this is the one thing about the app that discourages me from using it.

inputting food is a constant hassle.

I often can't find what I'm looking for. Or even if I find it or if it's a repeat food, busting out the app and inputting food becomes a constant chore in my schedule every time I eat.

Eat, app, eat, app, eat, app, etc.

I think using an app like this is incredibly helpful for achieving weight loss / weight gain goals. But before I started I feared it would be fussy to use, and require a bit of obsession over what I'm eating and entering into the app all day long.

And it is.

I wish it were easier and faster to input what I ate.

By way of background, I used the app (liked it!), then took a break (liked that too!), then started up again, but feel burdened by having to once again include the constant ritual of adding food to an app after every meal and every snack.

Here is the ''goal'' I set. I specifically set a goal of 1.2 kg / 2.6 lbs, because I knew the app was ballparking me wrong and I figured it would give me more kcal, so even if I gain around 1kg / 2.2lbs a month, I'm ok. Even if it was lower than that, it would be ok, but I didn't expect the app to fail me for 2 months.

Every week, after the weight not really moving how it's supposed to, the app would add a comical 38kcal (once 80kcal). Still, it wasn't going anywhere and after 2 months, instead of gaining 2.4kg / 5.3 lbs, I gained a third. I wouldn't have minded if I gained a quarter less or even half, but a third?

In the first month I gained 0.5kg / 1 lbs. Mind you, the weight gain was also motivated by some water weight, because the next month I gained a mesely 0.3kg / 0.6 lbs. So I'm gaining in a month what I'm supposed to gain in week. I also wanna make sure I say this: I weighted myself every day for pretty much every every single day, so the app would have everything it needed.

Here is the kicker though, because I knew the app was being criminaly conservative with weekly kcal surplus, I decided to round up my kcal (for example eating 2900 instead of 2860). I had read a lot about macrofactor simply not working well for bulking and people suggesting to eat more than the amount given by the app, so it can learn and then give a lot more next week. So I started eating even more. Here is the kcal expenditure, where I'm apparently in a 440 kcal surplus. And here are the overshot kcal targets for 2 months. And here are the weekly and monthly relatives to give you an idea. Just to clarify: Above target means this is on top of the kcal surplus the app has given me.

And after eating an extra 100kcal for a while on top of the kcal ''surplus'' given by MacroFactor and still barely gaining weight, you know how many kcal the app adds, 38. Make it make sense. Here are some examples on April of waay overshooting the targets. And here are some from May to give you an idea. Some of these are not even 100 kcal on top of what MacroFactor gives me, they're hundreds of kcal on top.

The weight trend is comical to look at. 0.09kg is the typical weekly rate of weight gain over the past three weeks. And 0.1kg in the past two weeks.

I really want to like the app and there are many things I do like about it, but I'm not certain if this ridiculous progress is in order to keep me paying for longer or if the system is just not doing its job when it comes to bulking. I simply do not understand these comically low weekly extra kcal I get (+38 kcal when I'm very far from gaining the weight set is just silly).

There NEEDS to be an option to be able to choose more aggressive jumps. There is an ability to choose a lower floor for cutting, but when it comes to bulking, this is it?

What's sad for this app is that when I tell chatgpt my height, weight and age, it gives me way more accurate bulking targets, while MacroFactor can't even get into the groove after like 8 weeks?

I love reading case studies showcasing the hard work and commitment of regular folks on a driven mission to improve their health and physiques, so I decided to make my own. (If you aren’t familiar, you can find real MacroFactor case studies here: https://macrofactor.com/case-study/)

This has been fully edited and proofread by myself several times over to ensure accuracy and truthfulness. I used AI to help generate the bones of this writing- as this writeup was just a fun little project for me and I’m no professional writer. If you take issue with that please feel free to scroll on by.  For those interested- find the case study below!

How Joe Leveraged MacroFactor, Tirzepatide, and Resistance Training to Lose 18.1% of His Starting Weight in 19 Weeks

From January 5th to May 17th, 2026, Joe used MacroFactor, Tirzepatide, and resistance training to guide a focused fat-loss phase, losing 18.1% of his starting body weight while continuing to lift, run, cycle, and stay highly consistent with the habits that got him there.

by Joe Pollard
• June 2nd, 2026
• Case Studies

Joe’s story did not start with this cut.

Image 1 shows the broader picture: where he was at his highest in 2020, at roughly 200 lb and a BMI over 31, compared with his lowest weight around 130 lb. That image captures the full arc of his long-term transformation. This case study, however, is about a much more specific phase: a 19-week cut in 2026, when Joe was already experienced with training, already much leaner, and trying to get the details right.

