I was heading to the airport. About 100,000 people had viewed my realtime location that weekend, and many were keeping an eye on my every move. A few days before, I had put up my new website making all my tracking public. Steps, blood pressure, cholesterol, location, even my latest heart rate (which I was manually checking every few hours, since heart rate trackers hadn’t been invented yet).

Everything was all out there for visitors to see. It gave me a lot of extra motivation to go be active, and do some interesting things to keep everyone entertained. Some people wrote in to say hi. One person told me my last run disappointed him (“a sneeze burns more calories”) but we met up for coffee and are friends now.

This was about 10 years ago now, before the Apple Watch even existed. Before Gyroscope was started. Before tracking your life became a mainstream thing that millions of people would start to do, just by owning a phone. Since then, the world has changed a lot. And unfortunately, humanity has become even less healthy, at least if you look at the stats for obesity, prediabetes, depression or almost any other important aspect of life.

Since then, we’ve learned a lot about tracking — and also started an entire company to help others do the same, making it much easier and more useful to do than before. In the years since then, we’ve tested and used almost every possible tracker and devices out there. The basics like heart rate and sleep from an Apple Watch, but also fancier things like continuous glucose monitoring, ketone trackers, DNA methylation, ApoB levels, heart rate variability, body composition XRAYs or full body MRI’s, and more. Some are tests at a lab, some are devices or wearables. Some are cheap and easy and you should do immediately, others are not worth the hassle.

Today we’ll share everything we’ve learned in the last 10 years of tracking life and health, and save you a lot of time and energy by giving you the final insights. How or why you should track your life? What are the pros and cons? What can it help with? What should you track? How expensive is it and how long does it take? And what are some of the mistakes we made, that you can avoid...

Should you track your life?

Every second, your heart beats. Every day you probably sleep some amount of time. You walk around. You breathe oxygen. You get a bit older. Probably, you eat some food. And inside your body, much more is happening that you maybe can’t see or feel.

These are happening, whether you track them or not. Should you be measuring these important things? Should there be a digital record, that you can see on your phone or computer? Is there a bigger pattern to see?

There are a few simple analogies in other fields: online banking for tracking your money, or using instruments when you drive a car or fly a plane. We think your body is just as important (or more) as your money or vehicles, and we think deserves similar or better tools.

Until recently, you used to have to go to a bank and talk to someone to do anything. Now it is all easy to see 24/7 from your phone — your current balance, recent transactions, even special actions like sending money or paying bills.

If you had to go to your bank to check your balance, you would probably have much worse control over your finances. Yet, most people’s tools for managing their health and their life is far behind even a paper checkbook. Perhaps a visit to their doctor once a year. Money is important, but so is your happiness, sleep, activity, stress and general health.

With banking, all that information was already digital and stored in a database somewhere. Being able to view it online was a relatively simple step. Your health and life and internal body stats, however, only existed in the real world and digitizing them to be stored and seen is a little more work.

Creating a digital record of your biology and what happens in the real world that can be quite complex, expensive, and is not guaranteed to be an accurate reflection.

But it can be worth the cost and effort. Once you have that information, the possibilities are endless. All the same features you are used to for your money or other accounts, are even more useful for your body: looking up your current balance, seeing recent changes, even requesting help or sharing with others.

If you are able to turn your life and health from a biological problem to an engineering problem, countless powerful tools like computers and AI can start to help you with it, and technological progress could improve your life rather than make it shorter.

Everything is getting much easier and cheaper with technology and scale. For example, sequencing the first human genome took billions of dollars and over a decade. Now you can look yours up in the mail in a few days and for less than a hundred dollars. Tracking your heart rate used to require a chest strap and complex tools. Now anyone with an Apple Watch just has that data lying around.

Until recently, tracking what was going on required a lot of discipline and daily journaling, or keeping a spreadsheet to note things down. Now it is getting much easier, cheaper, and you can know much more — often just by having some wearables, devices, or even just walking around with your phone in your pocket.

The difficulty and invasiveness of tracking used to mean you would only do it if you were at the hospital or had an extreme issue. Now it is accessible to everyone even with just a few minutes a day, and the potential benefits continue to expand. Now is the best time in human history to get started.

