- Ajay and Tessa (different last names, same kitchen) got tired of wellness marketing.
- Body By A exists to cut through supplement hype and publish only what we’d buy ourselves.
- Everything we recommend, we take — or we wouldn’t recommend it.
We're not influencers. We're not doctors. We're not personal trainers or fitness celebrities. We're two people who got obsessed with understanding how our bodies work, and ended up building something we thought should exist.
This is how that happened.
The Before
Ajay: I grew up thinking fitness was simple. Eat less, move more, get ripped. That worked until it didn't. By my mid-twenties I was training hard, eating "clean," and feeling worse than ever. Tired all the time. Injuries that wouldn't heal. My body was breaking down despite doing everything "right."
I started reading. Not Instagram posts—actual research. Studies on nutrition, training periodization, recovery, hormones. The more I read, the more I realized that the conventional fitness advice was reductive. Everyone's different. Context matters. Individual biology matters.
Tessa: My path was different. I was that person who thought workouts needed to be intense every single time. I was doing HIIT constantly, eating low carb, and my cycle went haywire. I was exhausted, anxious, and my skin looked terrible. I saw a dermatologist (spent money on it, got nowhere). I tried different diets (made it worse). I blamed myself.
Eventually I realized my body wasn't broken—I was just training and eating against my physiology, not with it. Once I understood my cycle and how hormones affected my training and nutrition, everything changed. Same effort, but applied smarter.
“We couldn’t find the site we wanted to read, so we built it.”
We Found Each Other (And Decided to Dig Deeper)
We met through mutual friends at a fitness event. Both of us were kind of annoyed at the constant misinformation flying around. Everyone had a "secret hack." Everyone was selling something. Nobody was asking actual questions.
We started talking. Then we started training together. Then we started researching together—actually digging into studies, looking at effect sizes, asking "is this claim backed by evidence or is this marketing?"
The shift was: we became research nerds instead of gospel followers.
The Problem We Noticed
The supplement and wellness space is full of lies. Not all of them intentional. Some are just people who haven't read the research. But there are a lot of deliberate lies:
- Proprietary blends hiding underdosed ingredients
- Celebrity endorsements for products the celebrity probably doesn't use
- Clinical claims that aren't backed by any research
- Clickbait content trading in fear and false hope
- Supplements contaminated with heavy metals because testing is optional
- Supplements that "balance hormones" (hormones are complex; a pill doesn't just balance them)
- Expensive stacks when 5 basic supplements cover 95% of what people need
What we couldn't find: a brand that was transparent, research-driven, reasonably priced, and actually cared about making sure what they sold was effective and safe.
The Epiphany
We were sitting in a coffee shop one day, talking about how frustrating it is to find a clean protein powder or a magnesium supplement that doesn't have weird fillers. We realized we'd been researching this space for years. We had opinions. We had standards. We knew what we'd use and what we wouldn't.
So we asked: why don't we just build the brand we wish existed?
That was the moment. Not a lightning bolt, just a practical question: what if we sourced and vetted products the way we want them, and made them available to people who actually care about this stuff?
What We're Doing Differently
1. Research Over Hype
Every supplement we recommend is backed by actual studies. Not "studies show" (vague). Actual research with effect sizes and mechanisms. If the evidence is mixed, we say so. If we don't know something, we say we don't know.
2. Third-Party Testing (Non-Negotiable)
Every supplement we carry is third-party tested by NSF, USP, Informed Choice, or Clean Label Project. Not company testing. Independent labs that have nothing to gain from saying the product is good.
3. No Proprietary Blends
You know exactly what you're getting. Exact doses. No hidden ingredients. No "proprietary blend" nonsense. Transparency is default.
4. No Affiliate Spam or Sponsorships
No supplement company pays us to recommend them. Ajay works in the wellness industry and occasionally receives sample products — but no brand pays for coverage, and sample access never determines whether something earns a spot on our list. Picks are driven by research and independent third-party testing. If something doesn't work, we'll say so.
5. We Curate, We Don't Sell Everything
We're not trying to be everything to everyone. We've picked the supplements with the strongest evidence, the best price-to-benefit ratio, and the cleanest formulations. That's a small list. But that list is solid.
6. Content That Educates Rather Than Sells
This blog exists because we think people deserve to understand how their bodies work. We're not trying to convince you to buy something—we're trying to give you the information you need to make good decisions. Buy from us or don't. Doesn't matter. Just don't believe nonsense.
The Values That Guide Everything
Research drives decisions. Not trends, not vibes, not what influencers are promoting. Evidence.
Third-party testing is non-negotiable. You should know exactly what you're putting in your body.
Hormones matter. Tessa's journey showed us this. Training and nutrition have to account for individual biology. One-size-fits-all advice is garbage.
Sleep and stress beat supplements. We could sell you 50 supplements, but if you're sleeping 5 hours and stressed constantly, none of it matters. We're honest about what supplements can and can't do.
We're not doctors, and we don't pretend to be. We're people who've researched this deeply and shared what we've learned. We're always learning too.
What We're Not
We're not here to convince you that supplements are the answer to everything. We're not here to demonize food. We're not here to tell you how to train or eat—that's personal. We're here to provide high-quality supplements, good information, and context about what actually works.
We're not selling you a lifestyle. We're selling you supplements and information. Do what works for you.
The Long Game
This brand will grow or it won't. We don't have a huge budget. We're not trying to be a billion-dollar company. We're trying to build something sustainable and honest that serves people who actually care about this stuff.
If that's 100 people or 100,000 people, we'll be happy either way. The goal is to move the needle on quality and transparency in the supplement space. If we do that, mission accomplished.
Why Now
The fitness and wellness space is at an inflection point. People are tired of influencer BS. They're tired of false claims. They're tired of proprietary blends and underdosed supplements. They want transparency. They want education. They want to work with their bodies, not against them.
That's where we come in.
Thanks
If you're reading this, thank you for being interested. Thank you for caring enough to read about supplement labels, cycle training, cortisol, and all the other things that actually matter.
We're just getting started.
— Ajay & Tessa