The tech industry is creating all manner of alternative health and wellness services. I've tested dozens of activity trackers and more than my fair share of fitness apps. I've even worn smart clothing that records how hard your muscles are working as you lift weights. So when I was asked if I wanted to do a blood analysis, which would let me track 30 biomarkers over time and get recommendations for how I could optimize my body through diet, I said, "Boy howdy! Sign me up!" And that's how I got started with InsideTracker.

InsideTracker (from $49 to $499, depending on the service you select; see below) starts with the aforementioned blood test, which goes to a lab for analysis. Results, which were turned around in about three days for me, are extremely easy to read because they're plotted in a wonderful online dashboard. From your online account, you can see your levels of different biomarkers, such as blood iron and glucose, on a scale indicating not only the healthy normal range, but an optimal range for you. The site is rich with information and recommendations for how to change your behavior to improve your results, mostly through diet. The idea is that you can take another blood test in a few months and see how the recommended changes are affecting your biomarkers, such as lowering your LDL cholesterol, because InsideTracker will plot new results alongside previous ones.

Note: Inside Tracker is not a medical service, and thus is not regulated by the FDA.

Self-Tracking vs. Medical Advice

While I found the service fascinating, InsideTracker didn't impress my nutritionist/registered dietitian (M.S., R.D., C.D.E) nearly as much when I brought her my results to review. Her professional opinion was that there are some biomarkers that are fine to self-track, including glucose, cholesterol, and B12, as long as you actually understand what they mean. Then there are other biomarkers, such as calcium, iron, sodium, and potassium, that she does not recommend monitoring without the help of a healthcare provider. She added to that list white blood cell counts and anything having to do with liver function as well. When I asked why, she said, "Because there could be too many things that could be medically wrong if those things are off, other than a food issue. If those things are off, we need to figure out what's wrong. Do we try lifestyle mediations first? We do. But if you have hepatitis, we need to know that you have hepatitis."

Again, bear in mind that Inside Tracker is not considered a medical service, is not regulated by the FDA, and therefore is prohibited from making any medical diagnoses. It is only meant to provide food and lifestyle recommendations to "optimize" one's physical condition. InsideTracker does alert you by email when you have results that are in the danger zones of being too high or low, recommending that you see a healthcare provider.

In this review, I share my experience with the service and mention anything pertinent that I learned from my nutritionist.

Price and Options

InsideTracker offers five different plans. The first option, called Do It Yourself ($49), lets you use InsideTracker as a dashboard where you plot your own blood work results that were conducted elsewhere. This level of service does not include a blood test.

The second tier of service is a Home Kit ($99 for U.S. residents), in which you'll receive a kit in the mail to collect a few drops of your own blood to mail into a lab. In this tier of service, InsideTracker only tests for five biomarkers, although for $299, they'll add a few more.

Tiers three, four, and five—called Fitness ($149), Performance ($299), and Ultimate ($499)—all include a proper blood test, with results for 12, 20, and 30 biomarkers, respectively. I got the Ultimate treatment for this review.

The InsideTracker Experience

My journey with InsideTracker started when I requested an appointment. You can choose to go to a lab and have your blood drawn there, or for an extra $80, schedule a white-glove service, meaning a phlebotomist will come to your home or office to take your sample. There's also a home kit option, explained below in the price section.

A representative called me to confirm the time and date, and told me I should fast for 12 hours before. InsideTracker schedules blood draws in the mornings so that it's easy to fast overnight. The rep also told me to avoid heavy exercise at least the day before.

In the days leading up to the blood draw, I got one or two more email reminders and phone calls to confirm the address, time, and other details.

A phlebotomist came to my office one Monday morning. She was kind, professional, and quick. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes. She drew four vials of blood, labeled them, and asked me to sign some paperwork. She also required my ID to verify my name and date of birth.

While I expected to see results in about a week—that's the minimum amount of time with my usual doctor—I actually had an email waiting for me Thursday morning when I woke up linking to my results. InsideTracker is surprisingly fast!

Dashboard and Recommendations

Results in the dashboard are, by default, listed in order from items that need improvement to ones that are already in their optimal zone, so you see bad news first. For me, they aligned pretty closely with blood results I got from my doctor two or three months earlier: my LDL cholesterol was a little high, as was my calcium, and my iron was a little low. Vitamin D, another biomarker I was expecting to be low, actually turned out to be just on the lowest possible edge of my optimal zone, probably because I started taking supplements about six weeks ago. It's nice to see they're working.

In an initial questionnaire when you set up your account, you indicate if you're willing to take supplements, and other personal information, such as whether you're pregnant. InsideTracker takes those factors that might affect the recommended level of different biomarkers for you into account.

Aside from the very clear charts showing where your biomarkers land on a spectrum, there's information that explains what each biomarker is and what it means. Certain biomarkers, like iron, are shown in groups, with related biomarkers in tabs. Each biomarker has a color-coded dot next to it that indicates your placement on the scale:

• blue (low)
• green (optimal)
• yellow (normal, but not optimal)
• orange (near normal)
• dark orange (borderline high)
• and red (high).

Next to each reading is also a recommendation for foods to eat that can improve your results in future blood tests, as well as other changes you can make, such as certain exercises to do or avoid, or supplements you might take. And indeed, there can be future blood tests. The whole point of InsideTracker is to track your results over time. You can also export your results to a CSV file as well as view them in a table format.

Let's consider for a moment, however, some of the things InsideTracker doesn't know about me: blood pressure, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, lung capacity, O2 levels, and so forth. Here's where I started to find the service troubling. It thinks my sodium should be lower, but it doesn't know that I have low blood pressure. High sodium is typically only a problem when it causes an increase in blood pressure. In other words, I'm fine. Or what about people who have higher cholesterol for genetic reasons? At a certain point, diet may not help to lower a person's cholesterol any more than it already is, though prescription drugs might.