InsideTracker Review 2024: A Personalized Health Program Based on Blood Test Results
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InsideTracker is an innovative wellness program that analyzes blood work, diet, lifestyle and even DNA. By looking beyond basic health insights, InsideTracker combines actionable data and science-backed guidance to help you optimize your body from the inside out.
A standout feature of InsideTracker is that each user gets a personalized comprehensive action plan based on their health profile. This plan offers recommendations for nutrition, exercise routine, supplementation and overall lifestyle. By following this holistic advice, you can start unlocking the potential for a healthier and longer life.
In this article, we’ll explore how InsideTracker can help individuals make informed decisions about their overall well-being. I tried InsideTracker for myself, and I’ll discuss my personal experience using InsideTracker’s Ultimate Plan plus InnerAge Analysis combo, which analyzed a total of 52 blood biomarkers to provide a detailed overview of my health. As a certified nutrition coach and personal trainer, my goal with this review is to help you determine whether InsideTracker’s service is right for you.
What Is InsideTracker?
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Founded in 2009, InsideTracker was developed by scientists from prestigious institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts and Harvard, with a singular focus on enhancing human health and performance. This innovative and user-friendly platform provides users with a multifaceted analysis, examining blood work, dietary patterns, lifestyle data and even your DNA to provide a clear picture of what’s going on inside your body.
What sets InsideTracker apart from other health and wellness companies, such as Everlywell, is its holistic approach. Beyond the insightful data analysis, the platform also delivers a comprehensive action plan of evidence-based recommendations to optimize your health. This includes suggestions for your nutrition, exercise, supplementation and sleep to help you build healthy habits and potentially improve the quality of your life.
InsideTracker Pros:
- The platform analyzes multiple aspects of health, including blood work, diet, DNA and lifestyle data for a comprehensive overview of an individual’s well-being.
- Beyond the analysis, InsideTracker delivers actionable plans with specific recommendations for improving your health and wellness.
- The company doesn’t sell supplements or promote specific products or workout plans.
- InsideTracker is designed for all fitness levels, from elite athletes to everyday gym-goers, as well as health-conscious individuals.
- Purchase of any InsideTracker plan includes access to its “How to Live Healthier Longer” course series.
InsideTracker Cons:
- InsideTracker’s most comprehensive standalone plan, the Ultimate Plan, may be too expensive for some users.
- Note: InsideTracker is not a meal delivery service, nor will it provide specific meal plans or exercise recommendations.
- InsideTracker is only for individuals who are 18 years or older and isn’t recommended for individuals who are pregnant, breastfeeding or less than six months postpartum.
How to Use InsideTracker
- You’ll start by choosing your InsideTracker plan. Options include the comprehensive Ultimate Plan (which tests 48 key blood biomarkers), a DNA kit, InnerAge 2.0 and options to upload your blood work or DNA results from other testing services.
- Once you choose your plan, you will need to complete your blood work, DNA test kit or upload your test results from an outside service. If you plan on using InsideTracker’s blood testing services, you will need to fast for 12 hours prior to the test. In addition to the fast, InsideTracker asks users to not engage in any strenuous exercise for two days before the blood test, avoid alcohol for at least 24 hours before the test, not take supplements within 24 hours of your blood draw, continue medications as recommended by your physician and drink extra water before the blood test to ensure proper hydration.
- In addition to your blood work and/or DNA analysis, you will also complete a detailed personal profile by answering questions regarding your nutrition, exercise and lifestyle preferences via the InsideTracker app.
- From there, InsideTracker will provide you with a comprehensive action plan based on your blood work and lifestyle data. This plan will give you detailed exercise, nutrition, supplementation and lifestyle advice to improve your health.
- Put your plan into action and track your progress over time through re-testing.
What Does InsideTracker Do?
InsideTracker helps you to optimize heart health, hormone balance, sleep, inflammation, metabolism, recovery, cognition, endurance, fitness and gut health, all through blood work analysis, DNA and lifestyle insights.
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Blood tests are the only way to get in-depth data about things that inform you about your immediate and long-term health, Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., said in a 2023 podcast titled “How to Optimize Your Water Quality & Intake for Health.” He also noted that the problem with most blood tests out there is you get information back, but the results don’t inform what steps to take next.
Huberman is neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine and a longtime advocate of InsideTracker. (Editor’s note: InsideTracker is a regular sponsor of the Huberman Lab Podcast.)