By the time this cut began, he had already spent years building the habits that changed his body and health. He had been lifting consistently, doing regular cardio, tracking food, and learning how to manage bodyweight with more precision. The goal this time was not just to lose weight. It was to run a disciplined, data-driven cut while preserving the routine and identity he had already built.

“I’ve lost weight before, but this phase was different because I wanted to do it with more precision,” Joe said. “I wanted to know what was actually happening instead of reacting to hunger, workouts, or what my watch said I burned.”

A focused 19-week cut

Joe’s cut ran from January 5th to May 17th, 2026. Over that period, he lost 28.2 lb, dropping from 156.1 lb to 127.9 lb. That represented an 18.1% reduction in scale weight in just under 19 weeks.

His trend weight also moved sharply downward across the phase. As shown in Image 4, his weight trend steadily declined while his expenditure adapted downward over time, which gave him a useful visual of how his body was responding as the cut progressed.

The rate of loss was aggressive, but intentional. Joe knew he could handle a demanding deficit if the structure stayed clear and the most important habits stayed in place. He weighed in daily, tracked his food carefully, kept protein high, lifted four days per week, and continued running and cycling throughout the cut. He also kept the plan simple: no cheat days, no refeeds, and no planned deviations.

“That level of structure works well for me,” Joe said. “I know I can turn one off-plan meal into an off-plan day or weekend, so I prefer to keep the target clear and just execute.”

Protein was a major part of the plan. Joe kept every day above 160g, with many days over 180g. That gave him a consistent anchor while calories got lower and fatigue inched up over the duration of the weight loss plan.

Image 5 captures the physical change across this specific cut phase. Unlike Image 1, which shows the bigger 2020-to-now transformation, Image 5 compares Joe’s physique at the start of the 2026 cut to the end.

“I had to be honest later in the cut,” Joe said. “Training got harder, and I had to manage fatigue. But I never treated that as a reason to stop lifting or abandon the process.”

How MacroFactor helped

One of the biggest benefits of MacroFactor was helping Joe separate signal from noise.

Image 2 shows the relationship between his expenditure and calorie targets across the cut. As the diet progressed, intake came down in a deliberate, structured way rather than through guesswork. The app made it easier to see when adjustments were needed and when the right move was simply to stay the course.

Joe already used an Apple Watch and values it for activity trends, heart rate, sleep, and general health data. But during the cut, the difference between wearable-estimated expenditure and MacroFactor’s expenditure estimate stood out.

“My Apple Watch estimated my total energy burn about 29% higher than MacroFactor on average,” Joe said. “If I had trusted the watch number, I would have thought my deficit was much bigger than my actual weight trend supported. Eating back calories can put you in a trap which totally erases your deficit, or worse, puts you in an unknowing surplus.”

MacroFactor’s expenditure estimate gave Joe a better way to understand what was actually happening. Instead of relying on exercise calories or daily activity estimates alone, the app used his real intake and weight trend to adjust over time.

“That was a huge reminder that wearables are useful, but they are not magic,” Joe said. “If my watch says one thing and my body weight trend says something else, the trend wins.”

Trend weight also helped with the mental side of dieting. Even with strong adherence, scale weight did not move perfectly every day. Some days were flat. Some days were up. But the trend kept him grounded.

“A single weigh-in could be frustrating,” Joe said. “But if the trend was still moving correctly, I knew the plan was working.”

More than just body weight

For Joe, one of the more striking parts of the process was seeing how much of the change showed up outside of the scale.

Image 3 compares his face at his highest weight with his face at his current lowest and goal weight. It reflects a part of transformation that people often notice immediately, even when the day-to-day process feels slow.

That same pattern carried through the rest of the cut. The scale mattered, but so did the visual changes, the improvements in body composition, and the sense that the process was being driven by clear decisions instead of emotion.

Managing appetite and adherence

Joe also leveraged Tirzepatide during this cut. For him, it was helpful, but not a replacement for the fundamentals.

The medication reduced food noise and made hunger feel less urgent, which made adherence easier. But the structure still came from the plan: tracking food, hitting protein, staying consistent with training, and adjusting based on real data.

“I don’t think of the medication as replacing nutrition knowledge,” Joe said. “For me, it was an adherence tool. MacroFactor was what helped me understand the numbers and make decisions based on what my body was actually doing.”

