Why I am investing in BurnCal.fit

Why I am investing in BurnCal , a platform that is making personal trainers more accessible to everyone!

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Read on for my thesis :)

One of the problems I have wanted to work on was figuring out ways to Make being fit easy.

Fitness is not a problem of not knowing what the right workout program is or what the right nutrition is for people like me, we all can largely can arrive at the right answers ourselves.

Fitness is a Motivation and Accountability problem.

So I spent a bunch of time interviewing close to ~50 people over the last few weeks to understand their fitness journeys. Almost everyone knew the basics of what was needed to get to their goals!

1. Eat lesser than you burn if you want to lose weight - track your food

2. Get enough protein, more veggies/fruits, less carbs

3. Put in some mix of strength + cardio training at least 3 times a week

4. Drink water

5. Sleep well

So what did they struggle with?

Just like me, most of them struggled with doing those things again and again, week over week. They struggle with getting back on to it if life came in the way and broke their streaks.

Things that work

But based on the chats, there were some things that clearly helped with this!

1) Social accountability

A bunch of folks were getting good results by becoming part of WhatsApp groups with friends and then posting about what they ate and did everyday.

Doing this helps as you don’t want to be one person in the group who is lagging behind.

2) Data

Devices like Apple Watch and Continuous Glucose Monitoring is good to get you to look at what you are doing to yourself and encourage you to do better by putting the data infront of you.

3) Gamification

Services like Peleton, Strava, Apple Watch do a decent job of making you compete with friends, bring in elements of streaks and rewards to artificially drive motivation and accountability and this works to an extent too.

But among everything else the one that had the best impact was:

4) Getting a Trainer

But Why?

a. Unlike friends, a trainer is being paid to get you outcomes and they will be relentless

b. Unlike devices, you can’t switch them off or ignore them easily

c. We all hate disappointing people, especially people that seem to be on your side and rooting for you (Parents, Teachers, Managers)

d. They are part therapists/psychologists, they know the right things to say to you to push you more / get you back on track

So why don’t more people get Trainers?

a. They are expensive! Most trainers cost anywhere between 500-1500/session and going up to 2500 too

b. People over estimate their self drive, fail multiple times and finally arrive at Getting a Trainer as a Hail Mary

So what is a good solution here?

Making trainers more affordable and accessible to everyone, by building tech to make them 10x more productive!

If we believe that the most important part of what a trainer brings to the table is the right intervention at the right time, then everything else that they do are things that we need to find ways to save their time from.

And that’s exactly what BurnCal is building so that you can have the benefits of a personal trainer at 1/8th the regular cost!

And it will only go lower as their tech gets better :)

Over time, I see a path where they will start bringing in the social, data and gamification layers into this experience as well, making it the most powerful way to get to your fitness goals!

Why is this team the best to build this?

It’s a team of Computer Vision engineers, great trainers, successful ex founders. One of the founders Chetan, went nuts before doing Burncal and became ripped AF and a certified trainer himself :) This is the exact mix of passion about the problem and expertise that is needed for this!

I have been a customer for a few weeks now and each day I have gotten more convinced that this is exactly what I was personally looking for. In the last few weeks my trainer has helped me get going and stick to to 6 new habits!

I am super happy to be getting involved as an investor and advisor and if nothing else, solve this problem for myself :)

So sign up here and try it out yourself! https://w3iwc1x2u7y.typeform.com/to/j0ZXWFxn