InsideTracker differentiates itself from competitors by providing actionable advice that's easy to understand and implement into your daily life. For example, based on your results, InsideTracker may recommend you consume a diet rich in fruits and veggies to increase your fiber and micronutrient intake, take supplements to increase your intake of specific vitamins and minerals, work to improve the quality of your sleep or incorporate physical activity into your daily routine. Studies, such as this one published in Scientific Reports have found that making these healthful changes, you can improve the quality and longevity of your life.
The InsideTracker app also connects to a wide range of fitness trackers including the Oura Ring, Garmin Connect, FitBit and Apple Watch. This provides real time physiological metrics, such as resting heart rate (RHR), heart rate variability (HRV) and sleep data to enhance the recommendations InsideTracker provides.
Cost of InsideTracker
InsideTracker offers a wide range of plans to choose from, as well as financing options.
InsideTracker’s comprehensive Ultimate Plan, which measures up to 48 key blood biomarkers, is priced at $699. If you plan on using this service more than once to retest, you may want to take advantage of the Ultimate Plan bundles, which can save you up $207 on two tests or or $511 on four tests.
The next option is the Ultimate + DNA + InnerAge bundle, priced at $921. This adds additional DNA insights into your plan and InnerAge analysis, which predicts your internal biological age (how old your cells are). This InnerAge analysis is being recognized by emerging science as being more accurate than chronological age in determining chronic health outcomes.
If you want to take advantage of InsideTracker’s DNA or InnerAge testing, without blood biomarker analysis, both are available for $249.
If you already have existing blood work or DNA results from services such as 23andMe, you can upload them to InsideTracker and have an action plan generated for you. This will cost you $149 for a blood results upload and $29 for the DNA results upload.
InsideTracker Plans and Tests
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Ultimate Plan
InsideTracker’s Ultimate Plan offers consumers a complete and holistic analysis of their health and well-being. Whether your goals involve athletic performance, longevity or to simply improve your health, the Ultimate Plan is an all-encompassing option to gain insight into your health.
The plan tests up to 48 blood biomarkers, which span the 10 key pillars of health (heart health, metabolism, fitness, recovery, hormone balance, sleep, cognition, inflammation, endurance and gut health). InsideTracker also allows you to import blood data from previous tests or annual healthcare visits to create a more robust individual health profile. From these results and lifestyle data, InsideTracker provides personalized, science-backed wellness recommendations tailored to your specific needs.
Some of the key biomarkers tested are total cholesterol, triglycerides, folate, cortisol, magnesium, white blood cell count, red blood cell count, insulin, glucose, vitamin B12 and testosterone.
InnerAge 2.0
InnerAge analyzes 17 key biomarkers for men and 13 for women (some of which overlap biomarkers tested with the Ultimate Plan). InsideTracker uses this information to calculate your biological age, which can help you determine how this compares to your chronological age, as well as provide insights for increasing longevity.
DNA Kit
InsideTracker’s DNA Kit analyzes over 20,000 genetic markers to reveal your genetic potential for up to 38 unique wellness traits. This data will show you how your DNA is affecting your weight, aging, sleep, food sensitivities and even athletic performance. DNA analysis does not require a blood draw and is instead performed via a cheek swab which can be completed in the comfort of your home.
Results Upload
InsideTracker offers blood results and DNA upload subscriptions which allow you to utilize previous tests to take advantage of the personalized, in-depth insight InsideTracker provides. This comes with a lower price point, which may make sense for consumers looking for a more budget-friendly option.
My Experience Using InsideTracker
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I had the opportunity to test InsideTracker's Ultimate Plan with InnerAge analysis, which tested for 52 unique blood biomarkers. In this section, I’ll describe my experience using InsideTracker, reviewing my results, the recommendations and whether I believe this is a worthwhile service.
After setting up my account on the InsideTracker website, I filled out a health profile questionnaire. This process took about 10 minutes and included questions on body composition, nutrition, supplements, exercise and lifestyle. The first thing I noticed was InsideTracker asked for more information than just your age, height and weight. I filled out my waist circumference, hip circumference, resting heart rate (RHR) and body fat percentage. For the hip and waist circumference measurements, I used a tape measure and for the resting heart rate number, I used my average RHR from data collected by my Whoop.
If you don’t have a fitness wearable, InsideTracker recommends tracking your pulse over 30 seconds and doubling this number to get your RHR. To get my body fat percentage information, I went to my local gym and used their InBody scanner. While this does take some additional time to measure these values, this shows InsideTracker’s commitment to properly assessing your overall health and well-being.