Should there be a digital record of your life?

Gyroscope was named after one of the main instruments in a plane — the directional gyroscope. This dial shows which direction you’re heading — similar to a compass, but without relying on magnets. Imagine an airline that didn’t have any instruments, where the pilots flew by instinct and hoped to end up at the right airport. Or they just looked out the window to see where to go, and would get lost in cloudy weather. Would you fly with them? Likely not, even it was really cheap. Yet, this is currently how most people manage their lives.

Instrumentation help us navigate, prevent crashes and reliably get to our destination. Sometimes (like on a sunny day) these tools may not be necessary or seem excessive. However, when the conditions worsen (in a storm or at night) our lives can depend on them.

Any complex machine, even your car, has these essential dashboards. You have a speedometer, a meter to see how much fuel you have, a light that flashes if you have engine trouble that needs attention or a flat tire, and more. Most people also have a GPS that helps them see where they are going, and offers directions. A lot of stuff gets taken care of automatically too now, that used to be manual, like choosing what gear to be in. All these add up to a much safer and better experience, more likely to get to your destination in one piece, and faster than otherwise.

You may not need to use your GPS when just going down the street to get groceries, but in a new city, or further from home, or in unexpected traffic, suddenly it becomes helpful.

We think the human body needs similar tools. Life is even more complicated than driving somewhere, and needs more tools. They need to be well designed and tell you the right things at the right time. When things are going well, they may not feel necessary. But as things go wrong or you start to get older, they may save your life.

Why do we need to track these things?

Let’s rewind a few years. I was far from home, halfway around the world, somewhere off the coast of Thailand. I was with a few friends. Oh, and one more thing. We were about 100 feet underwater.

I was scuba diving with some friends, deep below the surface of the ocean. Ahead, a few sharks circled. Their extra teeth were scattered along the floor. I looked at one of the devices on my wrist. 41.3m. This little dive computer was constantly tracking our depth and spitting out useful insights like how much time we could stay down there without developing medical issues. We were over 130 feet below the surface. This was the deepest I had been, a bit beyond the advanced training.

I took a deep breath in, floating weightlessly above the surface. One of the computers on my arm beeped. 40.2m. Some arrows started pointing up. Ascent rate high. I needed to stop rising, or else my lungs would soon explode and my blood would turn into a sparkling beverage, like popping open a bottle of Topo Chico.

Then I checked another gauge to see how much air I had left in the tank, the only thing keeping me alive in this strange world. At this depth there was a crushing amount of pressure, more than 4 times felt at sea level. One breath took up more than 4 times the amount, so breathing rate and air consumption need to be carefully monitored and kept to just a few breaths per minute.

I still had about half a tank left, about 100 bar, and my computer said I had a few more minutes of time at this depth before the calculated nitrogen buildup would be too high. Down here we were looking for a rare and tiny seahorse.

Eventually we found it (it was very camoflauged, very small and very cute). Then we started our slow ascent back to the surface.

After a brief safety stop at 5 meters to reset our blood levels, we were back on the boat. I took off my computers and my tank and could just walk around without any special gear. It felt nice and relaxing. I didn’t have to measure how much air I had left, nor worry about checking my altitude. The only thing I needed to do was remember not to fly for at least 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the seahorse and sharks were still down there, breathing easily without any special computers. How was that possible?

The answer is probably obvious to everyone — in our natural environment, things work pretty automatically. The further we get from home, the more tools and monitoring we need. Humans are quite unique, as the only species able to go so far out of our original comfort zone, even breathing deep underwater or in space.

Similarly, the further we get from our default expected environment, the more tools we will need to stay on track and keep functioning optimally. Our world and lives now are quite different from a human a few thousand years ago, and continuing to evolve rapidly.

Everything we eat, see, breathe, even think, is so different from how things used to be, that we originally evolved with. It has gotten so drastic that one of the most popular podcasts of all time is devoted to telling people to go into the sun in the mornings — something that had been happening to everyone automatically for billions of years, until now.

