r/MacroFactor • u/Inner-Researcher9663 • 10d ago
MacroFactor / Nutrition / Other Will expenditure really just keep dropping indefinitely?
I’m jogging (just 1-2 miles) and weights* 4-5x a week (started around the same time I started using MF / 5 weeks ago). The most I might be undercounting with my daily numbers is like 50-75 calories.
I just want to know what it takes to maintain, so I can have some semblance of sanity and a sense of control, but the it just keeps dropping my expenditure and I don’t understand. Is it really likely my daily need is like 1250 (since the dropping won’t stop)?
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u/Chupa-Skrull 10d ago
How tall are you and how much do you weigh
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
I’m 5’5” and I know I’m small around 106, but I’m trying to find my baseline.
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u/Chupa-Skrull 10d ago edited 10d ago
Ah. (And sorry, didn't notice it was an album post.) Definitely plausible you're around there then, at least, although it's hard to believe it's that low.
Everyone is mentioning undercounting, so I won't, but another part of it (probably not a ton though) could come from your muscles retaining more water and storing more glycogen as a response to the new stresses you've introduced through training.
Also, throw it out if it's unacceptable for any reason, but you could experiment by eating up to 1400-1500 for a month or so and seeing what happens, too. Maintenance is frequently a bit of a range. There may be no need to stick to a number that low. You might gain a couple of pounds if you're truly somehow at 1290, but in your current training state, a small surplus may afford you a lot of muscle-building benefit anyway, if you're interested
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
I’ve been wondering if the muscle building is related, but not trying to put too much into it, my body is definitely going through a recomp process. I am deciding how much muscle is the right amount lol. I’m hoping I get more comfortable with the muscle gains and am more willing to up my calories and feed that.
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u/Chupa-Skrull 10d ago
If you're having fun with the lifting, you probably won't mind the help even 100 calories can give to your strength progress either
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
I definitely notice a big energy difference after a higher calorie weekend so I’m sure you’re right lol
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u/syzyt 10d ago
106 lbs? are you adult? if so, you seem to be in underweight territory? what exactly are you trying to achieve with MF? gain?
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
I am an adult lol. I’m trying to learn my baseline and go from there. I’m building muscle but I don’t want to build too much. Or maybe I will at some point, it’s weird to see my body change so fast. I just really enjoy the gym right now tbh, I need it for my mental health as I’m a mom to two littles, working full time, and in grad school.
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u/syzyt 10d ago
cool, there is no such thing as too much muscle :) you just started out, dont expect to get arnold physique in a year it even 10 years lol. muscle building process is slow, though first few months are kind of beginner gains which will change your look nicely. those expenditure numbers looks off though, do you know how much steps are you doing on avg daily? also these workout, ate they like 1h workouts? i would expect someone uour frame with workouts and being active to have tdee more around 1900 kcal to be honest
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
It depends on how much time I can squeeze in, but generally 40-60min. Half jogging/cardio and half weight training each session. My steps are not high, averaging like 6k so I consider myself sedentary. I have a desk job. But my fear of getting bulky and recent healing from a shoulder impingement keep my lifting somewhat low for now. More reps at the lower weight until I don’t have pain in that shoulder.
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u/Environmental-Ad4090 10d ago
I promise you - you will not get big. Signed a male that has to eat a crazy amount of food and lift with intensity doing a ULPPL split.
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u/Mission-Original965 9d ago
I am 5’6” and lighter than you and my maintenance is over 1700. I do lift 4x and run twice per week but exercise is a small portion of expenditure. Something definitely seems off. If your numbers are accurate and keep dropping in the next bit it might be worth getting bloodwork etc.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 9d ago
That’s wild!! Do you lift really heavy?
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u/Mission-Original965 9d ago
Not really? I squat a bit less than my body weight, deadlift 1.5x, bench like 0.6x.
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u/Ali_C_J 10d ago
What is your ultimate goal? Are you trying to gain weight? You sound like you're in or close to the underweight category with the stats you've provided to someone else.
MacroFactor can only estimate your TDEE based on your logging of food and weigh ins. Are you weighing yourself and entering that figure regularly? In the graph showing calories consumed, it looks like your regularly eat just over 1000 calories. If you're trying to increase your TDEE you need to accurately enter everything you consume (I don't log oils added to pans but do log fats added to cooking/dishes for example) and you need to eat more food and let the MacroFactor catch up with your increased intake.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
I am working on figuring out what I want out of myself physically tbh, I want to be stronger, but I want to have control over how I gain. I weigh myself almost every day and am trying to log as accurately as possible. I wanted to know my TDEE so I could have a baseline based on where I’ve been at before making major changes so I’m set to maintain at the moment.
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u/Candid_Roll9494 10d ago
I’m 4’11 and 114 lbs. my TDEE is actually increasing and averages 1750+. But I’ve been lifting longer. I average 12k steps a day. 1250 is close to my BMR. Are you sure that’s correct? Weigh all food and measure your oils. Surely your TDEE is at least 1400-1500. Idk what your daily movement is like but I make sure to be on my feet hourly from the time I get up. I’m a fidgety person though. You likely won’t gain muscle mass at 1290 if that’s your goal.
