

Show HN: A better way to track fitness goals (my nights and weekend project) - durga
http://12labs.com/
FitFrnd is a mobile app that helps you enjoy working out.<p>- Flexible goals: Set an initial fitness goal. Adjust your goal as you make progress and learn about what you enjoy doing.<p>- Share your success: Tell friends and family about workouts done and milestones achieved! Share on Facebook and Twitter.<p>- Push your buddies: Encourage friends and comment on their workouts.<p>- Smarts for fitness: Discover weekly patterns in your workout history, and get better at working out.<p>- Be a winner: Kick ass and get into shape!<p>FitFrnd is fun, simple and easy to use. It is your personal fitness companion and social butterfly rolled into one!<p>Video Overview: http://youtu.be/_i3dWPdDdD4
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amccloud
I'm so sorry. The music prevented me from getting far enough in the video to
understand what this was.

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durga
amccloud, not sure what you mean.

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Detrus
Change the music, it is for preppy teenage girls that bring back terrible
memories for nerds.

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durga
Done - music removed :)

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qxcv
The silent video without annotations thing is a bit strange, as somebody who
has never used fitfrnd I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at.
Perhaps a simple Javascript slideshow widget with labels might work better?
The pictures on fitfrnd.com are a lot more effective at illustrating the
functionality of the app, though admittedly less information-dense than an
animation or a video.

Edit: sorry, I just noticed technel made the same point below and saw your
reply.

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durga
Annotations added. Better now?

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wickedchicken
It's hard to tell from the screenshots if you track weight or not, but if you
do I highly recommend doing a similar weighted-average system as Libra[1]. Not
a lot of apps do this and it's pretty critical to tracking actual weight loss
over time. It's based on the thoughts in [2].

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.li...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en)

[2] <http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html>

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rbajaj
I've been using v1.0 for 3 weeks now. Very clean, have been able to drag
myself for short walks at lunch.. :)

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durga
awesome :)

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boredguy8
For what it's worth, I use Cardio Trainer for tracking + social sharing.
Friends "cheer" me on via Facebook, and I can progress my workouts using a
myriad of tools they have. It's unclear what this does beyond that.

For what it's worth, if there were an app that helped me know WTF to do when
it comes to building muscle tone/size, I'd happily pay for that. To an
averagely fit guy (5.5 miles in 60 minutes or so, 2-3 times a week), the
weights side of thing is infinitely more complex than the cardio side of
things (which amounts to "keep your heart rate within this range for a long
time").

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simonbarker87
I'm a similar type chap (running, biking, squash) but the weight side isn't
too complex once you realise that a lot of the books over complicate things
for the sake of getting the book published and the magazines regurgitate the
same stuff on an annual basis.

Stick to the good old 3 sets of 8 reps 2 - 3 times a week and give each muscle
group a 7 day rest. No more than 6 exercises per session (keep it under 1
hour)

If you just want to do one weights session a week stick to dead lifts, chest
press, squats, overhead press and pull ups and you'll see improvements. Dan
Shipper wrote a decent article on this recently, just keep it simple and build
it up slow and don't worry about all the complex sounding regimes.

Where you should take advice is on how to do the movements but that's what the
gym attendants are for ... and if you already have a membership then 5 minutes
of their time a few times a week comes for free

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dnlhoust
With respect, you're over simplifying it. Achieving and maintaining good
proportions (the usual goal of those starting out) is going to take more than
Olympic lifts + pullups. Similarly 3x8 on one muscle group once a week isn't a
catch all; it's my opinion that a work out should tailor to your ability and
goals.

That's before we even get into diet. Planning exercise without diet (or vice
versa) is a recipe for no progress.

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technel
Does the video only showcase features that are new to 1.1? Presumably most
people going to your website already do _not_ have the app, right?

Also, I'd love to see something a little more visual (I skipped the video
because I was listening to music) like static screenshots, icons for the
features, and a larger call to action at the bottom (at first glance I
couldn't find where you actually talked about how to get the app).

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durga
technel, good point. You could mute the youtube video, but I get your point.
Will add screenshots and a CTA at the top right away..

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smeitei
This is one app that is aimed at simplicity/ease of use and at same time
maintain the flavor of social driven motivation. My wife and I have been using
it for quite some-time. We often go out to do something motivated by seeing
others doing something. I really like the simplicity of this app without
losing the purpose.

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architgupta
I have seen this evolve since Durga released an early beta to friends and
family.

The evolution has been fantastic with better app design as he got more users
and feedback.

I still keep telling him to hire a designer to make it look prettier, but he
is nailing the functionality first! :)

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ssx
hey durga, I like the simplicity but for me it isn't useful. There are many
other apps that do a similar thing.

I want an app with workouts I can share with friends, so we can try to do the
same workouts remotely.

A friend of mine wanted to start strength training for rock climbing. First
finding an app that creates a progressive workout is non-existant. (and if it
did exist, it probably sucks) Second, there isn't an app that you can share
scheduled workouts with another user and keep each other accountable.

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durga
ssx,

We have been thinking of doing something very similar. For me the motivation
was to make a feature so that my dad can do his evening walks with his friends
who are remote, at the same scheduled time. I'll push this feature up in the
list.

Durga

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aik
Cool. What I wonder is what are the main differences between this and
Endomondo? From my understanding it does the same things basically?

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durga
aik,

pls see my answer to mlerner's question below..

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zscraper
Very nice! Good UI and colors. Now here's the big question - did you come out
weight-negative while developing this app?

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durga
zscraper,

I've lost 2 inches of waistline. I haven't lost a lot of weight (3 pounds) so
I'm assuming (hoping) the fat loss was compensated by muscle build?

Workouts: short walks with dad, and evening tennis matches with friends.

Durga

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rithal
A follow up on what hitting the front page of HN did to your app downloads is
due soon.

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mlerner
Is this very different from what Strava [1] is doing?

[1] www.strava.com

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durga
mlerner,

Thanks for your question.

Our focus is on making workouts fun and non-intimidating. It's not for the
hardcore workout guy who runs 3-5 times every week and needs no motivation.
It's for the large number of busy professionals, moms and dads, older folks,
who'd like an app that gently helps them keep fit, feel less guilty, and re-
ramp up again once they have taken a break.

The differences are: \- Helping users ease into a goal rather than try
something ambitious and get discouraged. The goal "Adjust" feature is
emphasized so that users feel it's OK to change their goal as often as they
like. Also goals are weekly, since that's how we usually think about workouts.
Eg: "I went for runs 3 times the past week, and did 3.1, 2.7 and 3.2 miles".
\- Focus on encouragement, rather than competition. The aim is virtually
create the experience of working out with your close friends. \- Setting micro
goals and achieving them. A 20 min walk around the office block at lunch is
useful exercise.

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xxcode
Its pretty awesome that a product manager wrote code and made shit happen.

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ashutoshc
That indeed is amazing. In a typical app development project vision, product
and engineering is owned by different people. Sometimes, vision and product is
done by a single person. Rarely, I have came across projects, where a
visionary, thinker and creator is a same person. Outcome of such a project
must be absolutely fantastic.

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durga
Thanks. That's flattering, though maybe not as rare. The guys at Instagram
designed and built the app. Googlers did it? :)

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ashutoshc
and both have billion dollars associated with them. That was the point.. if
planner n doer is the same person.. often the result is an amazing product..

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durga
yeah it's sweet when the 16 hour days start paying off big :). But doing
design and coding both is a lot of fun - though I wouldn't mind having some
help a good visual designer..

