The Biohacking Burnout: How Your Health Tracker May Be Sabotaging Your Wellness

As a board-certified health coach, I often find myself bridging the gap between clinical health data and sustainable behavior modifications. During this past year, it has been evident that we need these bridges more than ever.

With an onslaught of information available at our fingertips 24/7, the amount of “health tips” we are being offered can seem overwhelming, and ironically, can be detrimental to our health. 

VO2 max, Macros, Sleep Score, Step Count, Supplement Routine, Creatine, Hormones, Glutathione, Microplastic Levels, Parabens, and Heart Rate Variability… oh my! These are just a handful of health metrics currently being tracked by those looking to improve their health. I do this for a living, and even I am overwhelmed. 

According to the Pacific Neuroscience Institute, “While consumer wearables can boost motivation and identify physical patterns, over-tracking can be actively bad for you. Experts warn it can trigger health anxiety, encourage obsessive behaviors, and erode your connection to your body’s natural cues.”

But how much data is too much? Well, it depends on how often you find yourself tracking your data, and which data are causing you the most concern. University College London states, “Constant tracking is often associated with anxiety and body dissatisfaction … and daily biometric variations that aren’t always 100% accurate.” So, we are hyper focusing on numbers that might not even be right?

The 10,000 steps metric, for example, started as a Japanese marketing campaign for one of the first wearable step trackers and – somewhat ironically – turned out to be a fairly accurate benchmark for the average person’s daily activity target. Clearly that number varies greatly depending on your lifestyle habits, but it remains a benchmark for those seeking to increase their daily movement. But when does tracking turn to obsession?

I love seeing my step count each day. And while I don’t actively monitor it throughout the afternoon, it does remind me to keep moving when I have been sedentary for too long. As a writer and a coach, some days I am often sitting for longer than I would like and the reminder to move every hour is a good one. It also feels like a form of accomplishment. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad, but as we are in London as I write this, I genuinely feel disappointed when my aching legs see a number like 16,000 steps when I feel like I have walked 30,000. Knowing this about myself, I understand how people can become obsessive about it. 

Over 30 years ago, my sister and brother-in-law stopped wearing watches of any kind as a cardiologist friend told them that checking their watch all the time would increase their stress level and ultimately be detrimental to their health. Could this now 94-year-old physician have been on to something?

Tracking macros for example (which is short for macronutrients and refers to proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) has become a more mainstream way to lose weight and maintain weight loss. But according to the National Eating Disorder Association, extreme tracking and calorie counting can lead to ‘Orthorexia Nervosa.’ “The term ‘orthorexia’ was coined in 1997 and means an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating.” Some of the signs and symptoms of orthorexia they share include: “Compulsive checking of ingredient lists and nutritional labels, an increase in concern about the health of ingredients, cutting out an increasing number of food groups, and an inability to eat anything but a narrow group of foods that are deemed ‘healthy’ or ‘pure.’”

Ultimately, the best health metric is not found
on a screen, but in how we feel.

However, there is a valuable place for wearables, not only for meeting your health goals, but for serving a medical purpose as well. People with health conditions can monitor their heart rate and keep an eye on any irregularities. Diabetics can wear glucose monitors to help them monitor their sugar levels. Oura rings can track sleep disorders through monitoring oxygen levels and respiratory rates which can help diagnose sleep apnea. Like most things in life, it isn’t the device itself, it is how we use (or overuse) it. 

With this in mind, here are a few tips to ensure your health tracker is working for you and not the other way around.

1. Unless you are navigating a medical condition that requires frequent monitoring, use your data as an overall body of work rather than an hour-by-hour gauge. Use these tools as more of a long-term analysis rather than micromanaging everything you eat and every hour you sleep.

2. Turn off daily streak notifications. Again, as with the above, unless there is a medical reason for you to be notified every time you close another ring or circle on your Garmin, Oura, Fitbit or Apple Watch, remind your tracker who is boss. You check in with it when you want information.

3. Be sure some of your exercise or workouts are “unplugged.” Go for a walk in the sunshine just because it is good for you and it feels nice, rather than as a means to up your step count or to speed walk your way to a VO2 max increase.

4. Schedule times or days that are tracker-free. If you are at a friend’s birthday dinner, or a family gathering, do you really need to count your steps or track your macros?

5. Think about what you are really using the tracker for. Is it to increase your hydration? Great. Most of us need to drink more water. Is it to make sure you aren’t binge-watching Netflix for six hours without a break? Good call. If, however, you have lost track of why you are tracking, maybe it is time for a bit of a data detox? Consider regrouping; take a break from the social media that is telling you why you need IM-8, rho liposomes glutathione, creatine, a protein creamer for your coffee, and how to live to 150. 

Ultimately, the best health metric is not found on a screen, but in how we feel. Somewhere in all of this is the perfect balance of the data working for us and not letting the pursuit of a perfect score ruin the joy of living a healthy life.