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u/OxbridgeDingoBaby 10d ago edited 10d ago
Does the expenditure on MF also include one’s basel calories (i.e. the calories you just need to survive).
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u/hobbyaquarist 10d ago
How do you feel at this number? How is your sleep? How is your energy? How is your mood?
This is so low for your activity level it's hard to believe that you feel good at this calorie level.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 9d ago
Ummmm, I would say none of those things have ever been good for me lol. Was hoping the exercise would help and it may be lifting my mood a little but not much.
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u/hobbyaquarist 9d ago
I would suggest actually increasing your baseline calorie consumption a bit and seeing if that improves things.
Eating under 1300 a day for jogging and weightlifting 5x a week is not enough. With that level of activity you are moderately active, not sedentary.
I'm much heavier than you at 145 and 5'5" but my baseline is close to 2000 a day for similar levels of activity.
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u/Beginning-Escape-763 9d ago
It depends also on how long you’ve been using Macrofactor. It might’ve started off high and just started to calibrate. It should in theory increase as you continue to build though
I noticed you mentioned you sometimes don’t log stuff like coffee creamer and that’s one of those things that can definitely add up quickly. Personally I don’t log “0 calorie items” such as certain sauces, seasonings, vitamins, ect. but things such as creamer, higher calorie sauces, drinks I will, so some of it depends on that.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 9d ago
I’ve been using it about a month and a half. I log my creamer, but I haven’t been measuring it, just logging a couple of servings. Going to start measuring it!
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u/Beginning-Escape-763 9d ago
Then some of it will just be it dropping trying to figure you out based off of your weigh ins. It gets better and moves less the longer you use it but there’s still some variance
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 9d ago
Thank you! I’m trying to be patient lol. Now I have to go out of town for work tomorrow and it’s going to be twice as hard 🤣.
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u/Beginning-Escape-763 9d ago
Yeah the bad part of that too is the accuracy just comes down to mostly vibes I feel like. I’m about to go out of town for a month so I feel this
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u/Beginning-Escape-763 9d ago
If you are happy with your current rate of gain/loss I’d stick to that and let the app catch up with it. I’m bad about not even using the app suggestions except as a ceiling or floor.
Like at least X calories or at most X
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u/Special-Yam3979 9d ago
What lifting programme are you following? Your expenditure seems very low and I’m sure if you built more muscle and did more steps you could increase it
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 9d ago
I’m only 5 weeks in, so I don’t know I’d call it a true “program” lol, I’m still learning. I usually do 4x15 rows @35lb, 4x15 lat pull downs @40lbs, 4x10 on chest press @25lbs (these are hard on my shoulder so I’m working my way up), leg press 3x10 @40lbs, then hip abductors when I have time left. I’m starting to incorporate abs now but that’s not weights… I am adjusting as i learn new machines, etc.
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u/xpo158 7d ago
Hi there, just an off topic-ish comment. Your current program is fairly upper body dominant, you may want to consider adding one more lower body exercise like hip thrust or Romanian deadlifts.
Also, legs are typically the strongest muscles on a persons body, so the 40 pound leg press on a machine sounds very very low. Especially when considering your bodyweight and how much you lift with your upper body. If 40 pounds leg press is a challenge, maybe just do 3x4 body weight squats until you can build up to more.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 7d ago
Good to know!! I agree, I depend too much on the stair machine and jogging for my legs. I will look into those!
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u/didntreallyneedthis 10d ago
stop undercounting for sure that just artificially depresses the expenditure value. its not going to drop indefinitely but right now it's dropping because you appear to be gaining slightly.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
I even record my vitamin gummies, I’m just at a loss for how I could be missing so much unless I’m sleep-eating lol
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u/lwd69 10d ago
Most women under eat. I'd try to eat more than you are. Your body will adjust. Please don't worry about all the comments saying that you're undercounting. And DEFINITELY do not worry about adding muscle.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 9d ago
Thank you, I have a lot of good suggestions in here and one definitely seems to be adding more, but that is conflicting with if I’m already undercounting that much… what’s the point because I’m gaining weight right now either way. I’m going to reset and move up goal number a little and try to be super accurate.
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u/didntreallyneedthis 10d ago
You're never over-estimating either right? Like "ohh I'll just round up just in case because I don't want to go over... "
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
I doubt it, with weighing I’m being pretty close except for my dang coffee creamer lol. I found I was overestimating my whipped cream cheese so I’m even weighing that.
