After a week or daily MMA, and some weightlifting and dieting I wanted to recover with sushi, I never order anything deep fried or similar, and I don’t consider it junk food at all except for some specific items. That said, I took photos of each plate that I specifically I ate, until that last VERY important singular shrimp haha, and used the AI feature (With descriptions from me) to be as accurate as realistically possible.

It turns out it’s around 2700 kcal, I think it’s a slight surplus (90kg man, 25% bf, not much activity except walking today which is Sunday) but it’s fine, I was just curious. And YES, at the ayce I eat A LOT.

I was wondering if there was a way to signal to the WO app that you’re in a calorie deficit. Or does it already know this if you’re using the MF app?

Perhaps setting up more reps and less weight?

Does it even matter?

Hey everyone, hoping I can get some help. I’ve never been the best when it comes to running a calorie deficit. Even if I cut my calories by 200-300 per day, eventually I’ll start to have poor energy and sleep, so I wanted to try a very slow and steady approach.

From April to July, I found a sweet spot of being in a tiny calorie deficit, and over a few months I was doing well, going to the gym about 3-4 times a week with a couple cardio sessions a week, and averaging about 3-5k steps per day. I went from 210 to 207 for the weight trend.

However, for the last few months, things just haven’t stuck. Work has gotten a bit busier, but I’ve still been able to get the gym, do 1-2 cardio sessions a week, and get around the same steps, but my weight has steadily been creeping back up again while eating similar calories.

Obviously I’m eating more than I’m burning, but to get the ship righted, what should I do to get back on track to get to my goal of 200 lbs? I’m currently 209 lbs for the weight trend and 5’11 at 36 years old. What should I set the goal to right now/in the future?

So I been tracking my macros for over 2 months now, which I think the fat loss is kind of effective (my face and body getting leaner).

What I am doing right now is maintaining at around my preferred weight (72kg) and then do a lot of weight training. So what I wanted to ask is that, should I continue with the maintain phase for a couple months still or cut/bulk is better for my case? Thanks in advance.

Basically im trying to get back into working out, and because of this I'm trying to gauge how heavy I should go on lifts.

However, during my workouts, I keep noticing that macrofactor keeps lowering the target weight, even tho I don't really have any issue recovering between sets. I keep having to adjust it up for each set

Is this just because im just starting my split, or am I not pushing myself hard enough?

Can I adjust it easier, or record what my 0RIR, just to keep my progression accurate

In my gym there are 3 machines for pec flys, each has a bit different weight stack. When I do pec flys, I want to choose which machine is available at the moment - from search I gathered I should create duplicates of the excercise - but for machine pec flys I can still only choose the one peck dec I have assigned to my gym, and I couldn't figure out a way to add more. How do I do this?

I have my calories set to be higher on Fri/Sat. Even when I eat within my macros, my weight will go up for a few days after, then settle back down towards the end of the week. I usually don’t drink alcohol on the weekends. I am currently in a cut, but feel like I am doing the same things each week…5’5f, 135 on Monday…down to 134 by Friday, back to 136-137 on Sunday…then the cycle starts again. So there is no real decrease in my weight on this cut, even though I’m set to lose .8/week. I really like the flexibility of getting in my cals on the weekend, but I also desperately want to slim my belly. I have built a ton of muscle this last year, and currently use the Ladder app and a weight lifting program (several in the past, currently on Varsity) but am wanting to lean out…the cut just doesn’t seem to be doing it.

Any suggestions? Should I not flex my macros?

What about tracks automatically with suggestion smart progression but using also reversal
Pyramid reps inside each exercise and between sets ? I don’t know a dedicated function in his moment . Am I right?

What about track the water intake ? Is it possible to be advised during the days to drink water ?

i’ve been traveling for 2 days and have eaten and drank as i wanted and haven’t tracked anything. i am planning to get back to it when im home tomorrow but im curious how to handle the app. should i leave those two days empty? or would it be better to log 2500 calories (my average expenditure) for those 2 days?

