
Show HN: Lyle – An AI-Powered Weight Loss App for Men - philiplyle
https://medium.com/@Philipkasumu/lyle-the-ai-powered-weight-loss-app-for-men-is-out-2751c7ced504
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sjroot
> “How did you hear about me?”

Hacker News

> “I don’t understand that. I’m getting on the subway - give me an hour!”

While paraphrased, the above conversation is essentially the extent of my
conversation with Lyle. I would really recommend removing dialogue from the
bot that makes it seem like a real person. I know your app didn’t just get on
the subway.

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philiplyle
thanks for the feedback. We thought making him human-like was a good thing.
Can you share more about what you don't like about the interaction? Something
I can discuss with the team. Thank you!

~~~
SirFatty
It's disingenuous? Why not just say "I've got to look into that and will get
back to you."?

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feintruled
Sounds interesting, and I'll probably try it when it comes out for Android.
Though at the minute I am just inputting my calorie intake into Samsung Health
and making sure I don't eat more than 1500 calories a day (weekdays anyway, it
all goes to hell a bit at weekends). Nevertheless I lose about a lb a week so
the naieve approach seems to work. I presume if I don't tailor my food intake
appropriately I could be in danger of malnutrition.

I guess my question is, what does the app offer above and beyond calorie
counting?

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philiplyle
We're not actually a calorie counter at all. In fact, we kind of are against
it. We provide weekly nutritional programs, let you order the groceries you
need from the programs and then we check in with you daily to make sure you're
sticking with it. Just like a dietitian or nutritionist would. People fall out
of love with trackers and calorie counters very quickly so we wanted to create
something that was to the point, provided value and didn't require you to log
"225g of chicken breast" every time you had one :)

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cimmanom
Why would a weight loss app for men be different from one for women?

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tzahola
Typically men want to get rid of their boobs. Women don’t.

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taneq
Also (edit: some) women tend to be worried about weights work making them 'too
big' (despite this being much less of a risk) while men often enjoy weights
more than cardio.

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cimmanom
Maybe some have that concern. Others of us recognize that it's silly. Also
that you can't target weight loss to avoid affecting your boobs. Seems like
education is the problem, not gender.

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arielm
A minor note about marketing — it took me a while to find the link to the app
in the post. I was about to give up but ended up finding it just before so I
got to the App Store.

I’d suggest adding a “get on App Store” link somewhere prominent so others
don’t give up before at least seeing the app.

~~~
philiplyle
Thanks for the feedback! Updating now

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rabboRubble
I'd love to test your app and approach but alas I am a woman and my boyfriend
is on Android. I lift weights, I do HIIT cardio, I do yoga, I will try a lot
of physical activites. I've also tracked calories, something I hate doing and
I just can't bring myself to do this at the moment. I will never do Jenny
Craig or Weight Watchers bullshit. Love to see a different means of enabling
greater fitness.

You've automatically excluded me from your accepted audience. So sucks to be
you? Or does it suck to be me? Or maybe we are eating the suck because you
don't get my money, and I might miss out on an effective solution for health
improvement.

Oh well...

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hutattedonmyarm
Would love to test it, but it's not available in the German App Store

~~~
philiplyle
Hey, yeah we're only available in the US at the moment we'll be open to other
countries later this year. Thanks for trying anyways!

~~~
hutattedonmyarm
Is there a particular reason?

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stefs
german language parsing perhaps?

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tzahola
They could have made the English version available globally.

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foxhound6
Do you have a site/mailing list where we can sign up for alerts regarding
launch of the Android app? I'd like to try this, but do not have an iPhone.

