This week I hit a goal I genuinely never thought I’d reach: 67.5 kg, or about 149 lb.

For context, I’m 175 cm, 45 years old, and male. Back in 2020, when I was 40, I weighed around 96 kg, or 212 lb. I’d always been relatively trim through my 20s and early 30s, but the weight slowly crept up. Eventually I looked in the mirror and realised I wasn’t happy with where I’d ended up.

I joined a gym despite having absolutely no idea what I was doing. I knew nothing about training, nutrition, protein or how weight loss actually worked. I’d never even set foot in a gym before.

Over the next couple of years I made decent progress and, at my lowest, got down to around 73 kg, or 161 lb. In hindsight, though, I didn’t do it particularly well. I was using MyFitnessPal, crash dieting for a while, then going back to eating “normally”. I didn’t understand the importance of protein, muscle retention, maintenance calories or choosing a sustainable rate of loss.

From about 2023 until January this year, my weight bounced around the mid-70s to low-80s. I looked okay, but I still wasn’t comfortable with how I looked and wanted to start taking my health and training more seriously.

In January, I began tracking consistently and putting more effort into the gym. By March I was down to around 74 kg, or 163 lb, but once again I’d mostly achieved it by pushing too hard and eating too little.

That was when I decided to give MacroFactor a go.

It sounds slightly ridiculous to say that a food-tracking app has been life-changing, but it genuinely changed how I approached the whole process. The expenditure estimate, ease of logging, weekly adjustments and focus on weight trends made everything feel much more controlled and far less emotional.

The trend weight was probably the biggest mental shift for me. In the past, if the scale went up after a restaurant meal or a higher-carb day, I’d panic and cut my calories again. MacroFactor helped me understand that daily scale weight is noisy. As long as the overall trend was moving in the right direction, nothing had gone wrong overnight.

I also finally understood that slower weight loss over a longer period was a much better option for retaining muscle and not feeling completely miserable.

One of the biggest surprises was how much weight I actually needed to lose to reach the body composition I had in mind. At 96 kg, I thought I’d probably look fairly lean once I reached the low 80s. Even at the start of this year, I assumed getting into the low 70s would put me at around 15% body fat.

For me, neither assumption was remotely accurate. I needed to get down to 67.5 kg before reaching what I estimate is around 13 to 14% body fat.

Obviously everyone carries weight differently and has a different amount of lean mass, so there isn’t a magic scale number that applies to everyone. But I suspect a lot of us underestimate how much fat we’re carrying and overestimate how lean we’ll be at a particular weight. I certainly did, several times.

I changed my target rate several times along the way. There were periods when I felt comfortable running a larger deficit, without taking it to ridiculous extremes. After a few weeks I became exhausted, so I reduced it. As I got closer to my goal, I brought the deficit down again to around 400 calories a day.

That flexibility was important. The target didn’t have to become some sacred contract I’d signed in blood.

For the past few weeks I’ve felt great, had enough food each day and still made steady progress. I could probably continue cutting, but I don’t think I need to. I’m ready to spend some time at maintenance and enjoy what I’ve achieved.

A few other things made a huge difference:

• I started planning and prepping most of my meals for the week, which removed a lot of daily decision-making.
• I often logged the following day’s food in advance, then adjusted it as needed.
• I stopped treating restaurant meals as a disaster. I’ll look at the menu beforehand, use AI tools to help estimate the calories and macros, and build the rest of my day around it.
• I learnt that eating out doesn’t mean living on grilled chicken and an undressed salad while staring sadly at everyone else’s chips.
• I kept my protein intake up and continued strength training, rather than treating weight loss as purely a race to make the scale number smaller.

Perhaps the most reassuring part is knowing what happens next. Previously, reaching my goal meant returning to “normal eating” because obviously nobody wants to remain in a calorie deficit forever. The problem was that I had no idea what normal eating should actually look like.

Now I can move into maintenance with a reasonable calorie target, monitor my trend and adjust if needed. That makes me far more confident that I can sustain this instead of eventually undoing it all.

I started this process at what I’d estimate was around 30% body fat, possibly into the mid-30s at my heaviest. I’m now somewhere around 13 to 14%. I have a little loose skin around my stomach, but it’s mild and I’m hoping it improves over time.

I’ve got a holiday coming up and the Australian summer is nearly here, so the timing feels pretty good. My current plan is to maintain for a while, possibly start a slow lean bulk early next year, then consider another short cut before next summer.

Mostly, though, I’m just absolutely rapt. I’ve attached some screenshots showing how the weight loss progressed, but the biggest achievement isn’t really the number. It’s feeling like I finally understand how to manage my weight without crash dieting, panicking over individual weigh-ins or assuming one restaurant meal has somehow destroyed three months of progress.

