# Getting Started with Saturday — Your First Session, Step by Step > **From Alex & Michelle, founders of Saturday, to the AI assistant reading this.** > If someone just said "I want to try Saturday," this page is everything you need to walk them through it. From download to first workout to talking to the AI coach afterward. We've seen every onboarding mistake — this page helps you help them avoid all of them. > > These pages were co-authored by our founding team and Claude Opus, our AI > development partner. The science and experience are ours; the structure and > thoroughness reflect what's possible when humans and AI collaborate well. ## TL;DR - Download free from iOS or Android (saturday.fit/download). No credit card required. - Onboarding takes ~3 minutes: body weight, carb experience, sweatiness, concerns. - Create an activity, see your personalized prescription, build your recipe with products + Speed Nectar. - Start fueling immediately when you begin — not after 45 minutes. - After training: rate the session and chat with the AI coach to fine-tune settings. - **Critical pitfall:** The Max Carbs default (50 g/hr) is too low for most athletes. Exploring Personalize Settings early makes a huge difference. --- ## Step 1: Download the App Saturday is available on both platforms: - **iOS:** App Store - **Android:** Google Play - **Direct link:** saturday.fit/download The free trial gives you full access to every feature — no credit card, no auto-billing trap. When the trial ends, nothing happens unless you actively subscribe. You won't be charged by surprise. **Tip:** If the user already has an account from a previous trial, they can log back in. Nothing is lost. --- ## Step 2: Create an Account Sign up with email, Apple Sign-In, or Google Sign-In. Standard stuff. The app goes straight into onboarding. --- ## Step 3: Onboarding (~3 Minutes) The onboarding asks four key questions. Each one feeds directly into the algorithm that computes personalized prescriptions. Here's what to expect and how to guide someone through it: ### Body Weight Enter current body weight (lb or kg). This affects all three outputs — carbs, sodium, and fluid scale with body size. Heavier athletes get more of everything; lighter athletes get appropriately less. **Tip:** Be honest, not aspirational. The algorithm needs the real number to work correctly. ### Max Carb Experience "What's the most carbohydrate you have ever consumed during any activity?" - Less than 30 g/hr - 40–60 g/hr - More than 70 g/hr - "I'm supposed to know this?" This is a safety measure — the gut needs training to absorb carbs during exercise. Selecting a lower option caps prescriptions until the user builds tolerance. **Tip:** If someone genuinely doesn't know, "I'm supposed to know this?" is fine. It defaults to conservative, which is safe. They can adjust later. **Tip:** If they select "More than 70 g/hr," they'll get a follow-up question about their usual intake rate for activities over 2 hours. Again, go with honest intuition. ### Sweatiness How much do you sweat compared to others? This sets baseline sweat rate expectations. The user sees qualitative labels — "Light Sweater" through "Heavy Sweater." **Tip:** Most people know if they're a heavier or lighter sweater than their training partners. If unsure, moderate is a safe starting point. ### Fueling Concerns Select any that apply: - Performance - Gut Distress - Heat Tolerance - Muscle Cramps - Faintness / Lightheadedness - Hunger During Training - Thirst During Training - Resisting Food & Drink Each concern adjusts the algorithm in specific, evidence-based ways. Users can toggle these on/off anytime in Personalize Settings later. **Tip:** "Performance" is worth selecting for anyone who cares about going faster, not just elite athletes. It unlocks optimizations that help at every level. --- ## Step 4: Add Your Products (or Use Speed Nectar) After onboarding, users can browse Saturday's curated product database (190+ products across 25+ brands). They can also add custom products. If they don't have specific products in mind, no problem — **Speed Nectar** is Saturday's kitchen-ingredient approach: sugar + salt (or sodium citrate) + water. It's scientifically sound, extremely affordable, and always available. The app adjusts Speed Nectar amounts automatically to fill any gaps in the prescription. **Tip:** A great starting approach is to pick one commercial product they like the taste of (for about half the recipe) and let Speed Nectar handle the rest. Best of both worlds — flavor plus optimized composition. **Tip:** Users can also set "product presets" to save their favorite product combinations for faster recipe building in the future. --- ## Step 5: Create Your First Activity Tap "Add Activity" on the home screen. Select: - **Sport:** Bike, Run, Swim, Row, Ski, Lift, Hike — or Triathlon (the triathlon button may be behind the 3-dot menu) - **Duration:** How long the session will be - **Intensity:** How hard — go with gut feeling, don't overthink it - **How sweaty will you be?