Features
Your genotype proposes. Your own data disposes.
A DNA report on its own is a list of associations with no way to know if they apply to you. MuscleBuddy stores a small, curated set of genotypes and never shows one without the confirming or contradicting evidence already sitting in your bloodwork, food log, or symptom history.
A short list, on purpose
MuscleBuddy tracks six genotypes: caffeine metabolism (CYP1A2), lactase persistence (LCT), alcohol flush response (ALDH2), vitamin D receptor variants (VDR), hereditary haemochromatosis risk (HFE), and the celiac risk alleles (HLA-DQ2/DQ8). That's the entire list, and the rule behind it is strict: a genotype ships only if something you already log or measure can confirm or contradict it.
That rule is also why some well-known genetic tests aren't here. APOE is excluded because nothing MuscleBuddy measures could confirm it either way. MTHFR is excluded because the American College of Medical Genetics recommends against testing it at all. ACTN3 and ACE, the sports-performance genes, are excluded because their evidence in trained athletes doesn't hold up, and handing someone a performance verdict from a SNP is exactly the wrong thing to build. Polygenic scores and ancestry are excluded outright: not interpretable for one person, and nothing here could check them anyway.
Every genotype ships with its evidence, never alone
Caffeine metabolism pairs against your fitted caffeine half-life, computed from your logged intake and how you slept afterward. Vitamin D receptor variants pair against your actual measured 25-OH vitamin D reading, and the page says plainly that the measurement outranks the genotype: your blood test tells you far more about your vitamin D status than the receptor variant does. Hereditary haemochromatosis risk pairs against your ferritin and transferrin saturation. Celiac risk alleles pair against tTG-IgA serology. Lactase persistence and alcohol flush pair against your own logged symptoms: dairy in your food log crossed with a digestive-symptom check-in, or a logged drink crossed with a flush check-in.
A hypothesis never renders without its pairing. If you haven't logged enough of the matching data yet, the trait says so and names exactly what would settle it, rather than showing a genotype next to nothing. And where your own data and the genotype disagree, your data is treated as the better guide: a genotype is an association across populations, not a prediction about you specifically.
Your file never leaves your device
Upload a raw export from a consumer DNA test and it's parsed entirely in your browser, in a background worker, before anything is sent anywhere. Only the handful of curated genotype calls are ever transmitted; the file itself never touches MuscleBuddy's servers, and there's no server endpoint that would accept one even if you tried. If you'd rather not upload a file at all, you can type in the individual genotypes from a report you already have: the form asks for the exact genotype as printed, never your own reading of what it means, so the interpretation always comes from the same curated mapping the parser uses.
Genetic data needs its own explicit, separate consent before anything is stored, distinct from every other consent on your account. Stored results are encrypted with a key that never lives in the same place as the ciphertext. Withdrawing consent, or just deleting your results, removes them from the live database immediately, in the same action that records the withdrawal. Database backups are kept for a period afterward, and a restore inside that window could bring a deleted copy back; MuscleBuddy says that plainly rather than promising an erasure it can't fully guarantee.
Nothing here is a diagnosis, and nothing is shared
A genotype is reference information: a cited association, evidence-tiered, never the app's own arithmetic and never something the app acts on. It never changes your training program, your nutrition targets, or any recommendation MuscleBuddy makes, on its own or in combination with anything else. This is not a clinical genetic test, not disease-risk screening, and not a substitute for genetic counseling. Where a genotype touches a real health question, such as haemochromatosis risk, the page's framing is explicit: it's a reason to watch the matching marker, never a diagnosis, and a marker in range or out of it stays a conversation with a clinician.
No coach, at any scope, at any point, can see your genetic data. It's excluded from coaching visibility entirely, not gated behind a scope like your bloodwork or your stack. It's never social, never in a feed, never in an export to anyone but you.
How it sits alongside the rest of MuscleBuddy
Genetics lives inside Upkeep, the module for the self-care and maintenance data that runs on longer clocks than a day, alongside medications, appointments, and conditions. It reads from the other three modules and changes none of them. The caffeine trait reads the same circadian ledger that Health's sleep tracking already builds from your logged intake. The vitamin D and haemochromatosis traits read the same bloodwork panels Health stores for their own trend value, and the lactase and alcohol-flush traits read the same food log Nutrition already keeps. Training never sees a genotype at all: no lift, no load, and no program decision is touched by anything on this page.
The point isn't that genetics adds a new axis to train or eat by. It's that if you already have a DNA report sitting in a drawer, MuscleBuddy can put it next to data you're already collecting across Training, Nutrition, and Health, instead of leaving it to sit there disconnected from anything.
Frequently asked
- Is this a clinical genetic test?
- No. MuscleBuddy stores a curated set of genotypes from a report you already have (uploaded or typed in) and pairs them with your own logged data. It is not a diagnostic test, not disease-risk screening, and not a substitute for genetic counseling.
- Does my raw DNA file get uploaded to MuscleBuddy?
- No. A raw export is parsed entirely on your device in a background worker. Only the curated genotype results ever leave your browser, and there is no server endpoint that accepts the file itself.
- Which genotypes does MuscleBuddy track?
- Six: caffeine metabolism, lactase persistence, alcohol flush response, vitamin D receptor variants, hereditary haemochromatosis risk, and celiac risk alleles. Each one pairs against something in your own bloodwork, food log, or symptom history.
- Can my coach see my genetic data?
- No, never, regardless of what other scopes you grant a coach elsewhere in the app. Genetic data is excluded from coaching visibility entirely.
- What happens if I delete my results or withdraw consent?
- Your stored genotype set is removed from the live database immediately, in the same action that records the withdrawal. Database backups are retained for a period afterward, and a restore inside that window could bring a deleted copy back; nothing about that window is hidden from you.
Put your DNA report next to your actual data
A curated genotype set, parsed on your device, never shown without the evidence from your own bloodwork, food log, or symptom history to back it up.