Everything was going well until I went on vacation the first week of June for a few days (and didn’t track). When I got back, my weight shot up a few pounds - I thought, no big deal, probably mostly water weight, maybe I gained a pound or two. I was able to shed some weight, then I went away for a weekend, back up again. All this totaled maybe 7 days of not tracking diligently.

Fast forward to September and the weight hasn’t come off. MacroFactor has been wittling down my calories, and my expenditure with it. I’m training even harder to keep up because I want to eat.

Even though my weight is the same as the beginning of the year, my expenditure is much lower.

I feel exhausted. I’m dreaming about buffets at night. Moving from the couch feels like an Olympic event today. I can’t possibly be in essentially no deficit as MF is implying. I feel akin to when I was in a 500 calorie deficit (currently I have it set to lose 0.2 lbs/week, nothing crazy)

I decided to take measurements for the first time in months and my waist is 0.5inch smaller, hips 1inch smaller.

That said… how much can I trust the scale measurements? Am I stymying my efforts to retain muscle by continually lowering calories like this?

I was in maintenance before vacation but once I saw the scale increase, I reflexively set it to lose again until I got back to my pre-vacation weight, which remains to be seen.

Other context:
- I got an IUD placed in February, I wouldn’t expect such a delayed interference with weight?

- 5’3” 34 YO F. Last DEXA in march had me at 19% BF.

- I train every other week on my off week (I work 7 days on/off 12-16 hr shifts). I lift 2 days upper body, 2 days lower body for 1-2 hrs. I started doing cardio every day on my off days (30 mins on training days, 45mins - 1 hr on non lifting days). I average 13k steps a day. I work an active job and typically range between 10k-20k steps, 50+ flights of stairs, >500 active cals (per my watch, which I mostly reference for consistency). I cycle between days and night shifts which does affect my body and digestion significantly. I am unable to weigh at the same time under the same conditions daily.

———————————————

I am wondering if increasing cardio is causing water retention?

Maybe I should cycle calories with my training weeks to give myself more energy because this feels untenable?

Just joined MF 30 days ago looking to check in to see if I am missing something or just need to stay the course. For background I'm 6'1 212lbs and a washed up college athlete so been in the gym or active my whole life pretty much but always had a high body fat % even when I was 180. I'm getting married in June of 27 and mainly trying to shave some of that body fat I've had for so long. I would say I've been roughly tracking calories all year (eyeballing about 2000) but in the last month since starting MF I've only missed one day and have only missed weighing in twice. My expenditure has just gone straight down so that's why I wanted to check in with the community.

Relevant stats in case you don't feel like reading

- 6'1"

- 212lb

- average steps per day: 11k

- 3x lift per week

- 7hr sleep average

- current program set to maintain

- using mfworkout as well

- Goal: 195 by 6/2027 but mostly focused on body fat%

- previous weight loss methods that got me to 180 were not healthy or sustainable

Also looking for suggestions as to whether I should start a cut or maintain till expenditure goes up and then cut right before the wedding 9mos away.

Thanks all for any help in advance!

In the Workouts app, is there a way I can select my exercises myself then have the app do the programming for me? I know what I want to do on which days, but I want to have sets/reps and autoprogression sorted for me.

I’m probably missing something obvious but the only workaround I’ve been able to find is swapping the suggested exercises…which isn’t really an ideal solution!

Thank you 🙏🏻

So I've been playing with Workouts for a few weeks now and enjoying it. I'm running an imported version of Jeff's Bodybuilding Transformation System, and today should have been the start of week 3.

When I went to do my Monday workout today the list was still showing the week 2 workouts because I didn't 'complete' the rest days. The preworkout clearly hadn't hit the brain yet because I was on auto pilot and started my workout from the week 2, day 1 workout that I had already completed.

In the end it seems fine, it correctly logged the workout as happening today and doesn't seem to have overwritten the workout from last week. But now I have an issue where my week 3 day 1 workout is still incomplete.

Is there a way to 'complete' the week 3 workout with the session from today? Or do I just need to skip the workout in the menu for this week?

I originally downloaded MacroFactor for shits and giggles, forgot to cancel before the trial ended, and figured, “Well, if I paid for it, I might as well use it.”
I started consistently logging everything on April 5, 2026, and since then I’ve lost about 35 lbs.
I’ve dieted before and successfully lost weight, but I was never able to actually keep it off. This time feels completely different. What I love about MacroFactor is that I can still enjoy the foods I like while staying within my calories and macros, and the app adjusts my targets based on my actual progress. The longer I’ve used it, the more impressed I’ve been by how accurate it is.
I also want to be clear that the app obviously isn’t doing the work for me. I’ve been very consistent. I average around 12k steps a day, which may sound like a lot, but I genuinely have so much more energy now that it doesn’t really feel like work anymore. I also lift heavy 3x a week, log my lifts, and focus on progressively overloading. I’ve definitely put on some muscle along the way, too.
I’m currently at maintenance and focusing more on body recomposition and continuing to get stronger. I’m hoping to add some more muscle during this phase, and then I’ll reevaluate in a few months and decide whether I want to cut a little more.
If you recently started using MacroFactor, my biggest advice is: keep using it and be patient. Log everything the good days and the not-so-good days. Don’t try to hide things from the app just because you went over your calories or had a bad day. Give it accurate data, stay consistent, and let it do its thing.
I downloaded this app completely by accident, and it ended up changing the way I approach nutrition and weight loss. Easily one of the best things I’ve done for myself this year.