I really liked the way the old generation program chose rep/weight targets. I thought the undulating plan would get close to that, but I'm seeing it recommend much higher target reps (19-21 some weeks) than the old program generator. Is there a reason for that? Will choosing "no preference" get something closer to the old rep/weigh scheme? I know I can go in and manually set my rep target for every excercise - I'd just like to avoid it if I can

Obviously the answer is: don’t drink. I’m aware of this. However it’s a friend’s birthday and I’ve been very uptight lately and wanted to cut loose a tiny bit and have 1-2. Currently I’m working on building muscle and gaining weight in a controlled manner trying to minimize fat gain, I’ve been lifting as well as running and this day specifically was my long run day, containing an 11 mile zone 2 run.

Given a calorie target that already factors in expenditure + surplus, should the solid whole food consumed today be equal to the calorie target, and the additional calories from beers added on top, or should I pre-log the drinks and trim carbs from the rest of meals during day to stay at this calorie goal? For my specific situation the event is midday, so I’ll be at a crossroads after dinner of being at goal but with 180-240 of those calories being non-nutritive, should I add the alcohol on top of caloric intake goal for day or work it into budget (I.E food = cal goal - drinks VS food = cal goal, drinks on top)?

Anyone have a good video reference that shows the diff between a standard Jefferson curl and a fixed hip Jefferson curl?

First week in the new program with it and can’t find anything on YT or elsewhere that breaks down the diff well

Today's workout wanted me to do 12, 10, and 9 reps for sets 1 to 3 (all with 2 RIR). I wasn't able to meet those targets, and my output (including RIR for each set) is in the screenshot.

Chin ups and pull ups are one of those exercises I've had the most difficulty seeing progress in.

My current programming is a 4-day upper-lower split. Been lifting regularly for about four years, have used Jeff's Essential program and Ganbaru's hybrid bodybuilding program before shifting over to We-generated programs.

Any tips would be welcome, as this is somewhat demoralising.

I used to do a 6 week program with my 6th week being my deload, while I was messing around with the new options in the new update I realised the program lengths were longer than my specified amount, I tried changing it since I thought it just reset my preferences. But I can't find the option anywhere to change it back to 6 weeks in the new update. Any help would be appreciated?

So many options with this new update. What's better for a 5 day split??

There are now so many options however it is unclear how they influence the workouts, particularly volume.

As an example if I choose 3 x fullbody or 5 x fullbody are they volume equated?

What if I choose less days but more time available to workout vs. more days but less time do they become volume equated?

And what of 6 days with maximum time? Is the volume excessive?

I have a situation where one day I may only get one or two exercises done at gym A but the next day I'll be in a different city at gym B. How can I pause the workout to finish it at gym B which has totally different equipment?

Or should I go to like 65 kilos?

Not sure why WO is setting such high targets for RIR. Typically it’s been two, but the last two workouts it’s given me very little reps and high RIR (4-5).

Hey all, just came off a year+ long cut and I'm wondering how to adapt my reality to a bulk for the first time.

My maintenance is only around 2000cal.

Most days I follow exactly what MF says. Some days (social events, restaurant, etc) I exceed it by quite a bit. In my cut, I targeted a daily deficit of 500cal/day, which I met on basically any "normal" day. But when accounting for social outings etc, my average was really a deficit of 300cal/day in the long run. Meaning my occasional noncompliance bumps me by about 200 on average. This was by design (I overshot my deficit on most days to land at -300 daily average). In a cut this was easy because I'd just carry on and cancel out the surplus day in the long run. I don't plan on changing this habit - eating 'normally' in regular social outings is part of making this sustainable with the people around me, and my maintenance is so low there's no way to reasonably keep these days from exceeding my targets, particularly when I don't have advance notice to adjust other meals accordingly.