So if everything is going well, and you are very young and healthy and live a simple life similar to our anscestors, maybe you don’t need to track your life. You could spend your time just living in the moment and trust your instincts.

For everyone else, it is becoming more and more necessary. While technology — electricity, houses, cars, internet, phones, new foods — makes our lifestyles more productive, convenient, safe and connected, it can actually have a negative effect on our biology.

Very basic assumptions are now missing or need deliberate focus, like exposure to the sun or walking more than a few thousand steps, or even standing up in some cases. Systems that previously worked well — like automated systems of hunger to get the perfect amount of energy needed — now don’t really work well, like trying to use a compass in a magnetic storm, or on another planet.

10 reasons to track your health

1. You’ll get some improvements from just being more aware.

In some cases, just the act of tracking can change or shift your behavior. Especially when starting, just the attention and novelty or additional accountability can result in progress.

For example, in 2008 the American Journal of Preventative medicine studied over 1700 people and noticed that people who tracked their food at least 6 days a week, lost more than double the weight than those who didn’t track food.*

2. Splitting up a hard or distant goal into achievable pieces

Many things worth doing can’t be achieved overnight, and require weeks or months of coordination. Things like losing weight or gaining muscle, or learning a skill, fall into this category. It takes gradual adaptation and figuring out quite a few variables for long-term success.

For example, the Journal of Diabetes Research did a study and found participants who consistently tracked their food lost more weight than inconsistent trackers.

Even though you may not see complete success overnight, if you are using data and have more guidance, you can split up a hard problem into many easier problems.

Losing 50 pounds is a big challenge for anyone, but losing 1 pound in a week is manageable. It is better to do that 50 times with simple tools, than attempt to lose 50 pounds at the start of the year and then give up when it feels too daunting.

3. Early warning system to know when things go wrong or go off track

This is like the check-engine light in your car. Most of the time, you may not use it. But when you do, it becomes really useful.

This could be like getting your annual physical with your doctor, doing common blood tests to make sure everything is functioning properly.

Or setting up your Health Score and enabling continuous monitoring, to get alerts when you are sleep deprived, at risk for prediabetes, have a weaker immune system, unexpectedly gain bodyfat, or many other common issues. If you find out about it early then you can start to adjust and fix it quickly, but left unattended they can get worse and cause issues.

4. Understanding what is going on inside your body

When people think of tracking, they often think of measuring their steps or weight or logging everything they eat. You already know these, but get a better sense of the total and trends by quantifying them.

There are other things that we have no idea about without tracking, like HRV, cholesterol, vitamin levels, blood pressure, or insulin resistance to name just a few.

These types of specialty tests can provide a lot more insight into what is going on and are valuable to keep track of.

Blood test biomarkers here to keep an eye on include: ApoB and LDL levels for cholesterol, insulin and glucose levels with HbA1C, vitamins that are often deficient like Vitamin D, important hormones like testosterone and cortisol, and more.

Other simpler metrics that are strong indicators of health and longevity (and can be easily tracked) include resting heart rate and HRV.

5. Getting around biases with an objective view.

Even in the best of times, humans are not great at adding up numbers in our heads. Have you ever gone to the store and then been surprised at how much it all adds up to? That’s why the store Whole Foods is called “Whole Paycheck.”

Even if you saw the price for everything, we are not computers and keeping track of numbers bigger than 7 will be hard or impossible for most people.

It is easy to be in denial about our totals or assume everything you are doing is correct, but it is unlikely to happen automatically. With data, you can easily see otherwise and see an objective measurement of your fitness, bodyfat, blood levels, nutrition quality, and more — based on science rather than opinion or feeling.

Studies show people overestimate energy expenditure during exercise by 3-4x. This often leads to eating more than 2-3x the amount actually “burned” during the exercise. It is very fun and easy to make up numbers in your head that are unrelated to reality. *

Another study showed 18% of the men and 28% of the women were classified as under-reporters of calories eaten. Underreporting of energy intake was highest in women and persons who were older, overweight, or trying to lose weight. *

For some people, wearing a glucose monitor can be eye-opening when they assume they are eating a balanced diet or not very many carbs, and then see they are actually prediabetic or mostly eating junk food.

