Thanks for writing such a succinct review. WHOOP. As I explained in my article comparing WHOOP with the Apple Watch, calorie tracking is a gimmick because it relies on relatively unreliable data models and estimates of how many calories someone with your height, weight and gender might burn at rest. In her spare time she runs, paints, writes, and enjoys a good tapas bar. For example, if my brain tells me to slow down, I speed up. Posting spam links for "free months" will result in user ban. However, higher strain is not always the goal if you are trying to improve fitness. How can this be so? To be perfectly honest, I dont care much about my strain score or the calorie burn reported in the WHOOP app. Other examples include NFL players who might be prohibited from wearing a wrist strap for safety reasons. I dont really like kicking my ass working out and being shown I havent even made the 2K basal calorie mark for the day. The University of Arizona recently published a study on sleep trackers and called WHOOP highly accurate.. It offers no useful analysis and reporting around exercise performance and recovery. The WHOOP Journal is the best way to record how your diet may be affecting your performance and recovery. Thanks for your comment! I just heard from WHOOP that they can enable a special algorithm for you to work around your condition. Although it does recognize activity of sleep and exercise I have found the results to be wildly inconsistent. Much like EDA, your skin temperature changes in certain conditions, such as during strenuous exercise, when you have a fever, or during certain parts of the menstrual cycle. I had my RMR figured in a lab, and it came back at 1,813. The application menu is the fifth and last icon in the menu bar and it enables you to make changes to your WHOOP account, change activity detection settings, explore app integrations with Strava or TrainingPeaks, update the Straps firmware and more. When you start an activity, it shows your strain building in real time towards the suggested goal. Based on https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/14/2020-26342/notice-of-issuance-of-final-determination-concerning-a-whoop-strap-device, the hardware is manufactured in China (no surprise there) but programming takes place in the U.S. Do you have any idea if hrv works well if I have an irregular heart beat not afib? Whoops got a much more conservative approach, which i tend to think is more correct. Considering what I told you about the cost of upgrading above its free if you have six or more months left on your current membership I see no reason why you shouldnt get the new Strap. To compare your current day's Strain statistics (Calories Burned, Average Heart Rate, and Max Heart Rate) to your previous 30-day average, select the flip box at the bottom of the screen. Im very curious what you found. That way, you can make instant adjustments to your workout activity, based on your recovery. Ive worn Whoop for 18 months now and while I love the concept, I dont feel the accuracy of the device is close enough yet for me to trust the recommendations. To be perfectly honest, Id completely ignore HR data during workouts and simply rely on the recovery data WHOOP provides. Whoop overestimates by around 20 bpm for swimming and cycling and is fairly close running. The problem is that strength training and shorter CrossFit-type workouts usually dont cause a lot of (cardiovascular) strain (they might cause muscular strain instead) and thus you wont see a high strain score in the WHOOP app. I Know they hurt me, but they are a necessity of my job a couple of times a month. After each of those events, I compared my suspicions with WHOOPs sleep performance report and it was always spot on. I dont know exactly if the root cause of this problem is that the motion sensor confuses the force of the impact (i.e., the tapping) with a heart beat, or if its because the optical heart rate sensor shifts around and thus doesnt get a good signal. Once youve worn your WHOOP tracker for 28 consecutive days, youll get a weekly performance assessment. The problem is that while off wrist, WHOOP keeps recording what it believes is your heart beating at around 150 beats per minute. The bluetooth issues you already mentioned. Example: yesterday I did an hour long home spin class and burned ~430 calories. WHOOP is a fitness tracking wrist strap that works with a companion mobile app to provide unique health insights. Just a couple of beers. With the release of iOS 13 and the launch of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, Apple doubled down on extending the battery life of its devices. Caloric estimation guidelines for produce and whole foods are often decades old and may not reflect changes in nutritional profiles caused by industrial scale agriculture and modern farming practices. Byconducting your own self-study, you can infer which behaviors are impacting your data, including selections such as meat-based diet, plant-based diet, paleo diet, supplements, and more. While I appreciate that Apple has turned its wearable device into an excellent fitness companion, it still has many limitations: However, its not just the Apple Watch that struggles with those issues. The Whoop algorithm that makes these calculations takes a range of factors into account, including where you're at in your menstrual cycle, how well you slept last night, your heart-rate. For devices that cant be turned off for whatever reason, each time you double your distance, the exposure scales down exponentially. The WHOOP band can store up to three days worth of data before it starts overwriting the oldest entries. How does Strain Coach produce its recommendations? Based on what I know, all optical HR sensors that use green light can be affected by tattoos. Whoop's subscription comes in three payment plans, with the most affordable being an upfront $400 plan around $17 per