? I only wear it for a portion of my day. The moment I’ve closed my rings, the watch is off and on the charger. Likewise with my Garmin: I used to track sleep and recovery stats on it regularly for the first few months, but now, it is only used when I run in the mornings and then it rests on a desk for the rest of the day.
Why this change?
One, because some of the things I was tracking were things I could track even without the watch. Example: Sleep and Recovery.
I don’t need my devices telling me what my sleep and recovery score is and whether I am Blue/Green/Red after a night of sleep. I don’t want to be checking into my device first thing in the morning because I can check-in with myself. There have been many days when I have had 4-5 hrs of sleep, woken up with a “bad” sleep score and had a great day. Conversely, there have been days where my sleep score was good but I felt under fatigue all day.
Most importantly, I didn’t want a device whose accuracy is questionable, dictating my mood for the morning or the day. I’ve had quite a few trainees come up to me and be worried about certain numbers because their device told them they were not well-rested etc, never questioning if they felt the same way themselves.
Two, what is the point of optimising for anything, if the optimisation is causing you more stress?
If anything, we should be optimising to be more robust in the face of issues coming our way, not becoming fragile at the first sign of deviation.
I experienced this first hand a few years ago, where not getting my morning cup of coffee was turning me to Jekyll. If I couldn’t function without a cup of coffee, was that a healthy relationship? I decided no, and went a year without coffee in 2025, just to prove to myself that I could do without it.
I still think these devices are good, provided we use them not to get obsessed with the numbers they throw up, but if instead we use those numbers to guide our training, our nutrition, and our daily activities.
For the past few months I’ve had great nights of sleep, repeatedly. I get anywhere between 7-9 hrs on the regular, and I don’t need to wake up and check my REM sleep and Non-REM sleep to determine if it was a good night’s sleep.
If things change in the future, I may still go back to tracking sleep to see what variations have come up, but otherwise I am going to bed device free.
Be diligent in choosing what you optimise.
Be aware of the inaccuracies of the numbers you are shown.
Be curious without being obsessed.
Don’t shorten your life’s best experiences in the pursuit of making it longer.
What I enjoyed reading this past week:
“The socializing that happened in parks, neighborhoods, boy scouts, etc. now must happen in the private domain. A bigger house, which includes a large playroom and yard, is the private replacement for a public square that no longer functions and is thus necessary infrastructure as much as luxury.”
What I enjoyed watching this past week:
Needless to say, I am watching a lot more running content on Youtube than almost anything else, and this lengthy vlog about Ben’s recent 5k PB was a fun watch - and not just because these madlads are faaaast!
What I enjoyed listening to this past week:
This episode on the founding of Hyrox, the current zeitgeist in the fitness industry, was a good one. Youtube
I would love to have bet on those folks not wearing those devices a few months later, forget a few years later. Even the company behind some of the online push has now moved onto other trends in the years since.
As I have grown older, I have become a Luddite in some ways, and I can see their POV a lot better now than I did a decade or so ago.