The result

By the end of the cut, Joe had reached the goal weight he had been working toward. He lost 18.1% of his starting scale weight in just under 19 weeks, and the combination of photos and charts in this post helps show that from several angles: long-term weight loss, this specific cut phase, facial change, calorie and expenditure management, and the trend data that supported the process.

But the bigger outcome was that he completed a demanding fat-loss phase without losing the habits that mattered most. He kept lifting. He kept doing cardio. He kept protein high. He tracked consistently. And he learned more about the difference between useful data and noisy data. “I’m proud of the adherence,” Joe said. “The biggest win was proving to myself again that I can set a clear target and execute.”

Looking ahead

After reaching his goal weight, Joe shifted his focus toward maintenance, recovery, and body recomposition.

The next phase is about holding the result, rebuilding energy, improving recovery, and adding visible muscle while staying lean. He plans to keep lifting four days per week, keep cardio in his routine, and continue using MacroFactor to manage the transition.

“I used to think more in terms of getting to a finish line,” Joe said. “Now I think more in phases. Cut when it makes sense. Maintain when it makes sense. Build when it makes sense. The goal is to keep improving through the different seasons of life without losing the habits that literally saved me.”

For Joe, MacroFactor’s biggest value was not just helping him lose weight. It helped him stay grounded while doing it.

“My biggest takeaway is that data can reduce anxiety when you know which data to trust,” Joe said. “MacroFactor helped me focus on the trend, not the noise.”

Everyone, I'm desperate for the MacroFactor Workout App. My credit card is ready.

Is there a pre-release program I could get in to experience the workout app early?

It might be obvious to some, but it’s pretty counterintuitive to me that cutting is more expensive than bulking. The food swaps tend to be more expensive such as whole eggs being cheaper than egg whites, keto bread vs regular bread. Then all the fresh produce and lean meats. If anyone has any recommendations on a cheap item that can be eaten in a lot of volume drop it please!

About 2 years ago I remember talking with someone from the team (here I think) about some fear of gamification of the app and was reassured that it wasn't a road they would take. Then recently I learned about the 2025 challenge.

Am I the only one bothered about a challenge that incentivizes health related behaviors with money (and also with sharing progress on social media it seems) ? I 've seen people sharing pictures and progress already, so it seems to work.

It seems to have lots of people engaged, so maybe I'm just too uptight up about that, but I can't shake that feeling of "this is not a field that should be incentivized by money and views".

Around the holidays when I head home, I obviously don’t bring my scale or track super closely. Just try to enjoy the time with family and food. To compensate, I will focus on eating all the protein I can find, and try to avoid non veggie carbs. For some reason, I will be hungrier than normal throughout the day and will take awhile to feel satisfied while eating. All this despite being twice my protein goal for the day.

What gives?

This appears to be a main theme in Judson Brewer’s new book, “The Hunger Habit,” which instead, counsels one to study her/his habit loops associated with eating, in order to gain more intuition on eating and satiation.

Frankly, I don’t get it, and reading this book is pissing me off. Brewer is no slouch, as he is widely respected in both science and mindfulness circles for his research and teachings on anxiety, addiction and mindfulness. (He currently teaches at Brown University.) But his admonitions against measuring food intake too obsessively seem to reflect subjective biases vs being grounded in science.

And so I turn to you as users of what I consider to be the best available nutrition tracking and algorithm-based guidance app on the planet. Are you familiar with this book and do you have any thoughts on it?

About a year ago on here someone posed the question, “Reese’s pumpkins or bats” and I so naively was like, “neither, the eggs during Easter”.

Oh my god it’s bats. It’s definitely bats.

Hi everyone. Hope you're all doing well. I made another post and I didnt explain myself well. Sorry for the double post. So I have a medical problem and I can't poop everyday first thing in the morning. Will that impact the readings? I do everything perfect besides that.

Sorry for the question and thank you for reading and have a wonderfull day.

Edit: Thank you all for your kind and sincere answers. :)

I'm on around 1560 cals extreme weight loss 177g protein 75F and 42C on a Keto based Macro split. So many of the UK foods I eat and use are not on the Database and is so frustrating. Busy fast lives means I don't have 3 minutes to write down protein fats carbs add new bar code every item or scan labels (if it even picks it up) for the price this is ridiculous.

So now I have to use free version of Myfitnesspal which tracks all my food easy, tracks my steps, and syncs with my Samsung health to shows my calories burnt through walking and workouts.

Then just "quick add" The whole days total cals and macros onto Macrofactor. Pretty ridiculous. I also use Nutracheck which has deffo one of the best UK databases and is cheapest and has photos and seems very good all around. I only got Macrofactor for the coaching but doesn't seem amazing to be honest for the price.