month over 24 months. Thank you for this very detailed and comprehensive review. Additionally, hardware upgrades are free. And the Strava integration is ultimately flawed. Of course, your sleep performance also plays a crucial role in recovery. I dont see any reason why WHOOP would be any less accurate, despite your condition and conditioning. As you can see, the data captured by the devices is pretty consistent. Whoops theory, if I understand the podcast, is that the metrics used by Garmin/Fitbit/Apple etc are based on a data-based extrapolated burn which doesnt exist in reality. You can increase your HRV by adopting certain lifestyle changes, including avoiding alcohol, exposing yourself to sunlight, protecting your circadian rhythm and others. The day before yesterday I only hit 1700 calories. It actually turns out that there is a lot going on during Sleep, even though you don't know it. Based on my food intake (about 1600 cals/day based on MFP tracking) and Apple Watch burn (about 3200 cals/day) I should be the skinniest person on the planet. In other words, the device can tell you how hard your cardiovascular system worked on a given day. They have done that with other members as well. My estimates historically have been anywhere from 15% to 30% low. If you cancel, the strap becomes a paperweight :). If you have to pay a membership fee to where a fitness trackerthats utterly insane. I just took my pulse manually after reading all previous comments while seated in front of Thanks for the detailed information! Have you utilized the Whoop Bicep Band yet? Ill ask WHOOP and let you know when I have an answer. Its easy to become fascinated by reducing our lives into a couple of numbers but unfortunately human bodies are way more complicated than one could possibly understand. I was torn between Oura and Whoop. Before joining WHOOP in 2013 as the first full-time employee and first scientist, Emily studied Neurobiology at Harvard University and studied circadian biology in the Analytical and Modeling Unit of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital. I really like Biostraps support for chest strap HR monitors and the shoe pod to capture leg movement (especially while sleeping). But dont be fooled by WHOOPs simplicity! Thank you for a very well written and informative review. Your method of benchmarking is quite similar to mine in that I use my Apple Watch connected to a chest strap and your findings are similar to mine. The problem is that certain movements cause WHOOP (and other wrist-worn devices that use optical heart rate sensors) to incorrectly report a higher heart rate than you actually have. It turns out there is no such thing as a free lunch. As long as Ive spent 40% or more of my total sleep in those two stages, Im OK. To learn how WHOOP compares to other sleep trackers, check out this article. Theres no way to interact with the device, other than double-tapping it to see the remaining battery life via a tiny LED on the side. Fatigued muscles often result in a higher strain the next day, because your body is working harder to recover as it responds to disturbances of your homeostatic state. That seems absolutely ludicrous to me. @sweets2318. WHOOP Strain is measured on a 0 to 21 scale, which is based on the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion. Id be a little frustrated as well. Sounds in-line with my results. Not all of them use the same technology to track activity and sleep, and its difficult to compare apples to oranges. How does stress correlate with HRV? My first weekly performance assessment report told me that both my training state and sleep performance were optimal. That data is not related at all to strain or HR data captured during exercise. I usually just keep WHOOP on my wrist during CF workouts but I move it back a bit, so that I have enough room to close my grips, if I use any. Does it adapt to the wearers own unique heart rhythms, or does it match the wearer according categories at whats expected of people in those categories (age/sex etc)? Therefore, two people who complete the same run (distance and level) could get very different Strain scores based on those differences (and relative difficulty). As a result, I build very little cardiovascular strain. Meanwhile, I dont think you can go wrong with WHOOP I really like it. So stay tuned for that. Thanks you for your post if was very informative. Based off the same food intake and the Whoop (2100 cals/day) I should be losing about 1lb/week, but Im losing about 2lbs, so about 2600 cals/day is about right. So if WHOOPs Strain Coach suggests that you push it hard during a workout on a given day, but you know that you have a race coming up, maybe dont follow the recommendation and use your brain instead. While Ive never seen WHOOP overestimate my sleep need, my wifes WHOOP Strap 3.0 keeps telling her that she sleeps too much. Coincidentally, I listen to episode 31 of the WHOOP podcast yesterday in the car in which John Capodilupo their CTO talked about some users who have gotten a 3.0 strap with bad electronics. Outside of the lab studies WHOOP has performed, they also published a real-life study with college athletes you can check it out here: https://www.whoop.com/the-locker/study-rhr-hrv-sleep-collegiate-athletes/. I rely on and this equipment and am very familiar with other similar products. This means that you could wake up with a Strain score anywhere from 0 - 4 upon waking; this is perfectly normal. Packed with sophisticated sensors that collect five health metrics 100 times per second. WHOOP can monitor and correlate data from its various sensors to understand when and why your skin temperature deviates from your baseline, which is helpful for predicting the onset of a fever or a menstrual cycle. Depending on your fitness level, a very hard workout for you may be a near maximal workout for someone else. Eight Sleep and WHOOP agree most of the time. 2) If so, will a bicep band accurately track my heart rate since the easiest place to read heart rate is on the wrist? Strain tracking is more reliable for cardio workouts (than HIIT or Olympic lifting). 