After months of being bombarded with online advertisements for personalized diet plans or work-out programs and fitness coaches, which all sounded like big scams and had various reviews and data claiming their ineffectiveness, I decided to turn to ChatGPT for help. The issue with coming up with a perfect dietary or fitness plan that works for you is the inability to apply most general knowledge to personal cases. Our physiology works in mysterious ways sometimes, and the differences between each person that is seeking help are enough to confuse even the most equipped coaches or trainers. GenAI has an advantage of being able to take far more factors into consideration to create a perfectly customized plan for you by accessing a huge amount of sources at once.
Despite being skeptical to use ChatGPT in academics or in my daily life to avoid losing control or critical thinking when it comes to making decisions and creating, I decided that this aspect of my life was the perfect area to test GenAI. Fitness is one of the fields on the internet, which, in my opinion, is filled with most misinformation you can find that can be detrimental to health if not researched thoroughly. All physical, mental and health related factors need to be taken into consideration, which is why it is hard for a human with a very finite amount of understanding on the topic regardless of certification to give truly personal advice.
I experienced the advantages of ChatGPT right from the beginning. Having given it all the required information about my basic physical stats (height, age, weight, allergies) as well as preferences in food, time management, weekly schedules, types of exercise I enjoy most, what I´d like to avoid, which nutrients or muscle group I want to focus on, etc, I created what seems to be a perfect diet and workout plan for myself. There was a clear productivity benefit when personalization was pushed to the limit. ChatGPT saved me hours of planning by producing structured meal templates with possible alternatives and ingredient swaps to account for diversity, providing all information about nutritional values and caloric intake, workout sessions focusing on my needs and availability, shopping lists and recommendations for where to shop or find certain things, and much more. This was a big advantage. I didn´t have to waste time doing research on effective diet types or the most effective exercise plan for hypertrophy compared to strength or endurance exercises.
Despite this, there were still some concerns. GenAI can hallucinate specifics and lack clinical judgement. In most cases, a human expert opinion is crucial, for example if a person has incomplete health awareness and may come across issues they did not account for. Trusting AI with your health is a big risk, including privacy issues related to sharing sensitive health data. Also, calorie estimate and exercise intensity can be less trustworthy if not paired with wearable validation.
For practical improvements, to avoid any of the above-mentioned risks, it is always smarter to not rely fully on AI and consult with a human expert in case of uncertainty. Integration with wearable devices can definitely make the overall picture more accurate. As a user, make sure to look for supporting evidence and not take the advice at face value, to mitigate the risks with hallucination. Overall, I think if you still take full responsibility over your health and approach the GenAI plans with critical thinking, it can be a powerful tool to perfect your fitness plan while saving you a huge amount of time.
