What’s new?
Our last email update about MacroFactor was in November.
Since then, we’ve added many new features and improvements. Here are the highlights:
Improved data chart visualizations
All chart pages now display an average for all visible points, so you can view averages over a given time span for things like weight trend and nutrition.
You can also long-press on charts to easily see the underlying data the chart is visualizing. Learn how to view weekly nutrition averages here.
Copy to custom functionality:
You can now copy both individual foods and recipes to create custom foods. Then, you can edit and save those entries as your own, or use them in creation of new recipes. Learn how to do it here.
New in-house food database:
Our new in-house food database is now available! To try the new database, you can opt in to the beta via the Food Logger settings.
The new food logger search is now more typo tolerant, 2-4 times faster, backed by regionally distributed servers, and armed with intelligence that surfaces better results for your queries. It also expands on the variety of serving options (with full support for both imperial and metric units) and includes a greater number of branded foods with extensive support for the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and more.
We also now have broader common food coverage with rich micronutrient data, including results from NCC Food and Nutrient Database, which is the gold standard for micronutrient tracking. For that reason, it’s the most-used food database in the scientific community.
Last, we’re excited to introduce new food icons that make for a cleaner experience.
How to get the newest version of the app:
If you have automatic app updates turned on, you probably already have the newest version of MacroFactor!
However, if you want to manually update the app, you can find instructions for iPhone here and instructions for Android here.
What’s noteworthy?
Recommended Knowledge Base article:
How to Interpret Changes to your Energy Expenditure:
We get a lot of questions about how/why users’ energy expenditure is changing in a particular way, and how to interpret those changes.
Eric and Greg collaborated on an in-depth article for the Knowledge Base that answers those questions, and explains how MacroFactor makes adjustments week-to-week in a wide range of scenarios.
Recommended Stronger By Science content:
An Evidence-Based Approach To Goal Setting And Behavior Change
Successful goal attainment and behavior change are possible, but leaning exclusively on willpower and determination isn’t likely to get the job done. This article covers evidence-based strategies to support successful behavior change and goal achievement.
The article ends with a section all about how MacroFactor supports diet goals by implementing evidence-based behavior change strategies.
Greg and Eric also did an episode of the Stronger By Science Podcast on the same topic, if you prefer listening.
Recommended threads from the Facebook community
- How to adjust your calorie targets throughout the week
- Community discussion about how to handle “falling off the wagon”
- Dealing with short-term changes in estimated expenditure
If you haven’t joined the MacroFactor App Community on Facebook yet, here’s a link to do so. It’s a welcoming, supportive, and non-judgmental community, and we’d love to see you there.
What’s next?
We’re making progress on a really exciting overhaul of the food logging process!
Since the food logger is the main thing people interact with when using MacroFactor, one of our top priorities post-release has been to make the food logging experience as good as it can possibly be. That means 1) providing you with all of the features you want and expect, 2) providing as much information as possible at every step of the food logging process, and 3) making the food logging process and quick and seamless as possible.
So, over the past two months, MacroFactor’s developers Cory and Rebecca have been rebuilding the food logger from the ground up.
It will quantifiably be the fastest food logger on the market, it’ll make more information available at every step of the food logging process, and it’ll be more intuitive to new users.
We’ve been testing an alpha version, and – you guys – it’s a work of art. We’re so excited to share it with you – hopefully sometime in the coming weeks.
