

Self-quantifiers: Silicon Valley types who treat their bodies like computers - codex
http://www.slate.com/id/2296731/

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TheEzEzz
Self-tracking is great. I track everything I eat and a range of markers and
symptoms. Over the last few years I've greatly stabilized my mood, sleeping
patterns, and productivity. I only wish there were better tools on the market.
There's a whole bunch of chemicals in my bloodstream that I'd love to track
the concentration of.

~~~
slackerIII
If it isn't too personal, what have you learned? I'm curious if is common
knowledge nutritional stuff that tracking just gave you the willpower to
follow (refined carbs are bad!) or something more novel (bacon is the
answer!)?

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TheEzEzz
I've learned that certain refined carbs (white flour) give me an energy boost
followed by a satisfying crash, whereas other refined carbs (white rice) just
make me moody. I avoid refined carbs in general, but I have occasional
insomnia so it's good to know which things can induce a good crash. Sweet
potato yams are probably the best pure carb source that I've found for
inducing sleep. Nuts and fruit help as well.

I've discovered some food allergies (soy, bananas, oranges) which have greatly
eased symptoms after removal (especially digestion problems).

Magnesium and calcium have strong influences on cardiac events (skipped beats,
bounding pulse, etc), but I haven't been able to leverage them to eliminate
symptoms completely.

Ginkgo is great for circulation and body warmth (probably specific to my own
body chemistry though, as it sounds like most people don't have any reaction
to it). Ashwaganda is ridiculous (for me).

I wouldn't be surprised if nothing I've learned applied to anyone else. I
don't encourage anyone to follow my specific diet (except for avoiding refined
foods), but I do encourage people to track themselves. It's quite empowering.

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spiralganglion
"he takes a picture of his plate with his mobile phone, which then logs the
calories"

Is this real? Am I missing something? I can't imagine that there exists some
sort of app to automatically identify the caloric contents of food simply from
a photo. But then, what sort of tool could he be using for this purpose? Is
this just journalistic liberty being taken with the idea of keeping a food
photo journal and manually-updated log of dietary data?

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smokinn
It's called Meal Snap. I've never used it myself but mashable seems to think
it works well.

<http://mashable.com/2011/04/06/meal-snap/>

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harscoat
MealSnap uses MechanicalTurk to do the job
<http://dashdingo.org/post/4391031302/how-mealsnap-works>

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alabut
I heard that's because MealSnap is a ripoff of another app that uses AI and
applied to YC for this session, but didn't get in because a cofounder bailed.
I wish I could remember the app's name - the main dude is still going and a
super sharp German math whiz.

~~~
taro
The app is called Photato, it's not out yet but we have a new team and are
building something that is accurate enough to be of use to the Quantified self
community. If anyone here is interested in testing Photato, drop me a line at
taro.franke (at) gmail (dot) com

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delackner
Congratulations to those who gain benefit from this, but I can't help but feel
that a little bit of introspection is all that is really needed. Listen to
your body. It is always talking to you, reporting how it is doing. Most of the
time we just aren't listening.

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grimlck
Am i the only one that went online shopping for the items mentioned after
reading the article? :)