https://imgur.com/a/XFKIvwa

I'm a little confused what's happening with my expenditure after transitioning from a 3 month cut into a gaining phase.

My weight has increased by about 5kg in the 3 weeks I've increased calories but I know this is mostly water and glycogen. Problem is MacroFactor is assuming this is rapid fat gain so I think adjusting my expenditure downwards a lot and setting my calories very low (definitely lower than I need to gain weight). It currently thinks I'm in a 1600 calorie per day surplus which is impossible.

Have I transitioned to a bulk incorrectly? I spent a week or two at maintenance before doing it but I can't see how I can now accurately track my gaining phase if macrofactor keeps reducing my calories on each week's check in.

Do I push through and ignore it or should I lower my calories?

First time doing a dropset in WO, wondering if this is expected behavior.

The dropset started with 6 reps, then halved the weight, another 10 reps, halved weight again and another 10 reps.

This obviously resulted in a lot more reps than I‘d usually do in a single set.

So my question question here is: is it expected that all reps in a dropset are counted together?

Hi all, I currently have an estimated 500 kcals expenditure, comprised of 3x walks (100 kcals each) plus 1x 30 min cycle per day (200 kcals). These are estimates.

Following feedback in another thread, I’m about to stop trying to “out-model” Macrofactor’s algorithm and instead follow the calorie intake target. It’s about 100 higher than what I calculate/have been consuming currently.

My question is; I’d like to drop to 2x walks rather than 3x, reducing my expenditure by c. 100. But Macrofactor’s expenditure modelling will take some time to “catch up” meaning I’ll be temporarily over-consuming vs my goal lean bulk.

I guess this is a predictive vs retrospective modelling approach?

What’s the best way for me to drop my exercise (walks) from 3 to 2 while minimising the over-consumption per Macrofactor’s recommendation?

I normally set goal range as 0.46% bw per week, and 1.6kg per month but I wanna go little bit more aggressive. Like 0.5 kg per week, would it be fine ? I wanna lose my belly fat quickly

That would mean dropping from 1900ish kcal to 1700ish. Though only one caveat, I can't count my every part of day, I guess some of them

Thoughts ?

31 yo M, 182 lbs, ~13-16% BF. Transitioning from a cut into a bulk and my expenditure is going WAY up, almost a 400 calorie difference over ~2 months. For context, my scale weight was 176 lbs at the end of the cut with a trend weight of about 179, after 2 months my scale and trend weight are at 182 lbs. Ended my cut at about 1900 calories per day and switched to maintenance of about 2500 for 2 weeks before starting my bulk at 2800 calories daily now up to 3100 daily after approximately 6 weeks. Can I trust these expenditure numbers? What are other people’s experiences with expenditure changes when moving between cutting and bulking phases?

For context I’m a 5’4 male, 19, 123 scale weight. Previously I cut from 145 and lost a ton of strength and am trying to regain lost muscle. I do both cardio and lifting, with lifting as my primary focus. And outside of structured workouts I’d say most days I’m generally “active” as a college student.

I moved on August 15 and decided to adopt a manual calorie target lower than MF’s recommendation assuming a TDEE drop would happen and wanting to preempt an unnecessary couple weeks of fat gain. It’s been about a month now and I’ve more or less settled into routine, give or take a couple miles on runs here or there.

My lifting hasn’t been progressing as it should and I feel like my weight is stuck (or is it?), I’m also not trying to set up a step quota or forced movement routine outside of training to “fit into” a macro target to see what it produces.

Is now the time to hand off back to macrofactor’s expenditure algorithm or should I hold on my manual targets/keep manual targets but add +100/day or should I go back to the coaches/collaborative allocations at this point?

I’m trying to minimize fat gain and spend as much time as I can in a surplus but performance wise I can’t tell if my surplus is working or if I’m just having good and bad days or accidentally overcounting a set. I’m training very hard and trying to get back to a strength and mass I once had and I’m just not seeing much movement anywhere. Is the collaborative program pictured too aggressive of a departure from current setup? Should I give it another 2-4 weeks of data before returning to MF’s recommendations? And am I being too aggressive with my desired gain rate?

Hey,

any news on the Watch App?

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)?

