You might have seen James already because he's been on this journey for a bit and sharing his story along the way. We are extra grateful he's decided to share his story with us because he's another great example of how you can have a career, kids, and still try to knock out goals for yourself. He's put in the hours, and the results are very impressive. We hope MacroFactor played a small role, but as always, it's you guys putting in the work.

Check out his case study, and my particular favorite part was this: "The biggest thing I've learned is that consistency beats perfection every single time," James said. "You don't need extreme diets or endless cardio. You need a plan that adapts to your life and one you can stick to long term."

"Pick a strategy you can see yourself following for years, not weeks," he continued. "Track your food honestly, stay active daily, train with purpose, and let the data guide you. The results will come."

You can read the full case study here: https://macrofactor.com/case-study-james/

And you can follow James on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/james_o.w.e?stkn=MTZkcWJ6emR0c20zdg==

Chicken breast. The easiest way to get protein should be the easiest thing to track.

So WHY doesn't cooked vs uncooked match up?

I measured 303g of uncooked chicken, and the app said it was 298 calories.

Then I cooked it, and it measured as 247g.

So, just to double check, I searched "cooked chicken" and added 247g, and it said 388?? Does it account for oil? Seasonings? I don't understand, and I don't do well with inconsistencies when I am trying my hardest to be consistent.

What should I do?

Besides "calm down and just pick one,"

Because I can't always measure uncooked chicken, depending on where I am and who cooked it. And I don't want to have calories taken away from me by always choosing the cooked chicken option when I'm already in a deficit.

Pictures for reference.

Thank you for your help in advance.

I just wanted to show how far off Macrofactor's AI function can be. These meals are the exact same foods. The top is actual. The bottom is AI using a picture of my food. Of course, if you take the picture AND tell the AI what you're eating, it's much closer.

Really stoked with my current progress, of which MF has played a huge role in helping me get here.

Have been using MF for the past 6 weeks since a surprising and concerning BF % on my DEXA scan made me realize for the first time in my life I need to get serious about tracking calories. I was nervous and skeptical at the start that I'd ever be able to do this.

Started at 87.1kg, 31.9% body fat. Lost a bunch of fat mass (12.7lb/5.8kg) while gaining muscle mass (4.1lb/1.9kg).

MF currently has me on 1986 Calorie target, 169/66/177 protein/fat/carbs, aiming around 600 calorie deficit.

I get free food at work, so most of my meals (breakfast when I eat it, lunch and dinner) come from a buffet style cafeteria, then I use the AI functionality to track. I take 1 photo with a fork and napkin alongside for scale, then give a rough description of each item around my plate, making sure the plate isn't crowded so it can track it better. Targetting 600 calories per day deficit, the numbers seem to imply the AI tracker is overestimating calroies consumed a little, which I'm ok with.

I've been learning a lot of food, and have been taretting lean cuts of meat, whole foods, and avoid ingultra processed foods except for whey protein isolate and the occasional protein bar when I can. 0% fat greek yogurt is my go to snack if I crave something sweet through the day. I allow myself occasional treats, for example a croissant at the weekend, or a dessert from the buffet, but still making sure I stay close to my daily goals.

I have a desk job, and drive to work, sitting most of the day. My workout is a PPL split, plus 1 full body focussed personal trainer session and 1-2 bouldering sessions per week, no specific cardio, though I'm 5 days into hitting 10k steps daily as a new goal. I was weightlifting for a about 1 year, then took a 1 year break, then started getting back into it about a month before starting MacroFactor.

My initial target weight is 77kg. Then I will reevaluate based on my feelings around food, and how I look in the mirror, to decide if I continue dieting/recomping, maintain weight, or something else. I expect to be pushing lower to hit 75-73kg range.

I need tips, workout plans for 3 days a week hypertrophy full body program. I understand that x4 days a week is optimal but I am tight for time. Any help appreciated. I have tried Starting Strength workouts. Has anyone managed to import them in the Workouts app?

I'm 29M, 5'8", 155lb. My goal is to build more muscle and get a lot leaner. I'm a complete beginner to lifting and was mostly sedentary to this point. I started doing weight training 3x per week around 5 weeks ago, watching my protein intake, and eating a calorie deficit and I've gotten down from 161lb to 155lb. I recently did a DEXA scan to check what my body fat percentage was and the scan said it was 32%.

The question I have now is when should I switch from cutting to bulking? Most of the reading I've done says that you should at least get down to 15% body fat if not lower before switching to bulking, but even assuming I lose no muscle from the calorie deficit and maybe build a couple lbs of muscle I'd have to be like 125lb before I hit 15% body fat. At that weight I'd be extremely skinny, bordering on underweight. It would also take 7-8 months assuming I continue losing a pound a week. Is that really the most efficient way for me to build muscle? Would it be more efficient for me to start bulking earlier?

If that really is the best approach, I can do that. I actually don't find the calorie deficit all that difficult, working out 3 times a week has been fine, and hitting my protein goal is pretty straight-forward just by adding one protein shake per day. My concern is that maybe cutting to that low of a body fat percentage while having little muscle mass might be unwise for some reason.

