[bitshaker]

I am part of a team created a system that took the complexity of the human metabolism and reduced it down to a few vital statistics that are then used to create a individualized formula that tells people how to sustainably improve their metabolism and lose weight and gain muscle. The amazing part is that it works for everyone because it is custom tailored to them. The hard part here was 30 years of testing, thankfully not done by me, but by the CEO who happens to be a bodybuilder.

The formula is how much protein, carbs, and fat to eat and the appopriate exercise of 3 half hour workout sessions a week. No supplements or anything else. Just food and small amounts of exercise to stimulate hormone response. This is way more complex than some tracker or calorie counter. It takes into account insulin spikes, metabolic damage assessments, glycogen storage, and much more. The hard part here was integrating ~10 different disciplines in various sciences. Everyone had a piece of the puzzle, but we had to put it together.

That is then fed into an app that can then pick foods for you based on your formula that is then constantly refined based on your results. We took 1000 people through test runs tweaking our code to get it right. Now it works for everyone that we put on it and actually uses the system.

Our next challenge is the psychology and habit forming parts of the app we have built.

Oh and of course competing with well funded competitors in the space, but at least nobody can claim our results because they just track things instead of allow people to really plan for health.

Edit: Since you asked, it's called mPact (for metabolism impact) and the corporate site is at http://mPact.io

[tomjen3]

For habit forming, look to beeminder - its interface is clunky and its termonolgy too geeky, but it is also the best way to make "some day" to day (some day I want to lose weight) and keep it up that I have found.

[bitshaker]

Thanks. That's one avenue we've looked at already. I have also looked at traditional gamification techniques and found them initially motivating for users, but then engagement falls off a cliff. This has less to do with the techniques I suspect and more to do with the fact that people eventually hit a goal weight and think they are suddenly "fixed" and can go back to what they were doing before. We actively work to encourage the better mindset of making a permanent change in lifestyle where our system then moves from educational and informative to simply a tool to continue to plan and keep on track.

[thejerz]

What is it called?