How I’m Using AI to Help with Health and Fitness

For those following along, you know that one of my core values is Health and Fitness. For years I’ve been careful about what I eat and make sure I get plenty of exercise. A few years ago, I began intermittent fasting and adopted a “mostly keto” diet, and that had been working very well to keep me healthy and fit.

But I’m always looking to improve, so I thought I’d get some expert advice.

Personalized, multi-expert based nutrition guide

I had read about 35 top books by experts on nutrition on my Kindle and highlighted key sections. I exported and compiled them and uploaded them to ChatGPT, and had Chat analyze all of it, looking for the most agreed-upon concepts and advice. It then used that to create a single Comprehensive Nutrition Guide for Metabolic Health, Gut Health, and Longevity. You don’t have to read all those books to do the same: you can just tell ChatGPT your basic information and your health goals, and ask it to produce a nutrition guide based on the most common science-backed advice from multiple experts.

Understanding the impact of individual foods

Because sharply limiting simple carbohydrates and glycemic load looked like the most important factor, I then had Chat give me the grams of net carbs (grams of carbs minus grams of fiber) and glycemic load for a typical serving of about 100 different common foods. This alone was eye-opening, and while I had long ago eliminated most tropical fruits due to the high carb content, I had still been eating an apple a day (a habit since I was a kid) and having bananas a few times a week. So to see that a medium apple has 21 net carbs and a medium banana has 24 net carbs when I’m trying to stay under 30 net carbs for a day, was shocking and caused me to eliminate bananas entirely and make an apple a treat less than once a week. I also saw just how many carbs other foods had: for example, brown rice has 42 net carbs (better than white rice at 52), and “superfood” quinoa has 39 net carbs! Without this information, even when I thought I was making healthy choices, I wasn’t – I was still consuming far too many net carbs. 

My Net Nutrition Score for food, meals, and a full day’s food

Of course, there’s more to nutrition than just limiting net carbs: for example, you should be eating only whole, unprocessed foods, you need sufficient high quality protein and healthy fats (your macronutrients), and you need sufficient fresh vegetables, fiber, probiotics, and micro-nutrients. So I began working with Chat to create a Net Nutrition Score based on the common expert advice which include both the positive and negative impacts. After several rounds of refinement, we came up with a Net Nutrition Score (NNS) that can be applied to any individual food item, to a meal, and to my full day’s food. The NNS ranges from -10 to +10, and my goal is for every day to score an 8 or above. So each day, I input my previous day’s meals into ChatGPT and ask it to analyze my previous days’ food. It immediately does so, giving me calories, the macro breakdown, pros and cons, and of course a score of each meal and for the day as a whole, as well as giving me advice on how I could have improved the score by making changes or substitutions. This NNS is extremely helpful to me, and it has helped me take my nutrition to the next level. I am incredibly mindful of avoiding foods that will bring down my NNS and actively work to eat foods and meals that get a high score.

The ultimate snack or dessert

I love to ski, and when I ski with my friends, we used to bring Builders Bars, Clif Bars, or granola bars with us to eat for lunch so we could keep skiing while the slopes were empty. With my growing awareness of nutrition, I was shocked and dismayed when I looked at the ingredient list and macros for Builders Bars. So I got ChatGPT to help me develop a recipe for a healthy replacement. It was intended to just be a replacement for ski trips, and that’s where we started making and eating them, but now, as I have perfected the recipe, it is so good, I eat it every day for an afternoon snack and also sometimes eat it as dessert. I call it Paul’s Keto Fudge because it looks, feels and tastes a lot like fudge, but it’s actually good for you! You remember my NNS?  Well, my Keto Fudge gets a score of 9.25, which is just about the highest score I’ve found for anything I’ve eaten! The macros: 1 piece has 16.7g of protein, 6.2 grams of fiber, and 5.4 grams of net carbs, well within carb limits for a keto diet. (It’s great by itself but even better in a bowl with some plain Greek Yogurt and some blueberries). If you want the recipe, just email me to ask for it and I’ll send it your way.

Personalized Fitness Plan

Next, I did something similar regarding exercise, movement, and stretching. I gave ChatGPT all of my pertinent body and medical information as well as my current activities and exercise, movement and stretching, and my fitness goals, and asked it to act as an expert personal trainer and give me a personalized fitness guide and plan and suggest changes to my current practices. Chat gave me excellent advice, including an overall weekly plan, a very specific strength plan, cardio plan, stretching plan, and more. It also advised me on the fitness benefits of non-exercise activities like sauna, meditation, and breathwork.

Supplements

I fed ChatGPT a list of the supplements I take, along with all my body and medical information, lab test reports, and of course my goals, and had it analyze each of them based on research studies, and then tell me whether I should continue, stop, or change my dosage and frequency, and which supplements I should add. Another home run result; I cut a few, changed my protocol on a few, and added a few, including 3 specifically to help me get longer and higher quality sleep, which have proven very effective.

Takeaway

The benefits I’ve gotten from leveraging ChatGPT for health and fitness are incredible. If I had a scientific researcher, a nutritionist, a chef, and a personal trainer, I don’t think I could have gotten what I got by simply using ChatGPT.

You may not be quite as into health and fitness as I am, but everyone should care about it and take steps to improve. You might want to follow my examples above and get your own personalized health and fitness advice.

And remember, if you want my Keto Fudge recipe, just ask!

*Remember, AI, like humans, makes mistakes! Keep this in mind, especially when using it for health and fitness advice, and consult with your doctor if you are making any significant changes in this arena.