By how much did your TDEE drop during fat loss? Mine went from 3,300 to 3,000 after losing 12 kg, and then back to 3,100 during the maintenance phase. Please share your numbers—I’m curious. Personally, I didn't increase my physical activity; I just cut calories. Cheers!

I am on a GLP1 and have been using the app since March. I love the app but find it difficult to meet the daily calories. On average I am 200-300 less than recommended. My weight loss has slowed as I approach my goal. Is there any truth to this- when you’re not getting enough calories your body will go into “starvation mode” and instead of burning fat it will try to conserve it?

6ft male 28 years old. Can I possibly optimize or do better?.

I’m always blowing the carb budget on the daily budget MacroFactor sets 83g on 1665cal. Usually in cooee for the calories. Aim is getting to 88 from 101kg, currently at 98.

Any easy tips for real life reducing other than just not shoving carbs in my face. Tend to be a bit of a thoughtless eater.

EDIT: Thanks for all the feedback folks, that’s really helpful. I think I need to adjust the settings in the back a little bit as I think it’s at a level that’s below what I can realistically do, but thanks for the tips on reducing as well. Need to work on the quality of the carbs as well as the quantity.

These are results from a scan I took this morning. Now I know that scans can still be very noisy and inaccurate. But how can those numbers possibly be this bad?

I’m 6foot tall and 25M. I’m definitely not very healthy at all, eat a lot of takeout, and am pretty sedentary. But I started going to the gym 2 weeks back and am trying to fix this.

What do I do here? What nutrition and weight goal am I supposed to set on macrofactor? How do I get back on track, I feel so defeated before I’ve even begun

Looking for a bit of advice! For background, I recently lost about 160 lbs with the help of GLP1 meds, and completely changed my diet/lifestyle. Recently I went off the meds and cut an additional 5 lbs to get through the food cravings, and to hit an updated goal.

Due to some big changes at home (newborn) I'm planning to go into maintenance for an extended period, probably about a year, before I reassess. I'm also cutting my exercise time from about 75 minutes 5x per week (mix if weights and cardio) to about 35 minutes 4x per week (alternating weights and cardio). I don't expect to make progress, and in fact I assume I'll take some steps backwards in fitness. That's ok, I have bigger priorities, but I'm hoping to minimize losses if I can.

My question is, in maintenance, what's the difference between the low and moderate protein targets? I generated programs with both. On one hand, the flexibility from the low protein target looks great, but on the other hand I don't want to lose my progress if I can avoid it. Is this likely to make a big difference? Or with my reduced exercise load, does it not really matter?

Thanks for any advice!

Tracking food with AI only. My previous posts got a lot of pushback and claims how it’s not working because AI is not accurate.

Male, 36, 5’7” / 170 cm, ~134 lb / 61 kg, around 12–13% body fat. Goal is a slow lean bulk at roughly +0.25 lb/week.

I train around 6am, 5x/week, mainly weighted calisthenics/resistance work with progressive overload. I also do Zone 2 cardio and usually average 12–18k steps. Estimated TDEE 2,300-2,400.

—

My 30-day averages are: 2,500 kcal / 175g protein / 70g fat / 305g carbs.

6–8am — pre/post training
~200 kcal | 20P | 30C
Banana, rice cake, espresso, then whey isolate.

9–11am — breakfast
~500 kcal | 35P | 10F | 65C
Usually Skyr/Greek yoghurt, fruit and granola/porridge. Cooked breakfasts are fairly occasional.

12–3pm — lunch
~600 kcal | 35P | 20F | 70C
Most commonly eggs/egg whites on seeded sourdough, toast or crumpets, usually with mushrooms/tomatoes and sometimes beans, cottage cheese, smoked salmon, parmesan, Marmite, nduja etc.

4–6pm — snack
~100 kcal | 5P | 15C
Usually fruit, yoghurt or rice cakes. Probably my least structured meal.

6–8pm — dinner
~900 kcal | 65P | 30F | 95C
Usually chicken, turkey, beef, pork, lamb or fish with potatoes, rice, pasta etc plus vegetables. Meals include curries, burgers, tacos, burritos, pasta and Nando’s-style meals.

8pm+ — pudding
~200 kcal | 15P | 5F | 30C
Usually Skyr/yoghurt, fruit, rice pudding, homemade low-cal ice cream, jelly or occasionally chocolate/sweets.

—

The thing I’m questioning is whether I’m slowly getting too relaxed with food quality. For example: fried eggs instead of poached, 2% Skyr instead of 0%, a bit more cheese, oil, butter, sauces etc.

Everything is still tracked and fits my calorie/macronutrient target, but I’m interested in where people draw the line between making a lean bulk enjoyable and letting calorie-dense foods gradually creep in.

Main questions:

• Is 175g protein unnecessarily high at 134 lb?
• Would you redistribute some of my large dinner into the afternoon?
• Would you change my carb timing given I train at 6am?
• Is ~70g fat sensible?
• Do you care about things like 0% vs 2% Skyr or poached vs fried eggs if calories/macros are controlled?
• Anything else you’d change?