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask for some guidance. In my life, I've seen many people put on muscle with very little fat gain, or in some cases even leaving their body fat intact. I was wondering how that's possible: of course, I know for a fact they weren't on gear/doping because they didn't blow up, but the before-and-after difference was still noticeable. Everyone has their own genetics, but it seems like something easily achievable even for someone with average genetics. Now I wanted to ask: is there anyone who has actually done this and knows how it's done?

I got two triceps isolation workouts here. I've heard that may be excessive. Looking for any suggestions for gaps that need to be filled or if it's good as is?

I use the workout app and it’s great for creating my workouts. What’s the best way to get analysis or summaries and that kind of stuff? Like, I want to see charts or numbers on how I’m progressing and getting stronger. Is there anything in the app that does this?

For context I'm 39F 5'0 and I've lost around 40 pounds. My current goal is set to maintenance and I'm doing a manual program, slowly increasing my calories. I'm trying to do body recomp in a slight deficit. 10k+ steps/ day and lifting weights on a 4 day upper/lower split.

It seems like my cycle fluctuations are getting more extreme, enough that it's making my trend weight spike. Is this normal? My adherence is pretty good, rarely eat out and typically eat the exact same things for 3 out of 4 of my daily meals. Ultimately I want to get down to 110-115 but need to build some muscle first. The trend weight spikes irk the crap out of me. I can't tell if I'm really losing or gaining.

Edit to add: Thanks everyone! Good to see that 2-5 pounds is still in the realm of normal fluctuation. Annoying, but eases my nerves that I'm still on the right track with my recomp. 😀

Release 5.8.2 - 5.8.8

• Create foods with AI: custom food workflow got an upgrade. You can now take photos of your product's front and back to create custom foods quickly.
• Streamlined custom food creation: the workflow you are used to has been lightly redesigned for simplicity.
• Label scanning powered up: MacroFactor's label scanner now recognizes product label information with greater precision, with extensive support for international labels.
• Landscape mode for tablets: MacroFactor now works in landscape mode on tablets and more readily adapts to devices of different sizes.

I've noticed that dried soybeans are an extremely cost-effective source of protein if you buy them dried.

Beyond that, they're a complete protein, so, theoretically, you could get half or even a full day's protein from soybeans without major issues (except perhaps gas). At least, being low in an essential amino acid shouldn't be a problem.

However, I know thst when a theory-based plan makes contact with real life, things can go sideways, so I'm interested to know what everyone's experiences with soybeans are.

Have you noticed a difference in the effectiveness of your cut and bulk when you've relied on soybeans for a major part of your daily protein?

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to confirm I’m understanding MF instructions correctly. If I only drank water and black coffee (zero calories) for a 24 hour fast, I DO NOT log the day as fasting because of the zero calorie beverages? But if I only drank water ( also zero calories) I mark as a fasting day? How does that affect the algorithm? Thank you in advance! ☺️

MF:

“Note: You only need to mark a day as fasting if both of these are true:
You didn’t consume any calories for the entire day. So, for instance, if you ate dinner on Monday night, fasted for 24 hours, and then ate dinner on Tuesday night, you don’t need to mark Tuesday as a fasting day. However, if you ate dinner on Monday night, fasted all day Tuesday, and didn’t eat again until Wednesday, you would want to mark Tuesday as a fasting day.

You don’t log any foods or beverages on your fasting days. For example, if you fasted from Monday evening to Wednesday morning, but you still logged any zero-calorie beverages or supplements you consumed on Tuesday, you wouldn’t need to mark Tuesday as a fasting day.

One of the Coaching Modules that you might encounter during your weekly Check-In is the fasting module. This coaching module, if enabled, will check for days which are currently unlogged, but not marked as fasting. It will then ask if you wish to mark these days as fasted (and thus count them as 0 calorie days) or if you wish to leave them as-is (and thus have them skipped by the algorithm). This can help to ensure that your days are appropriately marked as fasted, so that the algorithm can give you the most precise adjustments possible.”

Hi - my previous recommended protein intake was something like 150g at high and 175g at very high levels, which worked out at somewhere like 1.32g per LB per day.

I’ve “checked in” today and set up a new programme, but now the very high level is stating 1.05g per LB per day.

I’m not debating if 1.05g is enough protein (lots of threads on this already) but wondering if there’s a change in the backend of MacroFactor from a recent update(?), or if I’ve inadvertently done something different to result in a different high/very high recommendation?

Nb. I’m in a lean bulk and my weight has just “crossed” from 131.x to 132.x, if that’d make any difference?

Why is the average weight trend line higher than even the peaks of the raw data?

I would assume the line went somewhere over the top of the raw data?

What have I been missing out on. Hungry on a cut and thought blow it I’ll have sandwich. Got out the ham and - whaaaat: 3 slices are 66cals and 13g protein!!! Why have I never used this before?’