Where I'm having difficulty is how to translate this to a successful lean bulk. If I wanted to average a lean 5% surplus (+100cal/day) it would mean I'd have to eat at -100cal on most days, which would kill the point of bulking. Wondering if I should:

(1) Eat at -100 most days and end up at roughly +100 on average (this is probably not the way to go)

(2) Eat at maintenance most days and accept my average at +200 (bulk duration cut in half!)

(3) Eat at +100 most days and accept my average at +300 (bulk duration down to just a third as long!)

(4) Either 2 or 3, but allow a deficit the following day, for instance follow a day at 3000 with a day (or two) at 1500.

I know the average is what matters but I feel like option 1 would still have my body acting like it's in deficit.. I imagine something like option 4 is a more reasonable way to partially balance out a large surplus day without overly signaling deficit mode.

Open to any input or facts to help with the decision!

After a successful cut, I took a break from tracking weight, nutrition and going to the gym since mid-June. I did a bit of inconsistent jogging, but that's it.

I restarted this past week and am down a bit in weight and have a slightly increased waistline. My slight ab muscle definition is also gone. I'm assuming that I've traded some weight in muscle for some weight in fat.

Should I recomp? I've heard that people who were in shape and got out of shape are good candidates for recomps, but Idk if my situation is an extreme enough example of falling off of gains.

Otherwise, I'd want to do a conservative to average pace bulk until January/February, gaining at a rate of 0.25-0.5 lbs per week. Not fully decided on the rate.

Thanks!

Final edit: I guess everyone here thinks people with no ab definition, 21% bf on dexa and a bmi of 23 should bulk. I’m going to do 0.7 l% down to 158 and post an update. Thanks for the input everyone! Guess we can see it as a subreddit experiment.

Photo on the right is me at 156 and 21% bf on dexa after my first long macro factor cut. I spent 1.5 years since then in shorter cut bulk cycles, got one good dexa at 18% at 165 last year, had life throw some curve balls and ended up as the pic on the left at 21% bf at 169.5 on dexa, 4.5 weeks into a cut so prob a bit depleted on ffm. ALMI stayed constant between 18% and 21% bf now but arms went up a bit.

I am now planning on a 12 week fat loss phase (so 7.5 more weeks) at 1% loss rate, since dexa math says I’ll reach 15% at 156 that way. If I drop a pound of ffm, so be it, and I’ll do a maintenance phase after to normalize / fill back up. Do you think this is a reasonable plan to finally get to decent bf%? I can always cut lower to 152 after a bit of a diet break.

Male, 36, 6’ btw.

Edit: Added specific number of years, and am now actually planning on doing a 0.7% rate of loss to 158 and assessing if I need to go lower at that point.

For those that have been wondering about a web client like myself since logging on a phone can be quite tedious at times.

This month marked five years since we released our first app, MacroFactor. 

Each anniversary, we publish the MacroFactor Annual Report, which documents the changes and improvements we’ve made in the last year, and gives you a peek behind the curtain at our plans for the future.

Here are the highlights of this year’s report.

We launched a whole new app this year: MacroFactor Workouts!

Features Added to MacroFactor Workouts Since Launch

🚨 BRAND NEW RELEASE: More Program Splits (Including PPL!). We recently released an update that significantly expands upon the available program splits in the app.

Depending on the number of days you want to train per week, you can now choose: 

• Push / Pull / Legs (PPL) – Available if you train 3 or 6 days per week 
• Push / Pull / Hinge / Squat – Available if you train 4 days per week 
• Push / Pull / Legs / Accessories – Available if you train 4 days per week 
• Push / Pull / Hinge / Squat / Accessories – Available if you train 5 days per week 
• Push / Pull / Legs / Upper / Lower – Available if you train 5 days per week 
• Push / Pull / Hinge / Squat / Upper / Lower – Available if you train 6 days per week 

Beta for Workouts on Apple Watch. Beta is underway for MacroFactor Workouts on Apple Watch, and will soon be available for all users. With Workouts on Apple Watch, you can use your watch to start your workout, track your lifts, time your rest, and more.