5) Light Exercise. * Cell phone use alters human brain glucose metabolism with unknown clinical effects: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3184892/ But, that doesnt mean they arent useful. Getting enough sleep and getting quality sleep are always important and will aid in your recovery, but there may be other factors at play keeping your body from fully recovering the next day. For example, with WHOOP 4.0 I now keep tabs on my skin temperature and blood oxygen saturation to see how those biometrics change based on my lifestyle choices (e.g., wearing a nasal strip for sleep). 1) You mentioned the pulse ox only operates while you sleep. If the user is moving his//her arm the HR is erratic, while at rest however it is pretty good. Check out this article on the very subject I found on the WHOOP blog: https://www.whoop.com/the-locker/the-impact-of-night-call-do-doctors-need-whoop/. I cant imagine a woman wearing this device. The number of calories needed to maintain the basic functions of life tasks like your heart beating, your eyes blinking, growing your hair and nails is referred to as the Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. Your BMR depends in large part on your age and size. I appreciate it and Im looking forward to hearing how you like WHOOP. As far as accuracy is concerned, there are limitations that all wrist-worn devices have. 1) I am not allowed to wear a wrist band or strap due to infection control measures so will a bicep strap work to wear for a full day? 2 questions: Last but not least, monitoring blood oxygen saturation is useful for athletes who train in high-altitude conditions. And again, credible perspectives (such as a Lancet paper youll find below) suggest the answer is yes (again, for AC electricity in the Hz range, Khz, and Mhz/Ghz radiofrequency radiation). But I can tell both Apple Watch and WHOOP suffer in accuracy when I do exercises that make me bend my wrist, because it breaks the devices contact with my skin. While anyone can benefit from WHOOP, it depends on what you are looking for out of a fitness wearable. By stress, I mean anything that stresses my body, either mentally or physically, including exercise, intermittent fasting or even the consumption of coffee and alcohol. Interestingly enough, electrodermal activity also changes under stress and during epileptic seizures. what happens if my subscription expires? Press J to jump to the feed. If so, Id love to hear your experience with it. I may actually do this. Its either maxed out, or average/resting. High strain, low calorie burn . Your WHOOP cycle begins when you fall asleep, then resets the next time you fall asleep (some other wearables operate on a fixed 24 hour cycle, which isnt an accurate portrayal of your bodys routine). Is WHOOP only for intense athletes? Your skin temperature may reflect that, which is one of the reasons why I use a mattress cooling solution to ensure I support my body by regulating its core temperature during sleep. To view Strain associated with individual workouts, select the activity button inside the Strain circle. From durable titanium frames to proven blue light blocking technology, the all-new WHOOP Blue Light Glasses have been tested and shown to improve sleep and recovery. I havent tried the Oura yet, but its on my todo list :) For example, by answering a few simple questions every day, WHOOP can tell you how alcohol use impacts your sleep performance and/or resting heart rate. The table below gives you an overview of how the WHOOP Strap compares to the Apple Watch, Biostrap, Fitbit Sense and Oura Ring. The first review unit I received came with two bands: the Tecnica and the Hydroband. Thats how WHOOPs photodiodes can tell how much of your hemoglobin is oxygenated. What works for someone may not work for someone else. To fix the problem, I restarted the sensor via the WHOOP app and Device Settings > Advanced > Reboot Device. So if you go for a slow walk and your HR doesnt go up, you might have to tell Whoop (via the app) that you exercised. Related: How Apollo Neuroscience has helped me improve my HRV, sleep and my recovery time. Blood oxygen and skin temperature are metrics exclusive to WHOOP 4.0, while the other three are also available with WHOOP 3.0. That likely means a chance in hard- and software. Thanks for publishing the comment and your thoughtful reply. Im not sure if Ive asked that very well. Is it bad to eat before bed? WHOOP recovery is based on 3 metrics: sleep performance, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability. While you can increase your BMR by increasing your lean muscle mass, for the most part, this value is relatively consistent from month to month. Ouch! An Activity's Strain is a measure of how hard your body worked, and not what your body did. In other words, instead of relying on Sleep Coach, Id like the option to be woken up once Ive slept for 7 hours and 30 minutes (the amount of sleep I know I need on an average day). Keeping in mind what we now know about other mechanisms for EMFs that take effect at lower exposure levels (altered glucose metabolism, activation of voltage-gated calcium channels, altered melatonin activity, impaired mitochondrial function, red blood cell aggregation called Rouleaux formation, sympathetic-dominant changes in autonomic nervous system activity, and more), thats a recipe for harm. Jos. Allison Lynch is a Senior Marketing Manager at WHOOP, specializing in Running & Womens Performance. It also means that your nervous system is busy trying to meet your bodys physiological demands, such as musculoskeletal recovery, stress, illness, and fatigue (source). Great review. 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