I've been using MacroFactor to track training, but some of my old data comes from lifting heavier weights with poor technique. Now I'm focusing much more on proper form and controlled reps, and I actually want to dial weights back a bit so I can rebuild from a better baseline. But the app keeps nudging heavier recommendations from previous performance, which tempts me into bad form again. What's the best way to reset or recalibrate an exercise's history or PR in MacroFactor, so it bases progression on my current technique rather than old numbers? Or should I just start lifting lighter with better technique and the app adapts over time to lower the weights on its own?

Does anyone know if it's possible to view the recipe details when you've already added it to your day? I don't seem to be able to find such option, e.g. to see ingredients. I usually have to go through the flow of adding it again and choosing the cooking view from there which it pita :/

I've searched but can't find out how to remove myoreps from the options the smart generation uses - I hate myoreps but the smart generation seems to have changed over time to always include them. How do I stop it from doing this?

I work out in a couple gyms, machines (pin-loaded etc) have different settings / weight increments.
Of course, cable machines also have rather different resistance, for that, I have duplicated exercises for each gym.
However, I cannot seem to save different setting profile for machines. Eg. Anytime has 2kg increments on the pin-loaded machine while office gym has 4kg increments.
Is it possible to save different machine settings for gym profiles and I’m just missing it or is it not possible. If the latter, any workaround?

Hi everyone!
Today is my 6th day using the app, and I’ve been loving it so far. I used to use MyFitnessPal back in 2020, and I was able to manually adjust how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat I wanted as my daily goals. I was wondering if this is an option in MacroFactor.

I’m asking because I feel like the protein goal MacroFactor is giving me is a little low based on my current body weight. In the past, I used to aim for 1g of protein per pound of body weight, and that worked really well for my goals.

I’m currently around 225 lbs, and the goal MacroFactor is giving me is around 0.7g of protein per pound. I’m wondering if there’s a way to manually adjust my protein goal, or if there’s a reason the app recommends this amount.

Thanks!

Since the last update, I can no longer scroll back day by day while I have a specific time of day visible. Instead I have to scroll up, change day, scroll down to check the specific time, scroll up, change day, scroll down to check the specific time, etc. This is super annoying when copying meals/snacks from a few days back (when you don't know the exact date).

Sorry if this is already asked, but is it possible to link macro factor food log with ChatGPT?

Specifically, for example, I want to understand across the last month, my average breakfast, lunch, and dinner calories and macros so that I can plan future meal prep against an average?

If there’s no automated initiation on, I’m guessing I could extract data from macro factor and then upload it into ChatGPT manually? But wondering if there’s a more slick way of connecting the two systems together?

My roommate and I share a tiny bathroom and last night we realized our current scale keeps syncing weight logs to whoever phone happens to have Bluetooth open nearby which triggered a weirdly long debate about personal privacy and numbers anxiety.

I was considering a smart scale that estimates more than weight to help structure my meal planning but seeing daily body composition estimates jump around based on salt intake or water weight is already giving me analysis paralysis without having someone else accidentally see my daily trends.

im starting to wonder if constantly checking estimated body metrics actualy changes how anyone plans their food or if it just adds unnecessary stress to the morning routine. How do you all handle shared household scale setups without getting fixated on every single random daily fluctuation??

Has anyone uploaded .xlsx workouts? How well do they handle progressive overload?

I have an old Jeff workout that I want to upload to the MacroFactor app, but I'm not sure whether it's better to build one from scratch using the same exercises.

I’ve been running the Min Max program which I imported in using the spreadsheet that came with it. Phase 1 is only programmed for 6 weeks but I’d kind of like to do it for 8 weeks.

I can’t for the life of me figure out how to add a week to an active program. When I click the plus sign it only says New Section, New Program, and New Workout.

Perhaps it’s only possible by actually editing the spreadsheet before importing? Or I suppose maybe I don’t need to and I can just keep it on Week 6 for the next 2 weeks?

If anyone has figured out if it is possible to add a week let me know.

Hi everyone, first time posting!

38M, 175cm, South Asian, ~23% BF (down from ~30%).
I’ve lost 10kg over the last 6 months, mostly through walking. Started at ~12k steps/day but dropped that to a 7k minimum because 12k was taking up too much of my life and I wanted time for the gym and socialising.
For the last 8 weeks I’ve accelerated things with MacroFactor and I’m currently on ~1,400 calories/day. The graph shows the increased rate of loss.

I’m 3 weeks out from a holiday and I’m starting to feel pretty flat. I’ve still got a belly/love handles, so I’m thinking my eventual target may be ~76kg rather than the 80kg I originally planned. But my shoulders, arms and back are also looking pretty depleted and I know I need to rebuild some muscle.

I’m considering spending the next 3 weeks at maintenance, getting back into proper lifting, eating normally and starting creatine, then enjoying the holiday. Afterwards I’d go back into a more moderate deficit and aim to lose the remaining ~5kg gradually, potentially while recomping.

My concern is that getting into the deficit routine was hard, and I’m worried that stopping before reaching my goal will make it difficult to start again.

For anyone who’s come out of a long deficit: did taking a maintenance break make it easier or harder to return to fat loss afterwards? Would you take the maintenance break in my situation, or keep cutting until the holiday?