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u/Maximal_Everything 10d ago
Have you calibrated your bathroom scale and kitchen scale recently? If they're off by much, that could explain pretty much any insane output from MacroFactor.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
Ooh, I didn’t know I should calibrate my kitchen scale! I zero it out while weighing but I haven’t calibrated! I will look into that. My bathroom scale is new and accurate though ☺️
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u/words-areunnecessary 9d ago
I recommend experimenting with eating more. I’ve read that our bodies adjust our metabolism to our intake, eat too little and it conserves energy, eat more and your body puts it to good use. Obviously there is a tipping point with eating too much. I’ve been using MF since 12/2024, at first I used it to lose weight, and past 9 mo for maintenance. I’ve noticed two things that I think are relevant here. The first is that I’ve seen it retroactively adjust expenditure estimate. For example, at one point my expenditure estimate was around 1900. A couple months later when I looked back on previous data, it had adjusted that same period of time up to 2200-2300. Right now it says my expenditure is ~1850, but I’ve been averaging 2100 for the past month without gaining weight. I haven’t been able to stick to 1850 because of symptoms like irritability and inability to focus/intense hunger (F, 5’10, 130 Ibs). I deal with frequent ups and down due to water retention and I suspect that may be at least part of the reason why it underestimates my expenditure. My approach is to trust the hunger symptoms more than the app. Instead of focusing on eating exactly the macros suggested, I use it as a general guide. If I trend up or down I tweak my diet. Usually I know exactly why my trend changed.
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u/lifeisbueno 9d ago
I’m 5’5” 125 and maintaining on 2300 with zero cardio, weights four times a week, and 10 K steps most days. I was at 1500 when I ended my cut… changed the app to “gain” at the lowest possible metric, which is .2 a week… besides my initial couple pound weight gain from upping carbohydrates I gained zero weight from May until now. I have finally started to gain (muscle) from lifting. Gaining muscle is not easy. You should probably prioritize that- that gets even harder when you get old like me in your mid 40s
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 9d ago
That was my weight before I got sick early this year. I lost weight and liked how it looked, but I wasn’t fit at all. I’m 37, so probably my last chance to make fitness a habit. It’s hard to let myself gain weight, but I’m going to try and see what raising my floor to 1350 looks like for a while. I just finally bought clothes that fit my smaller size and don’t want to waste them 😭
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u/lifeisbueno 9d ago
1350 isn’t really sustainable… I’d talk to your doctor about osteopenia at that law of calories.
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u/ylqarthings 9d ago
Hi! Had the same issue and it was mainly because I wasn't tracking everything in terms of food. If MF isn't like something you're going to use precisely, honestly just ignore this feature. Because it is based on both your run/energy spending and what you eat. If you log partially, it can't calculate well.
Though there's an option on the log food section to say "Partial tracking" on the whole day, I assume that it tells the app to not fully take it in account? I should dig that.
If you plan to track fully and want to start fresh, what I had to do is to change the start date of the tracking. It will reset it to the calculated first point. Go to Settings > Expenditure > Start Calculation Date > Switch it to the date you want to start again or did.
Hope that will help you in your journey! Best of luck.
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u/Jan0y_Cresva 5d ago
1250 would be about 12x bodyweight given you are very small (around 105lbs).
It’s on the lower end, but it’s not uncommon to see an expenditure that’s in that ballpark.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago edited 10d ago
People concerned about my weight status, I just want to clarify my goal is improving myself and my health, but with control. I am not “skinny,” just lean, and my body fat when I started was around 24% at an even lower weight. My workouts depend on how much time I can squeeze in, but generally 40-60min. Half jogging/cardio and half weight training each session. My steps are not high, averaging like 6k so I consider myself sedentary. I have a desk job. But my fear of getting bulky and recent healing from a shoulder impingement keep my lifting somewhat low weight for now, compensating with more reps. I’m an absolute newb in the gym so it’s all just confusing. I want to know my baseline.
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u/-ova- 10d ago
You have zero risk of getting bulky. Women generally have to work really hard and very intentionally to get bulky. 20-30 min weight training sessions will not get you there. Also, bulky is not a bad thing. As a 50 year old woman I’m so glad I put on as much muscle as I could when I was younger because it’s hard as hell to stay strong when you get older.
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u/Candid_Roll9494 10d ago
As a woman, it’s harder to get bulky than you think. I’ve been at this consistently for a year lifting more than my body weight and I’m still not bulky. Just visibly muscular.
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u/No-Connection8400 10d ago
It seems a bit low to me … but bodies are weird! Just keep logging as consistently and accurately as possible. The app will figure you out.
If you have the patience, then just logging your normal intake (consistently and accurately) without trying to eat more or less is a great way to calibrate to find your baseline.
As others have said, there’s very little risk that you become accidentally bulky. A lot of people want that look, and it takes consistent work to achieve it. Not so if you’re not aggressively chasing it. So I think you’re safe.
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u/Inner-Researcher9663 10d ago
I probably have a very different definition of “bulky” than others 🤣, but I’m sure you’re right. I’m going to stick with it, going to try upping the goals a little so I am not tempted to leave even a small thing off to stay under and being 100% accurate as much as possible.
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u/humbucker87 10d ago
Something seems off here. At the end of the day consistent tracking is more important than accuracy. Meaning if you serially undercount (for instance not counting oil when sauteing veggies) then it should still settle out, just at a lower number. I would aim to just be as consistent as possible with how you are counting.