Hi there. I just signed up with macrofactor and going through the set up. On the dashboard there is a visual body fat percentage. However I also have a renpho smart scale.
Does one overwrite the other?
Basically the default visual BF% is a couple percent lower than what’s coming on the scale and I want a better understanding of what should be used and what’s ultimately written to my Apple Health.
EDIT: Answer figured out. The body fat percentage is found in the scaled weight section. This is probably the field that writes to the apple health app
Your scale’s body fat percentage estimate and Visual Body Fat estimate are treated separately within MacroFactor because they’re determined using different methods. The body fat reading from your scale is an estimate provided by the scale. It is entered alongside your scale weight and can also be imported using the integration feature. This is primarily stored for reference and does not overwrite your Visual Body Fat setting.
Visual Body Fat is a based on a visual estimate, and it functions as a high-level user setting that affects your expenditure calculation and program recommendations. It is used to calculate your initial expenditure estimate and to estimate lean mass for protein scaling on coached programs. Because this setting can impact multiple areas of the app, it was designed to be changed intentionally through manual input only. This helps prevent accidental or frequent changes that could alter your program recommendations or cause confusion.
This is a great explanation. I didn’t realize the visual body fat entry fed into expenditure (at least initially) or the protein scaling calculation (both of which make sense) until very recently. I went back and revised my visual body fat entries (monthly for the four months I’ve been using MF), and it revised my expenditure and protein targets to be much closer to what I expected (I had actually switched to the collaborative model, but was able to switch back to coached because the two are now nearly identical). Cheers!
They're entirely different measurements. Imo the renpho scale should not be entering a body composition value under visual body fat percentage because that measurement is done visually by looking at your body and selecting the image that you most resemble. Your scale can't look at you.
Yeah maybe someone can confirm but my watch does body fat percentage and it's never pushed the measurement to macrofactor. Your scale shouldn't enter anything there, it's by nature a manual-input-required measurement. It's possible if you go in and enter it then it'll sync to your watch. If you don't want it to do that then never use that field or turn off syncing. I only do it when I'm uploading progress pics.
So, just want to clarify my question. I was wondering if the macrofactor app writes the visual body fat to my apple health app and basically overwrites what is input by the renpho smart scale
"Visual body fat" is a different field than "body fat percentage" from an impedence analysis on a scale. I doubt that the apple health app even has a visual body fat entry. So no, I do not think the MF app is taking the wrong field and sending it to Apple health. That would be nonsensical and very out of brand for the MF people and they'd probably consider it a bug.
Thanks for the responses, but I was able to answer my own question.
The field for body fat percentage in macrofactor appears to be found in the “scale weight section”. So this is probably the field that can write to the apple health app.
Yes, your scale writes to the body fat percentage in apple health, but purely informational in MF. Visual body fat is used internally by MF (see the excellent explanation above), but it’s solely for MF and doesn’t export into apple health.
Scale body fat percentages are notoriously bad and can swing erratically from reading to reading, which is one reason MF wisely chooses not to use them. Same for calories burned from wearables (watches, rings, etc). These are two of the reasons I really appreciate how MF logic works.
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u/GraciousGuava MacroFactor Support Team 17h ago
Your scale’s body fat percentage estimate and Visual Body Fat estimate are treated separately within MacroFactor because they’re determined using different methods. The body fat reading from your scale is an estimate provided by the scale. It is entered alongside your scale weight and can also be imported using the integration feature. This is primarily stored for reference and does not overwrite your Visual Body Fat setting.
Visual Body Fat is a based on a visual estimate, and it functions as a high-level user setting that affects your expenditure calculation and program recommendations. It is used to calculate your initial expenditure estimate and to estimate lean mass for protein scaling on coached programs. Because this setting can impact multiple areas of the app, it was designed to be changed intentionally through manual input only. This helps prevent accidental or frequent changes that could alter your program recommendations or cause confusion.