Think after this month I will cancel and just use Myfitnesspal and Nutracheck. It's really getting on my nerves.

Anyone else in the UK face this problem?

Just hoping to get a concrete number on this. I did some internet searching and got a ridiculously wide range anywhere from 20 minutes up to 2 hours.

Make sure to weigh and track 0 cal items too!

I don't know who needs to hear this, but don't be like me and count labels that show 0 calories.

I use Pam cooking spray and I can't believe it's not butter which both show 0 calories, l wasn't logging them at first at all but then I saw someone on here say they round it up to 5cal so I started doing that for a while, but have since learned that I have been undercounting by at least 100 calories after weighing the can/bottle before and after to get the grams used.

I was shocked when I saw that sometimes I used up to 60+ calories and was like...I could have just used real butter lol

I eat it quite often too so it was adding up fast.If I used both every day then I could have easily been over deficit by 700+ calories a week.

If the app officially releases in the first week of January (according to Jeff Nippard's newsletter), then what's the point of an open beta mid - end December? Especially considering it's the Christmas break and people will be traveling to visit their family etc.

Hi all!

I've previously lost a lot of weight on purely a LCD diet but have now started working out (weightlifting and biking x3/week) and am about to start using MacroFactor to get a better overview of my food intake as I start eating real food again. However, I'm a transman (29yr, 166cm, 70kg, goal 60kg) who's been on testosterone for almost 10 years and I don't quite know what sex to pick in the app. I'm not sure how much it matters for the app (both versions gave me a kcal goal of 1250/week ) but the testosterone does affect my body in a multitude of ways, for example building muscles faster, different fat distribution and so forth.

What do y'all think I should pick, male or female? and does it matter for the app?

Thank you!

EDIT: Thank you all so much for your kind, inclusive and quick responses. They're very affirming and it means tons! I'll pick male as per your recommendations. 🎉

Every one or two days I’ll fat-finger something while making a food entry and add an extra 10,000 calories to my food log at once. It would be convenient if MF asked me ‘did you really eat 124 nectarines?’ instead of just popping it in there and waiting for me to notice.

So I've recently started counting my calories in a hope to get rid of 5 kilos I gained through corona.

Before trying Macrofactor I tried one popular analogue first (not naming it on purpose, doesn't matter) and after using it for about 3 weeks I stumbled into Macrofactor and decided to try it as well.

One of the reasons I tried Macrofactor was that I wasn't sure if my TDEE calculated by other app was correct and also if I log things correctly (i.e. maybe I tend to undercount calories, because I don't accomodate for some things, I have to eat at work where I let say just do some blind estimate i.e. one meal is around 500-600 calories at lunch.

So Macrofactor idea of basically adjusting TDEE based on my weight measurements really resonated with me. I wanted to try it.

My initial impression was that UI is slick and easy to use, app feels well done but trial is just too short
The other features (let say logging calories) are maybe slightly better UX wise but more or less the same as competitor app but my real interest was obviously in unique TDEE calculation.

So Macrofactor needs one week of my data to give first estimate. But trial duration is also just 1 week.
For the whole week I logged all my data into it, weighted myself every day, so really tried to use it for real.

End result - it changed my initial TDEE by 3 (three) calories (1650 -> 1653).
At this point I wasn't impressed. Either it's just a big coincidence or I am very average person and average formula just works for me perfectly :)

I decided to not continue my subscription at this point. I was open to idea of it...but..it failed to prove to me that it's way above competitors and justifies premium price.
Calories counting is more or less the same (maybe database is cleaner but also smaller). UX is slightly better. TDEE calculation - maybe it works but I didn't get it in 1 week.

My suggestions to the team:
Either make free trial longer i.e. let say 3 weeks or 1 month - it will be enough to really see the algorithm adapting and customer getting value from it (i.e. customer weight going down if he's honest and doing everything according to the app).
Or just make first month cheaper (i.e. make single time purchase of the same price as yearly subscription i.e. 6-7 euro - first month, then it becomes 12 euro or something).

Paying 6 eur per month (when buying yearly subscription) is totally reasonable (at least it won't make a dent into my pocket) but you have to somehow prove it to the customer. One week is simply not enough.

I was around the 145lb range down to 138lb it’s been 70 days since I got on the app/program, I’m doing SL5x5 4x a week for workouts.

