u/Beginning-Abalone-35

Built and launched a fitness/nutrition app on my own — design, code, App Store, the lot — in about 90 days. Happy to answer anything, but I figure the useful post is the mistake, not the highlight reel.

 

The decision I'd undo: I started everyone as an anonymous local user and deferred "real accounts" as a v2 problem. Felt fast and friendly — no signup wall. It bit me hard: device-local profiles meant data didn't follow users across reinstalls, and one genuinely weird bug where a stranger's profile surfaced on someone else's phone. Untangling identity after launch is 10x the work of doing it up front. If I started again: real auth (even just Sign in with Apple) on day one, anonymous as the fallback — not the default.

For those who've shipped solo — what's the "I'll fix it in v2" decision that came back to bite you the most?

Everyone says "just eat more protein," but on a veg Indian diet, that's genuinely hard once you actually weigh things. For 2 years, I assumed I was getting ~100g. When I measured, I was at ~55g. Huge gap.

 Here's the rotation that got me to a real 100–110g without choking down 5 scoops of whey:

  ▎ - Paneer (100g): ~18g — but watch the fat, it's ~21g too

  ▎ - Toor/moong dal (1 katori cooked): ~7–9g

  ▎ - Curd (1 cup): ~8–10g

  ▎ - Soya chunks (50g dry): ~26g — the cheat code nobody talks about

  ▎ - Rajma/chana (1 katori): ~13–15g

  ▎ - 2 eggs (if you eat them because I am eggetarian): ~12g

  ▎ - 1 scoop whey: ~24g, only to plug the gap

  ▎ The unlock was stacking 3–4 of these across the day instead of relying on one "high-protein" meal.

  ▎ What's your go-to veg protein source that people sleep on? Looking to add variety before I get bored with paneer forever.

Spent the last 2 years tracking macros for a body recomp goal — lost 9kg, gained some muscle.

  

  Every popular calorie tracker — MyFitnessPal, HealthifyMe, Cronometer — gets Indian foods wrong. Not "off by 10%" wrong. Different

   ingredients, different cooking methods, different portions. Sometimes off by 60%.

  

  A few that broke me:

  

  * **Paneer (100g)** — MFP user-submitted entries range 180–320 kcal. Actual (whole milk paneer): ~265 kcal, 18g protein, 21g fat.

  Most apps overestimate the protein and underestimate the fat. Both matter on a cut.

  

  * **Masala dal (1 katori, ~150 g)** — Apps show 80–220 kcal. Reality depends on the ghee/oil tadka (which most entries ignore). A

  Proper ghar-ka dal with tadka is closer to 180 kcal.

  

  * **Roti vs phulka** — Same flour, different cooking method, different macros. Ghee-finished roti is ~110 kcal vs ~70 kcal for a

  dry phulka. Most apps lump them as one.

  

  After enough frustration, I started compiling my own macro DB using **ICMR-NIN Indian Food Composition Tables** (the source

  clinical dietitians use) and **USDA FoodData Central** for verification.

  

  Tracking has been wildly more accurate since—same diet, but numbers that actually move with what I eat.

  

  Curious — what's the food whose macros surprised you the most once you actually looked them up?

  

  For me: kheer. Assumed it was "just milk." Reality: ~220 kcal per katori, once you account for the sugar.