From Data Slave To Body Master: Why I Stopped Wearing My Wearables 24/7
I wore Whoop 24/7 for almost 3 years. Garmin for 2 years.
They nearly destroyed me twice.
Not the devices themselves. My obsession with them.
I’d wake up and immediately check my sleep score. Let a number dictate my entire day. Red recovery? Better cancel plans. Low HRV? Time to stress about being stressed.
The irony? These tools designed to optimize my health were wrecking it.
Now? I wear my Garmin only during training. My wrist is free. My mind is freer.
This is the story of how I escaped the data trap—and why you might need to as well.
The Love-Hate Spiral That Almost Broke Me
At first, it was pure love.
Whoop told me everything. Sleep stages. Heart rate variability. Strain scores. Recovery percentages.
I was obsessed. Every metric mattered. Every trend had meaning.
I optimized everything. Bedtime. Wake time. Training intensity. Recovery protocols.
The numbers kept improving. So did my performance.
I even kept pushing my partner to track everything like I did. “You’re missing out“, I’d tell her. She’d just smile and say she already knew her body. I didn’t get it then. I thought she was being stubborn.
The obsession turned toxic. I couldn’t sleep because I was worried about my sleep score. I’d wake at 3AM, check my overnight HRV, and spiral into anxiety.
Will I hit my recovery target?
Why is my HRV down?
Am I overtraining?
The metrics that were supposed to guide me started controlling me.
My mental health tanked. Depression crept in. My relationship suffered. Badly.
I didn’t see it happening. I was too buried in data to notice I was drowning.
Then I Learned To Respect The Data
But I didn’t quit. I adjusted.
I stopped checking metrics every morning. Stopped letting red recovery scores dictate my day.
I focused on trends instead. Weekly patterns. Monthly progressions.
The relationship became healthy again.
I wore both Whoop on my bicep and Garmin on my wrist. Both 24/7. But I wasn’t their slave anymore. I looked at trends only. Long-term patterns.
Daily fluctuations? Ignored them.
I reached the level I was always chasing. Great metrics across the board. Consistent performance. Sustainable excellence.
The data no longer controlled me.
Or so I thought.
Garmin’s Productive Training Status Nearly Destroyed Me Again
Just when I thought I’d mastered the game, I fell into another trap.
Garmin has this feature. Training Status. It tells you if you’re training productively, maintaining, or overtraining.
I got addicted to chasing: Productive.
Pushed harder. Trained longer. Twice a day with long sauna sessions. Ignored my body’s signals.
Result? Overtraining. Hard.
I couldn’t even ride my bike in the lowest gear at conversational heart rate for four minutes without getting serious leg cramps.
Zone 2? Impossible. Recovery rides? A joke.
The device was screaming “you’re doing too much” while I ignored it to chase a better status.
The irony cut deep.
Lionel Sanders Showed Me The Light
Then I remembered Lionel talking about the importance of listening to your body.
This guy listens to his body first. Data second.
Watching his approach flipped something in my brain.
These devices? They’re tools. Not gods.
They have 10-20% error margins day-to-day. They guess. They approximate. They help with trends. Not daily decisions.
The best thing wearables taught me? What my body feels like when it’s recovered. When it needs rest. When it’s ready to push.
After three years of tracking, I’d internalized the lessons.
I didn’t need the constant monitoring anymore. I’d become my own best sensor.
The Science: When Data Becomes Dangerous
Here’s what most people don’t tell you about wearables.
EMR Exposure
Wearables emit electromagnetic radiation through Bluetooth and wireless connections. While regulatory bodies like the FCC and CDC state that exposure levels from wearables are significantly lower than phones and fall within safety limits, the cumulative effect of 24/7 wear is less studied.1
The consensus? Wearable devices expose users to lower amounts of radiofrequency radiation compared to established exposure limits, and all devices sold in the United States must meet Federal Communications Commission safety standards.
But here’s the thing. Even if EMR risk is minimal, why add one more variable when you don’t need to?
The Accuracy Problem
Wearables are good. Not perfect.
They excel at trends over time. They struggle with day-to-day precision.
Many wearable features like SpO2, respiratory rate, and heart rate variability are not FDA-approved for medical purposes, even though they may provide health insights.2
Modern sleep trackers achieve 86-89% agreement with polysomnography (the gold standard) for determining sleep versus wake states. Reliable for timing and duration, but not perfect.3 4
You’re making life decisions based on approximations.
The Psychological Trap
This is the real killer.
