I’ve long been interested in gaining insights into how certain actions (e.g., what I eat, how I exercise) impact how I feel. And “feel” is a good way to word it because any experimentation is done mostly if not exclusively on feel. The oft dreaded task of waking up early in the morning to hit a workout, after planning and spending time meal prepping, has seemingly had benefits for me. Thus, I have a feeling that exercising in the morning gives me lasting energy throughout the day. What I do not have is hard data to back up that claim.
With health, even in 2023, we are going on feel as much or more than in other areas of our lives. In other places we are inundated with data, including at work, while watching a game, and certainly while looking at our phones. However, when it comes to our own biometric information, data have been hard to come by.
Biometric data are an opportunity for us as individuals to learn and optimize our actions for our unique biological features. It’s a massive information gap that is just starting to be filled. Of course, that means this is a massive opportunity for companies, too.
Earlier this week I heard a story from a friend about their husband receiving a notification of an irregular heart rate on his Apple Watch. It was that prompt that brought him to the hospital where a significant issue was discovered.
Three years ago, Tim Cook stated that Apple’s greatest contribution will be “about health.” That’s a strong statement from such an important company. I think Apple would say they’ve made improvements (mainly with the Watch and a some iOS tweaks), but would also admit they have nowhere near reached their potential in the health space.
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Levels is a start-up company focused in this general area of health data; specifically trying to illuminate the impacts of food and exercise on metabolic health.
I begin using the Levels software at the start of March last year. The Levels app connects to a standard Freestyle Libre from Abbott which provides continuous glucose monitoring. Simply put, the Abbott hardware provides the raw glucose data. That is nothing new. But the Levels app is the crucial more friendly user interface that has been missing.
The upshot is the user gets real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices such exercise impact your metabolic health through that continuous glucose monitor.
The personalized data is the critical thing. Because, while we all know in broad strokes what is good and bad for us to consume, the way our bodies process food is different person by person. This is illustrated in the following graph.
This means even a motivated person cannot educate themselves through third-party information. That will get you most of the way there, but will not allow of full insight into how food and exercise choices impact you.
Speaking of real, first-hand data, here are some of mine.
Over the first two weeks I used Levels, I generally ate the way I normally would. And, even tested out my glucose sensitivity to some snacks I might not eat in a typical week.1
On this four week journey, my glucose spikes improved as I learned what foods had the worst impacts on me.
Even though my “scores” in the first two weeks look very bad, they are right around the average Levels user. And my improved weeks 3-4 are in a higher percentile as I tried to tailor my eating to foods that did not spike my glucose level.
While Levels puts together this lovely high-level summary of my experience, the most important thing is that the Levels app provides data at the meal level.
Meal level data is what allowed me to change my habits and lead to the improvement in weeks 3 and 4.
Egg omelette; good. Pot stickers and ice cream desert; bad. Who knew?2
The problem most people will not go through the trouble to do this. In particular, you have to take the time to track your meals in the app. While Levels makes is relatively easy, it is still a hurdle. One I am sure they are working on.
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Reducing the barriers to this type of data is a novel idea. Like most nascent industries, its the start-ups driving innovation. But large companies are already taking notice.
Hurdles like meal tracking and cost are real hurdles. If something as ubiquitous as iOS (or an iOS app) becomes not only our mobile operating system but our biometric operating system, it could create meaningful benefits for humanity.
Why does it matter? Beyond the micro-impact at the individual level, unhealthy people are costly to the system.
Among people who self-report their health as fair or poor, the top 10% of people with the highest health spending account for 50% of total health spending.
The most unhealthy people are most expensive. The annual health care costs associated with obesity are approaching $200B in the U.S.3 It is a societal-level concern when costs get to these levels.
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I started my journey with Levels over a year ago. But now felt like the right time to finally hit publish as weight loss drugs are having a moment in 2023. While I always lean towards questioning pharmaceuticals, they are indeed a tool in the toolkit.
Ideally, the way to alleviate health problems is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. While there are many things in the health realm that are beyond an individual’s control, diet and exercise are generally within one’s health toolkit. They are just more difficult to adhere to then a pill or injection.