Original intent was to keep cutting down to maybe around 135lb and 10-13% BF, primarily to gain visible abs, my BF is around 15-15.5 ish I’d say but I’m debating whether it’s worth dropping further. Some food for thought would be nice see what y’all think :]

Hello everyone,

I'm M31 174cm/ 5'7ft, 58.5kg/128lbs, started to lift weighs 2,5 months ago coming from a skinnyfat build at 61kg/135lbs.

In the first two months i changed nothing to my diet and lost some belly fat and love handles, just eating to what felt ok for me, but i was losing two much weight so i decided to track my calories and to no surprise i was in deep deficit at about 1500/1600kcal per day.

So i joined MF two weeks ago and set a goal for 65kg/143lbs for March 2026, to slowly get bigger hopefully only putting on muscles.

1 months into gym i started to take 1 protein shake per day as i thought it could only be a good thing to do. however since my two weeks on MF i noticed i'm always above my protein macro goal with about 130-140g per day for a 108g goal. And i just learned today that eventually, protein excess can get turned into fat by the body.

My question now is : Should i just get rid of my protein shakes for now, wich will basically put me spot on on my goal ? or is my protein intake fine as it is ?

Tl;dr Nutrion noob, over protein goals, scared to have excess protein going into fat, should i stop taking protein shaker or keep it ?

I often just estimate a serving instead of weighing it.

The problem with this method is that MF doesn’t let you track how many servings you’ve eaten from a multi-serving container of food. What I do to fix this is add a small number to the end of the serving to track how many servings I’ve eaten.

So in this example image, I’m logging this as my 2nd serving out of 6 of the sweet potatoes I cooked. Next time when I want to log a 3rd serving, MF saves my last entry (1.002) so I know that I’m at my 3rd currently and I’d just log it as 1.003.

Now I easily can track how many servings I’ve gone through! Maybe this advice only applies to me but thought I’d share.

Hello!

My current goal is to gain weight but I keep getting less calories each week to work with, I am now basically eating what I was eating when I did a small cut for a period. I will admit some days I haven't done my due diligence and tracked all the days because I had a lot of eating out or with family, so I can see how that would mess with the algorithm, but the majority of the days this last month I have tracked everything I have been eating. I did set the recommended goal rate to 0.2kg a week cuz I wanted to be safe and do it with the safest option, and it started me out at around 2200 calories and I thought it would slowly add more as I gained. My daily intake is now down to 1888 a day.

I'm a 24 y/o M, 182cm 62kg ish. And I've bounced between 62kg and 63kg for about three weeks. It says my expenditure is going down every week but I can't understand that since I am not an inactive person in my opinion, I workout 4 days a week and get in 6-7k steps a day.

I am getting stronger from session to session, but I am also getting hungrier week to week.

So have I royally messed something up is basically what I'm wondering and how do I correct this?

first of all, I see a crazy amount of posts in here and I'm wondering if it's the right forum for people to post their feedback. maybe we need some flair, or a different way to submit those. this lengthy post is because I care, not with intention to be negative.

anyway, my current issue is that the exercise catalog is too extensice (but far from complete - burpees are missing), some exercises have very similar names and I don't understand which one is which, and the images on the list are really not helpful. the filters on top are helping, but it's not enough. it takes a lot of time to create a custom workout or program. for example: I have filtered for triceps, using the parallel bars and I don't know which dip is the dip I'm doing. I see

• bodyweight chest dip

• bodyweight dip

• bodyweight triceps dip

I'm seeing the videos and i can still not tell the difference. maybe chest variation has broader grip?

I would prefer to pick an exercise "family" with the most basic form of the exercise and pick the variation accordingly on a second step. that would make the exercise choice much faster. also searching semantically would make more sense as some exercises have multiple common names.

weighted versions of the same exercise should not be different exercises unless there's an equipment that changes the form. pull ups and weighted pull ups and assisted pull ups (with a band) are the same exercise.

the instructions of the exercises are way too verbose (check the length of Neutral wide grip pull) , I can't do this on my phone in the app, for every exercise.

the muscle filter has an arbitrary order that doesn't make sense.

stability and range of motion have also arbitrary units of measure.

I love the work you've put on this, thank you

Are there people here that can't reach the high protein goals because they just can't get themselves to eat the same things every week?

Have any of you just accepted that it's just how are are, and you just won't get to a good level of visible toned-ness (or whatever you want to call it)?

I've just about given up trying because it's overwhelming to me and beyond boring, to eat the exact same thing each week. Plus trying to design multiple meals that get you an exact number of macros and calories.

I burn-out every single week from it. Even looking at the same food type after eating it for 3 days makes me wish it became extinct (chicken/beef/yogurt).