When you let numbers dictate your days, you lose touch with your own intuition.
You stop trusting your body. You defer to the device.
The device becomes the master. You become the slave.
That’s not optimization. That’s dependence.
What I Learned After 3 Years Of 24/7 Tracking
After years in the data trenches, here’s what I discovered.
Sleep optimization: I know what works. Temperature control. Light exposure. Timing. I don’t need nightly tracking to confirm what I already know.
Recovery awareness: I can feel when I’m recovered. Energy levels. Mood. Physical readiness. The internal compass is calibrated.
Training response: I know when to push and when to back off. My body tells me before any device does.
Stress management: I recognize stress accumulation before HRV drops. The physical sensations come first.
The wearables taught me the language. Now I speak it fluently.
I don’t need the translator anymore.
My New Protocol: Selective, Strategic, Sane
Here’s what I do now.
Training sessions only: Garmin goes on before workouts. Tracks HR, VO2 max, training load. Comes off after.
No overnight wear: I know my sleep habits. I don’t need confirmation every single night.
Periodic check-ins: Maybe once a month, I’ll wear it overnight for a “systems check.” Spot-check that everything’s still aligned. Honestly? So far it hasn’t happened yet.
Emergency mode: If I feel off for several days, I’ll wear it to gather data. But as a diagnostic tool, not a daily crutch. Not happened yet too.
The result?
Freedom.
Battery life through the roof. Comfort skyrockets. Mental energy returns.
I check sunset times on my phone, not my wrist. I wear my watches without guilt. Their batteries are good for years. Or they’re mechanical. No charging needed.
Most importantly? I’m in control. Not the device.
The Double-Edged Sword Of Longevity Tech
Longevity requires obsession.
Average effort gets average results. Average results get you nowhere.
To excel, you need to be obsessive. I mean it in a positive way.
But there’s a line. Cross it, and obsession becomes compulsion. Health optimization becomes health destruction.
Wearables are the perfect double-edged sword.
For beginners: They’re incredible. They teach. They motivate. They guide. They show you what your body needs.
For the experienced: They can become dangerous. They create dependence. They override intuition. They generate anxiety.
The goal is to use them to level up, then move beyond needing them constantly.
Tools, Not Crutches
That person I mentioned earlier—the one who told me she was already in tune with her body?
She was right all along.
She had mastered the basics: exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management.
She didn’t need gadgets to tell her what her body already knew.
I didn’t understand at the time. I thought she was missing out.
Now I get it.
She’d already internalized what I was still learning.
When To Use Them, When To Lose Them
If you’re starting: Use wearables. Track everything. Learn the language of your body.
If you’ve been tracking 1-3 years: You’re in the learning zone. Build your baseline. Master the metrics.
If you’ve tracked 3+ years and mastered the basics: Test selective use. Maybe you’ve already internalized the lessons.
If anxiety is creeping in: Step back immediately. No data is worth your mental health.
The goal isn’t endless tracking. It’s mastery.
The Freedom Of A Bare Wrist
Day one without Garmin or Whoop on my biceps felt strange. And right.
Day seven? Liberating.
Now? I don’t even think about it.
I train hard. I recover well. I sleep great.
Not because a device told me to. Because I know how.
The vintage watch on my wrist keeps time. Nothing more. Nothing less.
No notifications. No metrics. No stress.
Just presence. Just serenity. Just life.
The Bottom Line
Use wearables as tools, not identity.
Gather data when it’s useful. Live freely when you can.
I spent three years building my internal compass. Now I trust it.
I check my bearings periodically. But I’m no longer lost without constant guidance.
Longevity requires obsession. But it also requires balance.
Optimize aggressively. But know when to step back.
Master the metrics. Then master yourself.
Your body knows more than any device ever will.
Are you listening?
Which stage are you in? Tell me.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). “Facts About Wearable Technology.” CDC Radiation and Your Health. https://www.cdc.gov/radiation-health/data-research/facts-stats/wearable-technology.html ↩︎
- National Center for Health Research. (2025). “Wearable Health Devices and Personal Health Trackers: What You Need to Know.” https://www.center4research.org/wearable-medical-devices-risks-fitbit/ ↩︎
- Miller, D.J., et al. (2022). “A Validation of Six Wearable Devices for Estimating Sleep, Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability in Healthy Adults.” Sensors, 22(16), 6317. ↩︎
- Giovangrandi L., et al. (2023). “State of the science and recommendations for using wearable technology in sleep and circadian research.” Sleep, 47(4), zsad325. ↩︎
