Are you looking to drop some belly fat or get bigger arms?

Data can help.

Want to get an edge mentally, have more energy, and be more productive throughout the day?

Data can help.

Do you not care so much about looks or performance, but you want to age well and be healthy for years to come?

Data can certainly help.

You don't have to be a numbers person, or track every single thing you do, to benefit from health and fitness data.

There has never been a time where this data has been as accessible as it is.

What previously would cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per year to meticulously track is now included with most wearable devices or with low cost apps.

Tests that would require doctor's orders are now available online for anyone interested in knowing where their health stacks up.

You can choose to track a little bit of data.

Or you can choose to track a lot of data.

But if you're looking to be the best version of you - in how you look and how you feel, now and for years to come - then data has to be a part of your plan.

A lot of people fear data, because it tells them where they're actually at.

That's why people avoid going to the doctor when they know something is wrong.

Getting actual numbers on where you're at is simply a starting point, and is necessary to make sure that what you're doing is actually working.

If you want to be your best, here is the data men should be tracking in 2025:

Metabolism

It's important to have a pulse on how your metabolism is doing. This is important in general, but it's essential if your goal is to build muscle, burn fat, or do both. The better idea you have about how many calories your body needs to maintain, it makes building muscle and burning fat almost effortless.

If you try guessing your way to fat loss, you often fall into two categories. First, you start with calories way too low. This is a recipe for disaster and a surefire way to crash your metabolism and lose muscle (instead of fat).

Second, is that you don't really know what your metabolism needs or how much you need to be consuming. So you start a vague 'diet' like cutting out carbs, eating more salads, or doing a Whole30.

This sometimes works for a little bit, but ends up leaving you frustrated when you can't maintain your progress (either because you're eating too little or think you're eating less than you actually are)

Steps

This was the number one thing (of six things) that I am committed to focusing more on in 2025.

Walking over 10,000 steps per day has been associated with the following (pulled from Dr. Casey Means book Good Energy):

• 50% lower dementia risk
• 50-70% lower risk of premature death
• 44% lower risk of type 2 diabetes
• 31% lower risk of obesity
• Reductions in depression, gastric disorders, sleep apnea

If you want to be your best, the data is pretty clear that 8,000-12,000 steps per day is a pretty good range to consistently stay in. 

Body Composition

It's not enough to just track your weight any more.

If you're happy with where you're at weight wise, you might still have excess fat that (commonly referred to as skinny fat) that can cause health and metabolic problems.

If you're losing weight, you better be sure it's not hard earned muscle, or that's a trade that you might not want to make.

And if you're gaining weight, you want to make sure you're minimizing fat gain while maximizing muscle growth.

Wherever you fall, the scale can be deceiving, and it's important to know where you stand.

The gold standard would be something like a DEXA scan, although there are other creative ways to monitor body composition with less precision. These include:

• Using skin calipers
• Measuring waist circumference (especially important if you're trying to add muscle)
• Measuring other areas of your body (ex: arms, shoulders, legs if you're losing weight to make sure muscle mass isn't dropping too fast)
• The good old fashioned 'look' test. Before and after pics can help shed some light on how your body is changing.

Bloodwork

Knowing your bloodwork is essential to knowing how your body is actually functioning 'underneath the hood'.

It's one thing to look healthy, it's a whole other thing to actually be healthy.

There are lots of services now that will check a wide range of health markers and will help with interpreting the data.

Hormones

It's important for men to know the health of their hormones. If your cortisol is sky high and your testosterone is in the dumps, no perfect diet or workout program will get you looking and feeling your best.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't focus on those things, but you'll be fighting an uphill battle if your hormones are off. Ideally this should all be included in bloodwork testing in most cases.

Just because testosterone comes back low doesn't mean that you should jump to TRT. In fact, I would advise against it. Here is a natural testosterone boosting checklist to get you started.

Sleep and Stress

Tracking sleep quantity is important, but tracking sleep quality is even more important. If you can improve your sleep quality and quantity, you will drastically feel and perform better. The same goes for effectively tracking and managing stress.

This can effect everything from metabolism, to workout performance, to recovery, to mental productivity, to better blood sugar regulation, among other things. Most wearable devices will do a good job tracking this over time.

High performing men now know that high quality sleep and stress management is not optional to be their best.

Data can be overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be.

You don't have to start with everything at once.

Pick one thing to track at a time and pay attention to how things like diet, exercise, lifestyle, and other factors affect it.

If you need any help making sense of your data, or you're not sure where to start, reply right here.

This is the data I will be tracking more of in 2025 personally and with my clients, to help be the best men we can be.

Dave