Without having tried the app, my biggest complaint with apps such as these is
that they recommend recipes/meals (great!) but cannot take into account
certain things that I won't eat (tomatoes, most cheeses, low preference for
fish). Does Lyle take these things into account when making meal
recommendations?

~~~
philiplyle
before you sign up and start talking with Lyle we do ask about your
preferences where you can say whether you cheese, nuts etc. Tomatoes not at
the moment unfortunately but we'll be getting smarter for sure.

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romanovcode
Okey so I say I am interested in "Keto" and it just prints me a cookie-cutter
keto diet to follow? I think I am very much interested in looking at the app
screenshot after the initial phase. In any way this is a very nice idea and
I'm glad that there are people who are pushing healthy apps.

Also, to anyone that wants to lose weight - just count calories, eat same
thing every day for couple of months and do cardio/hiit. It's not a rocket
science.

~~~
philiplyle
You'll get weekly nutritional programs based on your preferences yes.

Weight loss isn't rocket science you're right but counting calories and eating
the same thing every day is exactly why we exist, people don't want to do that
anymore. It's pretty boring and restrictive which is why the average American
diets 3-5 times a year :)

~~~
romanovcode
> It's pretty boring and restrictive which is why the average American diets
> 3-5 times a year :)

It's also why average American is overweight. Justsayin'.

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handbanana
In the screenshots I see "Protein:xxg", and series of letters for the other
macros. On another I see a picture of salmon and is says "A easy almon". On
another I see "Eggs beaten with a dash a water".

So overall, that's pretty shocking and for me a huge red flag about the
quality of this.

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kelnos
Are you planning an Android app? I'd love to try this, but don't have an iOS
device.

~~~
philiplyle
Yes absolutely. hopefully by the summer

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magic_beans
I find it silly that this product is exclusively “for men”. The biggest weight
loss apps out there — My Fitness Pal, LoseIt, — are gender neutral. I’ve never
even seen a “female-centric” weight loss app.

This turned me off immediately.

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RobertDeNiro
Since I don't have an iOS device, I'm just going by the screenshots I'm
seeing, but I'm wondering what exactly does the app do?

Recommend recipes based on a diet? What makes the AI useful in this case?

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Ryel
Congratulations on launching!

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rambossa
hit a weird bug initially, got to the point where it asked how much water I
drank-- I answered "5", and then it reverted to telling me it'll never put me
on a diet

~~~
philiplyle
Hey, thanks for trying it out! yeah, we asked a few questions that require you
to rate things from 1-10 so in order for Lyle to differentiate we asked that
you add "glasses" at the end of your answer. but we need to work on making
that flow clearer. Thanks again for trying it out.

~~~
jptoor
I ran into the same issue.

If you haven't, I'd check out some other popular chat bots for their UX. Ex.:
Woebot
[https://www.facebook.com/drwoebot/](https://www.facebook.com/drwoebot/)

Having buttons for things like "continue", "go on" or "not right now" is
something I took for granted. No need to have me type it if there's a limited
set of acceptable responses.

~~~
philiplyle
Thanks for checking us out. We haven't come across these guys before. We
played around with having buttons or going with NLP to make it more realistic.
Perhaps we should have both, thanks for the feedback!

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DrScump
May I ask why you chose Lyle as the name?

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swah
> We started Lyle because there’s nothing out there for guys who just want to
> lose a few pounds.

What?? There are so many resources for anyone who wants to lose weight these
days ([http://reddit.com/r/fitness](http://reddit.com/r/fitness),
[http://reddit.com/r/loseit](http://reddit.com/r/loseit),
[http://reddit.com/r/progresspics](http://reddit.com/r/progresspics)).

I'd sell this on a different argument in the line of "modern/smartest/easiest
way"... with AI!

~~~
philiplyle
Appreciate the feedback! Will definitely be reviewing our messaging as we
evolve

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fredley
"For Men". As a man: no thanks.

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tvanantwerp
Seems overly hostile. The post makes it pretty clear that it's targeting a
market it feels is under-served: men who want to lose some weight but aren't
trying to get ripped. Fair to debate if that is a good niche or not, but such
outright dismissal seems uncalled for.

