Iron Fork: the founder story

Those who have seen me recently have noticed the beginning of a transformation.

Two years ago, I was 104.9 kg. This morning, I am 93.5 kg, and I am not there yet.

The first 7 kg took me two years of grinding with calorie apps I did not trust, dreaded opening, and dropped within a week. Logging one meal meant barcode hunting, database searches, and guessing portions, and the reward was one number with no explanation and no way to check it.

In May, at 98 kg, I started using an early version of an app I was building for myself. The last 4.5 kg took 12 weeks.

Credit where it is due: my app tracks and recommends the food. My training runs on ChatGPT and Strong. No single tool did this, for now 😉, and that is exactly why I built mine to show its work instead of pretending it does everything.

So here is the announcement. It is called Iron Fork, and the beta is open on iOS.

You snap a photo of your meal, type a sentence about it, or both. That is the whole log. You get calories, protein, carbs, fat, and fiber in seconds, with the full per-ingredient breakdown and a confidence level. Even the hidden stuff, like the oil it assumed was in the pan, shows up as a row you can edit. Your log reflects what you actually ate, not what a model guessed.

No account, no sign-up, no cloud database. Your food diary lives on your phone and leaves it only when you tap Analyze.

There is also a Coach: ask what to eat next and it suggests realistic meals based on what you have already eaten, your remaining calories and macros, and how much time you have to cook. It shows its assumptions too.

Why the name? Iron for the gym. Fork for your plate, and for the fork in the road where you choose who you become.

I have been my own first user since May. It is in beta on iOS via TestFlight, and I am letting people in gradually so every tester gets a working experience.

One honest caveat, because honesty is the whole point: AI nutrition estimates are estimates. Iron Fork shows its confidence and lets you correct it. And this is one person's story, not a promise of results.