I’ve never been interested in using my apple watch to track stuff. It’s just not me.
But then, last week, my personal trainer told me how she has been using an Oura ring to track her sleep. She has a bunch of health issues that mean she doesn’t sleep at all well, but she hadn’t realised how poorly she slept until she started wearing the ring. She also realised that she was doing an enormous amount of exercise and the ring told her it was way too much. She’s using the data to tweak her life for the better.
That inspired me, as a 55-year-old type 2 diabetic on insulin, to try a continuous glucose monitor, and I too was shocked to learn what was going on in my body. I normally do twice daily blood tests and they told me what my blood sugar was like before breakfast and before my evening meal. The continuous readings showed me that blood sugar was a lot higher, and for longer, than I had realised. What I thought was tiredness due to poor sleep is most likely tiredness due to bad sugars. I can use that data to tweak what eat and get rid of the tiredness, I hope.
So now I’m wondering what else I could track using my Apple Watch, without buying an Oura ring. Or … is it worth buying a ring too?
So glad you’ve gotten that CGM data. I wish every non-diabetic could use one for a month every five years–and all the pre-diabetics and diabetics to get one indefinitely, of course. It is eye-opening. Being able to safely push physical activities harder is the other big benefit besides what you said, for me.
Can’t speak to the Oura but I’m always excited to hear someone’s gotten a Dexcom or a Libre.
Thanks for that. This might sound silly but it’s not until I read this that I that I’m 55 and I’ve never worn jewellery and I’m not sure if I would tolerate it.
The last line makes me think we have the same sense of humour. Dangerously!
Oura Ring lets me wear whatever watch I want for the given situation. I can’t have an Apple Watch in my workspace, but I’m allowed an Oura Ring, so that’s one area where I’d have no data vs some data.
I use my Oura Ring for sleep tracking, but I’m largely dialed in there so that’s more of a “nice to have”. The symptom radar feature is nice to give me a heads up on maybe getting sick.
I think the thing I use the most is letting the Oura Ring guide how hard I should work out in a given day based on sleep and previous activity. Apple Watch can do that with the help of third party apps, but the Oura Ring keeps it all together (and I can wear it more).
Yah, government classified spaces so no electronics basically. But in some spaces there is a cutout for some fitness devices that are bluetooth only (no microphones, no wifi, etc.).
In short, there is nothing that an Oura ring or Whoop does that an Apple Watch + suitable app doesn’t do. Oura and Whoop do a good job of consolidating various metrics in to “scores” (for ex. “Recovery”, “Strain”) that Apple Watch doesn’t do natively, but does with the support of an app like Bevel or Athlytic.
There have been various formal and informal studies that show that Apple Watch’s core metric accuracy is among the best, and Oura especially among the least accurate options.
However, Oura and Whoop do have one super compelling feature for some people – they’re not a watch. That’s why I wear a Whoop even though IMO everything else about it is worse than Apple Watch + Bevel.
If Apple would make a ring or even a fitness band, I’d be all over it! I’d much rather keep all my stuff with them, but Oura Ring just helps fill a gap so well.
The Oura Ring is really good if you’re into detailed sleep and health tracking. It’s comfortable and looks nice, but it’s a bit expensive, and you have to charge it every few days. If you’re serious about your well-being, I think it’s worth it. If you just want basic fitness tracking, maybe something simpler would do.
Sorry I have no useful contribution on the merits of an Oura ring. Apple Watch meets my needs and tells the time! But I often declutter myself and go back to a simple mechanical device.
That said the Oura ring, smart watches, fitness tracking and the measure culture have their benefits but to me it brings to mind a comment by Socrates written in Plato’s Apology - The unexamined life is not worth living "he was subsequently sentenced to death. So maybe too much examining isn’t good either…
If he were around today and could break through the information deluge maybe his view would be: “an unexamined life is not worth living but an over measured life is equally pointless - enjoy the moments as they arise”.
No judgements on any devices we all choose to buy (says he the owner of almost every apple gadget). But on days of technology overwhelm I do ponder the joys of pen and paper and a simple phone - of course nigh impossible to exist in the modern commercially driven world without some form of internet connectivity.
Apologies for no value added to your decision making! But the concept of another device to choose from gave me food for thought. Thanks