6. To share your life with others

This can come especially from having an expert like a coach or doctor reviewing your information and giving you a realistic opinion, but can also now be done with your very own AI.

Until you track things and have a record, it only exists in your memory (or maybe not even there). Once you have it on your phone or computer, then it is easy to show to others or communicate and think about.

Some people may want to show off an achievement like running, whether a short distance or a full marathon, to get extra reinforcement. It can help make your whole community more healthy, inspiring both yourself and others.

You may want to show it to someone to get their expert opinion, like showing your doctor your stats. Or you may want to share for accountability, like from a coach or your friend to keep you motivated when you may otherwise give up.

Or it may just be for fun. For example, seeing a history of all your travels and locations to share your travels with someone at the end of the year.

7. To give your AI coaches data to work with

Since it is your life and your body, ideally you would become an expert or at least knowledgeable about how everything works.

However, even if you knew absolutely nothing about what it meant and the implications, having the data is useful because it can then be interpreted for you.

This could be done by your doctor or parent or someone you trust, or now even your coach in Gyroscope.

As the technology advances, now tools like your Health Score can take millions of items and all your recent history in context to tell you what it all means and how it is changing.

8. To push yourself to your limits, but not over

The world’s best athletes have one thing in common — they track themselves (or have a team of coaches that do it) and are constantly trying to improve.

Having this performance data is like having an RPM meter on your car, so you can push yourself even further to the limits while avoiding catastrophe. Similarly, athletes can see their HRV and recovery metrics to see how stressed their body is, and push it pretty hard — but not to the point of getting sick or injured.

Anyone trying to build muscle needs to use a principle called progressive overload. This means that just doing the same exact workout every time won’t work well. Instead, you should keep track of how much you lifted last time and push yourself slightly (maybe just one more rep, or a little more weight) harder each time.

Otherwise you are getting a good sweat but not getting any stronger. Ideally, in a proper workout program you would be measuring this for every body part and important muscle, progressing each one. Without tracking all these things (even if it is just on a piece of paper), results would be suboptimal.

Or if you are more of a “mental athlete” to similarly spend time on your computer working without become sleep deprived or reduce your cognitive capacity.

9. To have more control over your routine

By having a central place to track, and an algorithm to coordinate with, you can synchronize yourself on different days to work together rather than sabotage each other.

One day you may feel motivated and have plenty of free time, but the rest of the week you may not. But only the next week will you feel the consequences.

That is usually the best reason to track your life.

If you have a goal you really want to reach, then tracking it frequently and also monitoring the 3-4 key inputs that influence it will be the most reliable strategy to get there.

You can think of Gyroscope like a conductor, synchronizing the you from yesterday with the you that wakes up tomorrow, and the person you are 2 weeks from now, to all work together to help the person you will be 1 year from now.

Instead, if you are investing in the same goals daily, whether some days it is just 30 seconds or 5 minutes, or some other days maybe an hour, that investment will start to compound and add up.

Without tracking or a centralized source of truth, each of these people may be sabotaging each other or going in completely different directions. Sometimes this can be from lack of motivation, but also just lack of knowledge.

If you are trying to maintain a certain calorie deficit, for example, without the correct data even if you are trying hard every day (or most days), you could be totally wrong about your guess of where you are.

However, with detailed nutrition and weight data showing the full picture, it will be hard to go off track for more than a week, and constantly course correcting will be much easier.

10. To reinforce new habits and behaviors

You can get positive reinforcement (the best and most effective way to change behavior and build habits) that what you did was effective, and to just do it again the next week. You can get this externally from your coach or friends, or internally by seeing your streaks and trends going as you wanted — or both.

This happens very naturally in other parts of life. Like if you are driving somewhere, you can see yourself moving and making progress every minute, even if it takes hours to get to the final destination.

Or in school, people can spend decades learning, but it is broken up into small assignments and grades and graduations, with teachers constantly reviewing your progress and providing corrections.

However, for your health nothing like this has existed — until now. No structure, no visualizations, most people are flying blind, on their own and with no tools.

It is time to change that, and unlock your full potential.