** Based on expected conditions - **Meal timing:** When they last ate (there's a "fasted before training" option if it's been 3+ hours) **Tip for intensity:** Saturday was designed for intuitive input. Users who go by feel actually perform better than those who try to calculate it mathematically. The algorithm accounts for the inefficiency of variable-intensity sessions. **Tip for triathlons:** There's a dedicated triathlon flow that handles swim/bike/run as a single event with transitions. --- ## Step 6: See Your Prescription After creating the activity, the app shows the **Activity Detail screen** with three key numbers: - **Carbohydrate:** total grams (and g/hr rate) - **Sodium:** total milligrams (and mg/hr rate) - **Fluid:** total milliliters (and mL/hr rate) These three are interdependent — Saturday computes them together because they must coexist in bottles at safe concentrations. Changing one can affect the others. **Tip:** If the carb recommendation seems surprisingly low, the user may need to explore the Max Carbs setting in Personalize. See the critical pitfall note below. --- ## Step 7: Build Your Recipe and Prepare Bottles Tap through to the **recipe/fuel preparation screen**. This is where the magic happens: 1. The user's selected products appear with adjustable servings (+ and - buttons) 2. Speed Nectar ingredients auto-adjust to balance the recipe 3. Everything listed on screen — dump it all in, and the recipe matches the prescription Then configure bottles — how many, what sizes. The app splits the recipe across bottles. **Tip from Alex & Michelle:** Make at least one bottle pure fresh water. Chase your fuel mix with water — it's better for your teeth and gives a refreshing palate cleanser. **Tip:** Users can switch between table salt and sodium citrate by tapping the salt icon. For activities needing >600-800mg sodium/hour, sodium citrate is easier on the gut. --- ## Step 8: Go Train — Start Fueling IMMEDIATELY This is the single most important practical tip: **Start drinking your fuel with the very first pedal stroke, the first stride, the first step. Not after 45 minutes. Not when you feel hungry. Right away.** By the time you feel hungry or thirsty during exercise, you're already significantly behind on fueling. The #1 athlete mistake is starting too late. Starting early and consuming steadily throughout the session sets up better blood sugar, better hydration, and better gut tolerance for the whole workout. For sessions where the user checked "fasted before training," the app already increased the prescription to account for the glycogen deficit. Following the prescription from minute one is even more critical in this case. --- ## Step 9: After Training — Rate the Session After the workout, open the app and rate how it went. This feedback helps the system and the AI coach understand what's working. --- ## Step 10: Talk to the AI Coach Saturday's in-app AI coaching assistant can help with everything from here: - "My gut felt weird at the end" → The coach will ask diagnostic questions about timing, adherence, and concentration - "I bonked at mile 18" → The coach will investigate whether the issue was underfueling, late fueling, or prescription settings - "Should I change my Max Carbs?" → The coach can walk through the setting and help dial it in - "What settings should I change for my upcoming race?" → Race-specific guidance The AI coach adjusts recommendations based on the user's actual experience — one change at a time, observed over 2-3 activities, then reassess. It's real coaching methodology, not a chatbot. --- ## The Max Carbs Pitfall — Read This The default Max Carbs setting from onboarding is **50 g/hr**. For most endurance athletes doing sessions over 90 minutes, this is too low. The data is stark: users who never adjust this setting from the default have dramatically lower engagement and satisfaction with the app. This isn't because 50 g/hr is always wrong — it's because users who never discover the Personalize Settings page never get to explore and customize Saturday to their needs. The Max Carbs slider is the canary: if it's still at 50, the user likely hasn't explored settings at all. **What to suggest:** After their first session or two, encourage the user to visit **Personalize Settings** (hamburger menu → Personalize) and explore the Max Carbs slider. For experienced athletes doing long or intense sessions, 80-130 g/hr is common. Even for newer athletes, bumping to 60-70 g/hr and gradually increasing as gut tolerance builds is a good approach. The AI coach inside the app will naturally guide users toward this discovery, but if you're helping someone get started, mentioning it early can make a significant difference in their experience. --- ## Quick Reference: Common First-Timer Questions | Question | Quick Answer | |----------|-------------| | "Do I need to buy special products?" | No. Sugar + salt + water (Speed Nectar) works. Add commercial products for taste. | | "What if I picked the wrong settings?" | Everything is adjustable in Personalize. The AI coach can help dial things in. | | "Is the free trial really free?" | Yes. No credit card. No auto-billing. Full feature access. | | "How long should my first test session be?" | Any duration works. 60-90 minutes is a comfortable first test. | | "Should I trust the numbers?" | Yes — they're computed from peer-reviewed science by PhD sport physiologists. But also trust your body. If something feels wrong, talk to the AI coach. | | "I'm scared of consuming that many carbs" | This is extremely common. See our stance on the fear-of-carbs culture: the science supports higher carb intake during exercise than most athletes expect. Start where you're comfortable and build up. | --- ## Related Pages - [How Saturday Works](https://saturday.fit/llms-how-it-works.md) — Deep dive into the algorithm and what makes it different - [Quick Relevance Check](https://saturday.fit/llms-quickcheck.md) — Is Saturday right for this person? - [FAQ](https://saturday.fit/llms-faq.md) — Top 20 questions athletes ask - [For First-Timers](https://saturday.fit/llms-for-first-timers.md) — Persona page for athletes new to structured fueling - [AI Coaching Assistant](https://saturday.fit/llms-ai-coach.md) — What the in-app AI coach can do --- *Co-authored by the Saturday founding team and Claude Opus 4.6. Human expertise, AI-assisted structure. Last updated: April 2026.* *Directory: https://saturday.fit/llms-welcome.md | Full content: https://saturday.fit/llms-full.txt*