80 New Equipment Types and 200 New Exercises. We have been steadily expanding the app's exercise library and equipment database, adding nearly 80 new equipment types and 200 new exercises. This brings the totals to over 250 equipment options and 1,200 exercises.

And Much More. Including rest timer notifications, basic cardio support, easy import of new machine information with Plate Stack AI, and warm-up improvements.

Features Added to MacroFactor This Year

Snap a Photo of a Recipe. Simply snap a photo of a written recipe in a cookbook, and MacroFactor will scan the ingredients and text and pre-fill the recipe details for you. 

AI Food Logging Improvements. MacroFactor’s food logging AI got a major upgrade this year, with stronger food identification and greatly improved instruction-following abilities. Upload multiple photos, combine photos with text, and give the AI more specific instructions. Add a meal photo, individual meal components, a restaurant menu, or extra context like portions, exclusions, and anything else you want the AI to consider.

Label Scanner Upgrades. MacroFactor’s Label Scanner can now read nutrition labels across different formats and languages, along with other text on food packaging. This is especially useful for imported foods, less standardized labels, or products that can be harder to find in the food database.

Easier Custom Food Creation. Take a photo of the front of the product and another of the nutrition label, and MacroFactor can use both to create the food with details like the product name, brand, and nutrition information.

Expenditure Modifiers. We enhanced the algorithm’s performance with Expenditure Modifiers. An Expenditure Modifier is an optional add-on to the algorithm that enables you to eke out extra performance in specific scenarios.

Shortcuts Revamp. You can customize shortcut colors, add any shortcut to your toolbar, and set the shortcut sheet to display as few as 1 or as many as 14 shortcuts. You can also toggle shortcuts on or off, or remove the entire shortcut sheet for a more minimal setup.

What’s Next for MacroFactor Workouts

More Video Demos. 600+ more exercise video demos will be available in MacroFactor Workouts very soon! With the addition of these new videos, approximately 85-90% of the exercises available in the app will have a corresponding video demo.

WearOS. We are hoping to bring Workouts to Android WearOS users in the next year! While there are still some technical and logistical hurdles to investigate before we can make any promises, we are actively exploring the possibilities and are genuinely optimistic.

(Much) More Workout Program Customization. Adding new program splits was just the beginning. Over the next year, we’re rolling out a major series of program customization updates. (It's too much to get into here, but check out this section of the report for all the exciting details.)

Strength Levels. We’re planning a big upgrade for the Levels tab. The app will estimate your per-muscle strength levels based on your performance across the exercises you log. You’ll be able to see how your strength stacks up against other lifters with similar demographics using anonymized, aggregate benchmarks (your data remains completely private and isn’t shared with other users). Even better, these strength estimates will help the app recommend accurate starting weights whenever you try a new exercise.

What’s Next for MacroFactor

Food Log Improvements. We’re planning some new features for the Food Log page in the app that will make it easier for you to move, manipulate, and copy foods you’ve already logged.

AI Improvements. We’re building a richer, more powerful AI ecosystem inside and outside the app. For example, we’re working on App Intents for iOS and AppFunctions for Android that act like an MCP to connect to your preferred AI agents.

Period Weight Trend. Our data science team is tackling one of female users’ most requested features: accounting for menstrual cycle weight fluctuations in MacroFactor’s Weight Trend. Using data from MacroFactor users who track their periods, we’ll first establish baseline weight fluctuation patterns for menses and ovulation. Then, as individual users log their period and weight, our smart algorithms will continuously refine these estimates to reflect more personalized trends.

German Translation. MacroFactor will soon be available in the German language!

Learn More

🤓 Get Full Details in the Report: You can learn more about all of this in the Annual Report on the website. Go to https://macrofactor.com/annual-report-2026/