Why GainFrame exists
I’d been taking progress photos for years — sporadically at first, then more deliberately as my training got serious. Hundreds of them, sitting in my camera roll, going back through different phases of my fitness journey.
The problem wasn’t taking the photos. It was getting any value out of them. They were hard to compare. There was no context attached to any of them — no notes about what I was doing, what I was eating, what my training looked like that month. I couldn’t easily spot trends. I couldn’t tell what was working.
There had to be a better way to use what I’d already been collecting. That’s where GainFrame started: a simple, fast way to organize and compare progress photos over time. It’s grown from there into detailed AI analysis on every photo, trend detection across weeks and months, and the daily context attached to each shot — so a photo from six months ago is more than just an image. It’s a snapshot you can actually learn from.
What GainFrame is
GainFrame is a progress photo app first. The AI body composition layer is what makes it powerful, but the foundation is simple: organize your photos, compare them, and pull insight out of them.
The app gets better the more you use it. More photos, more context, more time. Two photos from the same week tell you very little. Twelve months of weekly check-ins tells you a story.
- A progress photo app first.Capture, organize, and compare your photos. That’s the core. Everything else is built on top.
- An AI body composition tracker.One photo in, full report out. Physique score (1–100), precision body fat percentage, 12 individually-scored muscle groups, FFMI, BMI, waist-to-hip, and a forecast of where you’re heading.
What GainFrame is not
This part matters as much as anything above. I’m an engineer who built a measurement tool. I’m not a doctor, dietitian, or certified trainer.
- Not medical advice.The body fat, BMI, and FFMI numbers GainFrame produces are estimates from a vision model. They’re useful for tracking trends. They are not a diagnostic tool. If you have a health condition, talk to your doctor.
- Not a workout or nutrition tracker. GainFrame doesn’t log your lifts and doesn’t count your macros. There are great apps for both — use them. GainFrame does one thing: progress photos with serious analysis behind them. The goal is to do that one thing better than anyone else.
- Not a coaching service. The app gives you data and surface-level training suggestions based on visible muscle imbalances. It does not write you a periodized program. For that, hire a coach.
- Not a replacement for a real DEXA when one is medically indicated. If your doctor needs a clinical body composition reading, get the clinical reading. GainFrame is built for the 51 weeks a year when you’re not in a clinic.
Being clear about this is part of the trust I’m trying to build. I’d rather you trust the app for what it actually is than oversell it.
How (and why) I find the time
I have a 5-month-old daughter and a full-time job. The honest version of this section is that GainFrame gets built in the cracks: an hour in the morning before my daughter is up, sometimes an hour in the evening after my wife and baby are asleep.
Being the only person on this also means I’m doing a lot of things I haven’t done professionally — design, marketing, copywriting, customer support. Most of it is new. Most of it is uncomfortable. All of it is making me a better builder, and a lot of the tradeoffs you’d see on a bigger team get made out loud, in public, on the blog.
The reason it keeps shipping isn’t discipline — it’s that GainFrame sits at the intersection of two things I genuinely love: lifting and building software. When the work on a side project energizes you instead of draining you, the cracks in the day are enough.
That’s also where the confidence to think I can build something really great comes from. I’ve spent 20 years in the gym and 15 years writing code. GainFrame is the rare project where I get to use both at the same time.
If you want a more tactical look at how I work, the founder-story posts are the most honest version of it.
The state of things
RevenueCat verifies the live subscription numbers, so the business side is as public as the build notes.
Open the verified RevenueCat page
- Launched: March 8, 2026 on the iOS App Store
- App Store rating: 4.9 stars
- Pricing: Free 30-day trial, then $4.99/month or $29.99/year
- Team size: One. Just me.
Talk to me
The fastest way to reach me is the in-app chat — you’re messaging me directly, usually within a few hours. I wrote about why I added it and what I’m hoping to learn.
In-app chat with Mike
Tap the banner on the home screen — reach me directly, no support queue.
See the body you’re building.
One gym selfie. Sixty seconds. A full body-composition report — physique score, precision body fat, and your next milestone.
