The focus on fitness amongst millennials is increasing. Unlike in the past where people had a more active lifestyle, today we live a rather sedentary lifestyle due to the nature of our work and the availability of comfortable personal transportation. It is expected to reach nearly $40 billion by 2029. 

Because of the increased fitness consciousness, the demand for fitness apps is rising. They can help people maintain a fit lifestyle amongst the hustle and bustle of the ever moving and ever-busy culture of ours. 

There are multiple types of fitness apps such as Mhealth apps, Activity tracking apps, Diet planner apps, and exercise apps. Each of the apps allows users to access exercise and nutrition-related information from their phones. 

Mhealth apps track the user’s health, and key parameters such as heart rate or glucose and provide the information to the connected medical professionals. Medical professionals are using such apps to track key parameters of patients who are recovering or are in need of constant monitoring but can’t stay in the hospital or are otherwise unable or unwilling to come to the hospital. 

Activity tracking apps provide real-time information on activities taken by the user. A good example of these types of apps is the steps tracking app. 

Diet planner apps help users count calories, plan meals and help with providing recipes. They can provide healthy recipes and healthier alternatives to the food a user is already consuming. 

Exercise apps track users’ exercise schedules, provide them with exercise plans and help them meet their fitness goal. Many apps also have the feature of personal training integrated in the app. Exercise schedule and gain tracking are some of the major features of such fitness apps. Many major gym chains have developed their own custom exercise apps.

What is MyFitnessPal?

MyFitnessPal combines both exercising and nutrition tracking into one app. You can scan barcodes, keep track of your food intake and also use MyFitnessPal for exercise programs. They also provide a journal and a diary to keep track of the user’s progress. 

Let’s look at the key features you can include to make a custom app like MyFitnessPal.

We will look at:

• Key features

• Monetization

• Tech stack

Key Features for Custom Fitness & nutrition app Like MyFitnessPal

Simple Login

Connect multiple email and social APIs to ensure quick and easy registration and logins. 

Food Log

Users can quickly and efficiently upload pics, and write and measure their food intake. This will help in counting calories. 

Calories Count

With Calories counting, users can know the exact calories intake by each meal and over periods such as calories intake by day, week and month and compare the results with their new diets. Suggestions can also be provided for healthier alternatives to the food intake they do. 

Goals Setup

A user could be looking for weight loss and another could be looking for muscle gain. Customizable fitness goals based on the user’s desire should be allowed and can be added and tracked easily. 

Goals Tracking

Users can upload their progress such as reduction in calories intake, exercise schedule and progress in weight gain or loss over a period of time. 

Nutrition tracking is a key part of healthy lifestyle

BarCode Tracker

A barcode tracker can track the calories of the food scanned, provide suggestions for healthier alternatives if possible and input the calories to the user’s calorie tracker for tracking and data analytics. 

Analytics

Food habits, frequency, and intensity of exercise, and other actions by the user can be measured over a period of time and can be used to generate analytics that can be helpful to the end user. 

Food Tips

Users can be alerted about the food and the specific ingredients it has. For example, when a user scans a bag of chips the app can inform them that the particular brand is high in salt or spice and make the user choose a healthier alternative. Users can also use this feature to select items they want to consume and the ingredients they like. 

Recipes

The app can have some inbuilt recipes and other users can add their own custom recipes to create a healthy eating community through the app. 

Substance Counter & Breakdown

Based on the items consumed, the app can generate data about the substances that the users have consumed and their breakdown. Substances such as carbs, protein and amino acids can be tracked by the user. This feature can help in following specific diets such as Keto which places an emphasis on increasing protein intake at the cost of carbs.

Monetization

For monetization you can consider multiple revenue models. You can make the app download available only after payments. This model can be used if you have a good number of users already lined up. You can opt for in-app purchases of fitness items, premium recipes, and expert advice for a subscription or one time fee. You can also opt for providing relevant ads to your end users and generating revenue. You need to ensure though that the ads are not intrusive or annoy the end users as that could end up reducing your user base.

Tech Stack

The approximate technology stack of the app

• Kotlin for Android App
• Swift for ios app
• Node.js for back-end
• Cloud environment: AWS
• Online Payments: Paypal, & Braintree.
• Elastic email, email notifications
• Socket io for real-time notification
• Database: MongoDB, Hbase, Cassandra, Postgres, MailChimp Integration
• Google Maps
• Google Places
• Google Directions
• Card.io
• APNS
• Firebase
• Facebook SDK for Facebook login

Tech Stack and Team

The following team may be needed for app development

• Business Analyst
• Project Manager
• UI/UX designer
• Android/ios developer
• Back-end developer
• Quality Analyst
• DevOps

Conclusion

Building custom nutrition and fitness app like MyFitnessPal requires a lot of custom development and a constant focus on providing newer and newer features with the help of an MVP and generating relevant user feedback. Please do get in touch with us if you want to develop your own custom app or just want to explore this idea further with an NDA-backed discussion to check the feasibility of this type of app development.