

Weekend Project: VisualizeFit.com - katieben
http://visualizefit.com

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codebeaker
Way to exclude mainland Europe through your short-sighted decision to use
Imperial units.

There's simply no valid reason (and hacked in a weekend doesn't cut it) to
store units in Imperial, let me choose, as as an engineer I abhor laziness in
building such sites, in 2012, more than ever I18n and L17n are more important
than ever, even within sites only offered in English language.

(plus the maths on converting weights is more sane with metric units, I just
don't get it)

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DirtyAndy
I would say the developer has thought about their own requirements and
knowledge, much like you have in your comment by thinking only of Europe
whereas pretty much every other country/region in the world uses metric.

Whilst creating an application that deals with different units is not a
massive amount of extra work, launching a minimal viable product to 300
million people in a country that has a major obesity problem is probably not a
bad start. And when I say not a lot of extra work, 2-4 hours depending on
experience of units, server side and client side, data store, would be very
optimistic, hundreds if you are moving towards a more complex project. Quite a
bit on top of what was only a weekend project.

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pvidler
Europe does use the metric system, it's presumably the developer that doesn't
(in terms of countries, just the US and sometimes the UK?). Really, supporting
metric and imperial should be trivial — minutes rather than hours.

The issue I see is that you aren't going to get publicity like this twice. "We
now support metric" isn't news that will show up on my radar in the same way
that this announcement did; how many will bookmark this and check back later,
if it doesn't work for them now?

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katieben
"We Now Support Metric!" :) Haha, just added it in about 15 minutes. Currently
working on getting the user's location by IP address. Thanks for the feedback.

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DanBC
Be aware that some people in the UK want stones and pounds, with feet and
inches. But others (me) would like kg and cm. So please make it an option that
I can chose, even if you try to guess what I want from my IP.

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katieben
Okay, cool - thanks so much for the feedback.

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rmATinnovafy
Nice project.

Would post it to reddit.com/r/loseit

That is a community of people losing weight, and your app would really be a
hit with them.

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katieben
Ooh, cool, okay! Thanks! :)

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olalonde
Seems to be targeted at people who want to lose weight. It would be nice if,
when you chose a target weight higher than yours, it would show someone who
has gained weight through muscle (rather than fat).

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katieben
I definitely want to target weight gain OR loss - or even staying the same,
just trading fat for muscle - I just don't have enough stories yet so the code
is pulling everything. Help me get some by sharing and telling your friends,
or submitting yours! :)

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olalonde
No story to contribute myself but I bet you can find some on
<http://bodybuilding.com> forums.

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katieben
Yeah, I could do that or MyFitnessPal - I guess I'm not sure on the ethics.
People themselves want to share their photos, but is it okay to reach them
through someone else's fitness site? Hacker News and non-fitness-related sites
seemed kosher, but I'm not sure about those... advice?

I'm trying to think of ways to make it a win-win for everyone - maybe promote
the site/product/trainer that helped a person, but in a way so that the site
isn't selling a particular product. Ideas welcome.

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aethr
I understand the need for the social sharing widgets, but they feel really
obtrusive at the top of the page. Presumably at that point of reading the page
you don't yet know what it is you're being asked to share?

I dunno, this is probably my personal preference more than a professional
opinion, but I would suggest moving them below the example image.

Best of luck, it looks like a great inspirational tool!

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katieben
Thanks for the feedback. :) I've made it prominent for now in hopes that it's
clear how people can help the project - share so we can get lots more
inspirational stories, but if it gets more annoying than useful, I'll move it.
Thanks! And thanks for the encouragement! :)

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apricot13
I LOVE this, seeing before/after photos is the most motivating part of
dieting, for me at least!

You should include a dropdown that says whether they used a specific type of
diet, 'healthy eating & exercise', 'atkins', 'weightwatchers', 'dukan',
'cabbage soup' ! it would be quite interesting to see the results.

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katieben
Thanks! Thanks for the feedback! :) Haha, I love your idea, that's awesome -
I'll do that. :) Thanks!

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Whitespace
I understand most people trying to become more fit are overweight, but I
entered in 175 lbs. as my starting weight and 190 lbs. as my target weight,
and I was disappointed to see that I was only show people who dropped down
from 300+ to 190 lbs.

What about those of us who are thin to begin with?

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katieben
Hey there - I'll be showing stories of all kinds, though right now I just
don't have that much data so the code is pulling everything. I need more
stories! If you guys have a story of your own or know anyone, please submit or
send them my way! :)

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katieben
(and I'm in a similar boat too). I'm already healthy, but just want flat abs -
I started this tool because I wanted to get a better idea of what I had to do
to get that - how much weight to lose, or if I needed to be building muscle
and not losing weight. I'm on MyFitnessPal, and a lot of women seemed to have
that question. Working to get all types in here!

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thinkdevcode
Weight is pretty much a useless metric if you are already slim and want to
find out when you are going to start seeing definition (like your abdominals
for example). Body Fat % is really the only indicator for that and even then
it is hit or miss as it depends on the elasticity of the persons skin (like if
they just lost 100 lb''s they'll have a ton of excess skin covering their
abs). Cool site, i'd just like to see BF% instead of weight.

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kbadk
Could be cool if you didn't only work with lbs/feet/inches instead of
metres/kgs.

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katieben
On my to-do list. Thanks :)

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kinow
+1 :) I'll forward this to my young brother, he really needs some motivation,
but we use kg/meter here in Brazil too. Thanks!!!

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1123581321
Interesting idea. Two pieces of feedback:

1\. I am a tall-ish person and care the most about height compatibility.

2\. Add a time period option. For example, going from 220 to 190 in 60 days
isn't like 180 days.

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katieben
Ooh, good call. Thanks. :)

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darkc0der
Hi Nice project you hacked this website in a weekend? It's pretty cool

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cfcosta
Nice project!

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katieben
Thanks! :)

