u/Barbenheimer_

My transformation from 261lbs to 158lbs was one for the books. I was always fat growing up, never had abs or veiny arms and after 12 months of relentless aggressive cutting, strength training everyday, 10k steps plus stair master, I’ve completed my goal and feel the best I’ve ever felt!!

1600 calories a day:
Corrected: One Meal a Day + snacks: 1 green smoothie in the morning after workout | lunch: 1 turkey sandwich, 2 servings of chicken, 1 serving of rice, 4 eggs | 1 Greek yogurt bowl for dinner. Strength training everyday, 1 hour of stair master everyday + 10k steps on top of that No cheating on diet or training, I had probably missed a total of 15 days throughout that year because of sickness and/injury

Went from
XXL-S
48 Waist - 30
Jawline - Intact

Hello Guys/Gals,

This is a continuation of a previous thread where I asked people about my app. I had zero coding experience when I started. I used AI tools to help me build what I have so far, and I have something realish.

What Forge actually is:

The core idea came from a frustration I had with every fitness app I tried. They all track you. None of them actually coach you. MyFitnessPal knows how many calories you ate. It has no idea why you skipped the gym on Wednesday.

Forge is built around two things:

1. An AI coach called Forge It's powered by Claude. But it's not a generic chatbot. It knows your goal, your training history, your equipment, how many days you can train, your intensity level. When you tell it your shoulder is tight it doesn't say "consult a physician." It modifies today's workout, tells you exactly what to warm up with, and explains why.

The feature I'm most proud of — you can record yourself doing an exercise and Forge will analyze your form from the video. It extracts frames and gives you specific coaching cues. I tested it on my own squat and it caught my knee caving issue and gave me a drill to fix it before my next set. That's the thing that made me think this was actually worth finishing.

2. A local gym community This part came from another frustration — going to the gym alone gets old. Forge lets you find training partners near you based on your goal, your training split, your fitness level, and your gender preference. You can create group workouts, join sessions other people are hosting, and see a friends activity feed so you and your crew can keep each other accountable.

There's a full verification system in the works so you know the people you're connecting with are real and 18+.

What's built so far:

• Full onboarding that builds a personalized weekly plan around your actual setup
• AI coach that responds in real time and adjusts your plan when life gets in the way
• Video form analysis — record a set, get coached on what to fix
• Community partner matching with distance, goal, and fitness level filters
• Group workout creation and joining
• Friends system with a daily activity feed
• Progress tracking — weight, body fat, workout history, milestone badges, weekly AI report
• XP and level system
• Full privacy controls — location is fuzzed, never exact

What it is right now:

It's a web app that you can install on your phone home screen like a native app. Obviously i am working on it still so I have a lot to do with the overall app before I get it to an MVP.

Link: https://golden-trainer.lovable.app

What I'm looking for:

Honest feedback from real people who train. Not "this is cool man" — I want to know what broke, what felt off, what you actually used, what you ignored, and whether you'd pay for something like this.

If you check it out, I'd love to hear from you. Drop a comment, DM me.

Now my actual question for this community:

I'm trying to figure out the right next steps to get real traction and eventually get this into the App Store with actual users. Here's where I'm at:

1. The web app is live and working
2. I need to convert it to a native iOS/Android app — How do I do that?
3. I need real beta testers before I spend money on a developer
4. I have no marketing budget — just organic
5. How can I attract real people to test the app?

Specifically I want to know:

• What subreddits or communities should I be posting in to find fitness people who would actually test this?
• For anyone who has shipped an app before — what do I not know about the App Store submission process that's going to bite me?
• Is there a better way to find a React Native developer than Upwork or Arc.dev?
• What would make you actually use a fitness app consistently — what's the thing most apps get wrong that I might be getting wrong too?

I'm not trying to sell anything. I'm trying to build something people actually want to use. Any feedback — brutal included — is appreciated.