The remaining sections asked about your typical diet, current supplement regimen, exercise routine and lifestyle habits, such as how much sleep you get per night, whether you smoke and how much sun exposure you get each day. Overall, I appreciate the robustness of this profile, as it provides InsideTracker with a holistic view of your health and wellness.
Once my health profile was complete, I scheduled my blood test. The scheduling process was straightforward and I chose to have a phlebotomist come to my house for the blood draw. While this at-home blood draw came at an additional cost, it was incredibly convenient, and the entire process took less than 15 minutes.
Less than a week after my blood draw, I received an email from InsideTracker noting my blood analysis was complete. The results are available via the app or the InsideTracker website and are divided into 10 specific biomarker categories: cognition, endurance, fitness, gut health, heart health, hormone balance, inflammation, metabolism, recovery and sleep. Each of the blood biomarkers is then individually categorized as optimal, normal or at-risk.
Out of the 52 biomarkers I had tested, 43 were “optimal” and nine were in the “normal” or “at-risk” ranges. InsideTracker recommended I consult with my primary healthcare provider to discuss my at-risk biomarkers. My results also came with a number of lifestyle changes and actions I can take to help improve my results. This is the primary reason why I believe InsideTracker is such a great tool. Not only does it assess your blood work data, but it provides you with the information and tools you need to improve your health.
For example, my C-reactive protein number—a general marker of inflammation within the body—was very high, and categorized as “at-risk.” To help correct this, InsideTracker offered me nine different solutions to help improve my number, plus an “impact rating” on a scale of zero to 10 of how effective the company believes the solution would be.
For example, one of the personalized recommendations to help improve my inflammation, was to try a new type of nut each week. InsideTracker gave this particular solution an impact rating of 10.0. The explanation provided to me was, “nuts are high in healthy fats— monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), which are all beneficial to health. Replacing saturated fats with healthy, unsaturated fats from nuts can help to reduce inflammation throughout the body due to their healthy fat. Vitamin E, a potent antioxidant that can help to lower inflammation, is also found in nuts.”
In addition, each of the suggestions came with scientific references backing the recommendation, as well as tips from InsideTracker’s team of registered dietitians and personal trainers. This is an immensely valuable resource that can point individuals in the right direction for improving their health.
What Customers Say About InsideTracker
InsideTracker does feature a handful of testimonials on its website, such as one from user Sonia. “When I saw my InnerAge decrease from 61.5 to 58.9 using InsideTracker's guidelines, I gave each of my 30 year old boys an Ultimate. I wish I had this test at their age,” she writes.
However, the highlighted reviews are hand-picked and there doesn’t seem to be a spot on the website to leave your own review. So, I checked out TrustPilot and was happy to see InsideTracker has a 4.4 out of 5 star rating.
One recent user writes, “Great app with science-backed advice and transparency about the accuracy of the science. A great way to find out where to invest your time, energy and dollars to improve your health.”
While there are a few negative reviews, they are generally focused on the cost of the service or the customer support. (My personal experience with customer service was great.) Regarding the cost, InsideTracker is definitely not the cheapest option available, but it stands out with the actionable advice provided to users.
InsideTracker FAQs
What does InsideTracker tell you?
InsideTracker’s service provides users with detailed insights into various aspects of their health and well-being. From your blood work, lifestyle and DNA data, the platform generates comprehensive action plans designed to improve your health.
How long does it take to get results with InsideTracker?
The turnaround time for receiving results from InsideTracker can vary depending on the specific tests and services selected. Typically, blood test results for InnerAge and Ultimate analysis will be available seven to 10 business days after your blood test. However, for the DNA Kit, results can take up to four to six weeks.
Can you use insurance for the InsideTracker?
Under some insurance plans, InsideTracker plans are eligible for coverage through HSA and FSA benefits. You’ll have to check with your insurance provider to verify whether the service will be covered under your plan.
What does the InsideTracker DNA test show?
The DNA test kit analyzes 20,000 genetic markers which reveals your genetic potential for up to 38 different wellness traits. The platform will then identify how your DNA results are influencing your heart health, inflammation, metabolism, cognition, gut health and more.
The Takeaway: Is InsideTracker Right for You?
InsideTracker is designed for individuals who aspire to proactively manage their health and well-being. If your goal is to optimize your health, then this platform definitely addresses the common challenges individuals face when searching for a clear and comprehensive picture of their internal health. Through thorough analysis of blood work, DNA and lifestyle factors, InsideTracker provides users with easy-to-follow action plans they can quickly integrate into their daily lives. In my opinion, this is a valuable service that can definitely improve the overall quality of your life.
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