Navigating the Flu with My Whoop Band: Insights and Reflections

By Sebastián del Sel, Product Owner at Amalgama.

When I started researching wearable devices, I came across a statistic that caught my attention. According to a study by the American College of Sports Medicine, 77% of wearable device users reported that their devices helped them monitor their health metrics more effectively and make healthier lifestyle choices. This percentage seemed very high to me, so I decided to give it a try myself.

As winter settled in Argentina, the annual flu season arrived. I had been lucky so far, managing to avoid it. But last Friday, I began feeling cold, low on energy, and my body started to ache. The flu had finally caught up with me. This was the first time I got sick since I started using my Whoop band six months ago. Although I was disappointed to miss out on the weekend, I was curious to see how the data on my app would respond.

My Whoop Band’s Response to the Flu

Initial Observations

• 🤔 First Impressions: At first, I didn’t see any change or reflection on my app aligned with how I was feeling.
• 📊 Health Monitor Metrics: One of the features of my Whoop band is the “Health Monitor”, which tracks:
  • Respiratory rate
  • Blood oxygen
  • Heart rate
  • HRV
  • Skin temperature
• 💡 Observation: Despite feeling unwell, all my health metrics appeared normal. In general, there didn’t seem to be any signals aligning with how I felt. I was struggling to breathe and had a fever, but nothing related showed up on the app. The only noticeable difference was my BPM, which was in the 90s, likely due to the flu, but that’s not one of the main health metrics tracked by the Health Monitor.

The Turning Point

• 🌅 Next Morning: The metrics still showed everything was okay, but my recovery score had plummeted to the lowest I’d seen since I started using Whoop.
• 💯 Accuracy: This was actually very accurate since I felt so bad I barely moved for three days.

Final Reflections

• 🙃 Mixed Feelings: While towards the end of the flu, I felt the metrics finally aligned with how I was feeling, it would have been helpful to see some data earlier. This would have validated my low energy levels and reminded me to take better care of myself.
• 📈 Hopeful Outlook: I’ve seen improvements in other metrics over time and remain hopeful that next time, the health metrics will detect the early signs of illness. Wouldn’t it be great if metrics could detect the signs of illness earlier? Not only to prevent getting sick but also to take precautionary measures during the early days to reduce the duration of illness. This could be a great way to recover faster, even before feeling sick.

More about the Whoop Band

For those interested in understanding more about how the Whoop band works, check out this detailed article from TechCrunch on the science behind the Whoop band’s health monitoring capabilities.

Also, here I share an article I wrote recently about the main differences between the Whoop band and the Apple Watch, a battle many of us users faced when deciding which device to buy. I hope it can help those who will have this question in the near future.

Closing up…

🤔 I wonder if there are any products out there that can detect low energy and weak defenses before symptoms fully develop. And if not, who’s up for the challenge of creating it?