Simone Christen, a 29-year-old legal aid attorney, used MacroFactor to lose 50 pounds, develop a healthier relationship with food, and establish sustainable habits that are helping her maintain her weight without an all-or-nothing mindset.
“In short, I’ve learned that it’s feasible to achieve a weight loss goal while still cooking and eating delicious food,” Simone said.
Simone’s first experience with macro tracking was several years ago when she was in law school.
“I figured lifting would be a nice healthy hobby to balance out my less healthy hobby: drinking craft beer,” she said. “I quickly found out that I would actually need to pay attention to what I ate to actually achieve the aesthetics I aspired to.”
She tried MyFitnessPal and other diet templates, but found these strategies to be overly restrictive and ultimately counterproductive.
She was yo-yoing dieting with periods of extreme restriction and quickly losing the muscle mass she gained from years of competitive swimming and lifting.
“I wasn’t really eating like a person. I was super limited in what types of vegetables and proteins I could eat and it made me miserable. It ultimately got me to my goal weight but I had zero confidence that I could maintain it due to how limited the ‘approved’ eating options were,” she said.
“Overall, prior to using MacroFactor, my tracking was only for losing weight. … It wasn’t remotely sustainable.”
After finding MacroFactor, Simone is now at her goal weight and in the first “maintenance phase” in her life.
Simone downloaded the MacroFactor app in September 2021. She wanted an app that could help her manage her weight without being overly restrictive, while also advising her on the number of calories and macronutrients she should aim for to lose weight at a sustainable rate.
“My first goal was a big one: I wanted to lose weight,” she said. “I wanted to lose a lot of weight. At my peak weight in 2021, I was somewhere in the ballpark of 185 pounds. I cut weight down to approximately 135 pounds and have been floating around there in maintenance for about 3-4 weeks now.”
Simone shared a few details on how she set up her diet in MacroFactor:
- She used the Coached Program and kept her macros and calories targets even across all days.
- When she had an eating or drinking-related activity planned (like a party or restaurant visit), she would eat lightly until the event and implement a planned hedonic deviation strategy.
- For her macronutrient targets, she focused mostly on hitting calorie and protein targets before worrying about precise fat and carbohydrate numbers.
“MacroFactor’s approach to tracking food intake was very helpful for me mentally as it never felt like it was judging me or punishing me if I wasn’t ‘complying,’” she said.
Instead, she felt encouraged to report her data to the app in order to see updated energy expenditure and weight trend data.
Additionally, in past dieting phases, she felt obsessed with calories and would only eat certain foods that she deemed to be “healthy.”
With MacroFactor, though, she was able to cultivate a better relationship with food.
“Dieting down has generally negatively impacted my relationship with food,” Simone said. “I come from a restaurant family and so cooking for myself and others is a beloved pastime for me. I still got to cook food that I enjoy without having to completely bastardize it to make it ‘work’ for my diet. I’m sure my girlfriend is also thankful she didn’t have to eat baked chicken breast when it was my turn to cook.”
Lastly, MacroFactor helped Simone approach her weight loss sustainably, rather than crash dieting.
“I was able to break a bad habit of undereating on a cut thanks to MacroFactor. Unlike other food tracking apps, MacroFactor didn’t incentivize me to lose any more weight on average than what my stated goals were. This kept my muscle mass loss to a minimum and didn’t make me feel like I had to lose as much weight as possible.”
After reaching her weight loss goal in June, Simone shifted to a maintenance goal in MacroFactor. She’s planning to stay at maintenance for the next few months, then lose about 10 more pounds during another short cut in September and October.
Her 30th birthday is at the end of this year, and she’s planning to have her best physique yet by that time.
To conclude our interview, we asked Simone if she had any advice to other MacroFactor users who have similar goals.
“In short, I’ve learned that it’s feasible to achieve a weight loss goal while still cooking and eating delicious food,” she said. “I wouldn’t recommend going out to eat every night, but a little moderation can go a long way.”
“Give yourself more time than you think you need. It’s possible to cut weight without going hungry every night. Don’t be afraid to try new recipes and to explore food options outside of ‘typical’ health food. Don’t neglect social events because you’re worried about consuming too many calories! Life doesn’t begin when the cut ends; try to enjoy the process when you can.”
Try MacroFactor for yourself with a 14-day free trial
Confidently control your nutrition with MacroFactor, a science-backed diet coach and macro tracker app that empowers you with the tools you need to reach your goals without rigidity.
You can try it free for 14 days on the App Store or Google Play, or learn more here.
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