St. Louis entrepreneurs Ryan Richt and his team of six innovators had a vision: to create a platform that would meet the needs of those seeking out a new and efficient way to actively meet their fitness goals. Over the past two years, the group worked with investors like Y Combinator and the Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund on enterprise software that would fulfill their inspiration.
This week, Richt and his team launched BODYSIM—a fitness app that can help users gain muscle and shed fat with a precise plan tailored to the individual body’s unique metabolism and physiology. As the team initially envisioned, it’s an app designed to be exactly what users need in order to embark on a new journey of health.
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The experience of using their app is one for which Richt can personally vouch. For two years, Richt and his team were the guinea pigs of their new idea. Each of them logged every meal they ate and had blood work done every two weeks, and some even took part in a keto diet. Once they gained data from themselves, they recruited both alpha and beta users to learn more about how to meet the needs of different person in their fitness journey.
Throughout development, they consulted with doctors and researchers and even recruited a chef in St. Louis to create very specific, high-protein, low-fat recipes.
“How much science and math [does a person have to] put together just to say, if I eat this, what’s going to happen to my body?” Richt said. “Now, we have done it [for you].”
What to know about BODYSIM:
- What it is: BODYSIM is an all-in-one health and fitness platform designed to help you understand the hidden factors that drive your body’s past performance and future abilities.
- How it works: The app creates a digital twin of you through a set of inputs. This includes 3-D scans, macro-tracking, and blood panel markers to bring you individualized workouts, along with meal plans personalized to your goals.
- Who it’s for: The BODYSIM created the app with the intention to make it easy enough for beginners in their wellness journey but sophisticated enough for health and fitness enthusiasts. Richt says that the team recognizes the hardships that people encounter when trying to be the healthiest version of themselves and wanted to lift some of those barriers.
- How to use it: The database of more than 2,200 exercises has detailed directions that will guide you through each workout to make it your own. Step-by-step pictures and instructions for meals will evolve as you follow your plan. The team also plans to provide personalized check-in calls to ensure the success of your usage from the app.
- How it helps: “Every day, it learns more about you and then it can make all of these key forecasts of, ‘What if you ate more protein? What if you ate less fat?’ and then tell you what would happen if you changed any of those things,” Richt explains.
BODYSIM is now available for download on the Apple Store for $239 per month. After signing up, users will receive a gift package that includes an at-home blood kit, T-shirt, blender bottle, kitchen food scale, and a Withings body scan scale.
