Surprising Findings with Inside Tracker!
I admit to being a data geek, and was excited to win the discount package from Inside Tracker on the Twitter chat! Got my results back a bit ago, and the surface level report wasn't too exciting - at first blush the recommendations were pretty much in line with garden variety nutrition advice.
Then I realized there is another aspect of the reporting that plots your levels precisely, and that's where things got interesting. Granted, I now need to schedule a call with Coach Patrick because I'm a little bit freaked out as the markers that have to do with energy, rebuilding muscle, etc. are all low, and the bloodwork says I'm over-training and I'm just getting into the last 10 weeks before my first 70.3.!
A few things were really surprising:
- I've been taking Vitamin D supplements for a few years after blood testing because I was so tired... I expected that it would be resolved by now, so it was surprising to see it still low. Granted, in a Michigan winter one doesn't get natural Vitamin D... I like the report because it shows although I'm out of the clinically low zone, I'm not in the optimal zone - which to me indicates action is needed; whereas when doc says "you're out of the low zone", I feel in the clear. This report tells me otherwise; that I still have work to do, and I'm grateful for that.
- I've struggled with low Iron for years - again, not so low to be clinically low (though close enough during pregnancy I took liquid iron supplements to help, and even that didn't make much difference!), and was surprised to find that mine is still so low even after making diet changes to add things like spinach, and taking a multi-vitamin, etc. Given how they frame the iron markers in Inside Tracker as affecting performance in all of the areas that you need to be an endurance athlete (queue the panic), I started looking into this a bit more, and it turns out I have the perfect diet to *prevent* iron absorption - spinach, eggs, greek yogurt, coffee, etc... The staples of my diet prevent iron absorption! Yikes...
- Turns out I'm above optimum levels of B12, for which the recommendation is to drop the multi-vitamin, which I'm not inclined to do without consulting a nutritionist. Seems like there are a lot of other things I'd be missing out on by not taking the multi, so that doesn't seem like a decision to make lightly.
- The other surprising thing is that my testosterone/cortisol levels are elevated, indicating overtraining and/or stress. Given my race is 10 weeks out, and I'm not a super athlete, taking time off to "recover" doesn't seem like it would fit in the plan - I need the training time!
In all, the blood test gave me feedback I don't feel I would have gotten without getting a physical and insisting on extra bloodwork - and even then I think it's unlikely I would have gotten this much detail. (I've certainly never gotten this much detail in the past, despite having known issues to test for.) So now that I know iron is so key to athletic performance, I'll have to kick up the work on my diet a few notches!
If you're on the fence about Inside Tracker, I'd do it - I don't know any other way you'd get this kind of helpful data! Also happy to answer any questions...
Comments
Hi Jimmy!
I had the "High Performance" Test: https://www.insidetracker.com/high-performance which includes 15 biomarkers (below). I should have sprung for more than the one test, because it's only natural to want the follow up test after you've found something needs improving!
As to guidance, yes, they do provide action items, along with links to the science behind their recommendations, which is really nice. A couple of my recommendations don't mesh well, but that's likely because I'm somewhat of an edge case. (Why am I always an edge case? ;-) So I'm doing some additional research on my own to try to (hopefully) finally tackle this iron issue once and for all.
The Inside Tracker team is SUPER responsive about answering questions about the results, etc. (they even helped out on the phone when I was at the lab and ran into a question). Speaking of responsive, I've got a conversation going on with them right now in Twitter to answer your question about ironman training / overtraining - we'll see what they say!