The Expenditure report shows how many calories MacrosFirst estimates you burn each day, and how that estimate has changed over time. If you're new to expenditure, start with Energy Expenditure: How MacrosFirst Measures What You Burn.
To open it, go to your Dashboard and tap the Expenditure card.
The chart shows your expenditure over time.
Choose a time range with 7D, 30D, 90D, 1Y, or All.
Group the chart by Day, Week, or Month.
The header shows your average expenditure and how much it changed over the range you're viewing.
Tap and hold the chart to see the value for a specific day, week, or month.
The line uses two styles:
Exp. updating: days when MacrosFirst had enough recent data to learn from your logs and weigh-ins.
Exp. holding: days when there wasn't enough recent data, so your expenditure stayed where it was instead of guessing.
Holding isn't a problem. It's MacrosFirst being careful. Your expenditure moves forward on the days you weigh in, so the days between weigh-ins hold. When you weigh in next, MacrosFirst goes back and recalculates those days using the food you logged on them, and the chart updates to match. See What Data MacrosFirst Needs to Update Your Targets for exactly what it needs.
The Expenditure Change card shows how much your expenditure has moved over the last 3, 7, 14, 30, and 90 days. It's a quick way to see whether your expenditure is steady or trending in one direction.
Below that, a daily list shows each recent day's change, or "holding" for days when it didn't update.
Usually because of partially logged days. If you logged breakfast and lunch but not dinner, MacrosFirst sees a low-calorie day. If your weight didn't drop to match, it concludes you burn less than it thought.
The fix is to mark those days as Incomplete (Journal > ... > Edit Day Details). Incomplete days are left out of the calculation, so they can't drag your expenditure down. Your weekly check-in also asks you to review the past week for this. See What Data MacrosFirst Needs to Update Your Targets.
Check the chart. If recent days say Exp. holding, MacrosFirst doesn't have enough recent data yet. It needs food logged on at least 3 of the past 7 days and at least 2 weigh-ins in the past 14 days. Log a few days and weigh in, and it will start updating again.
If it's updating but barely moving, that's often a good sign: your logging is consistent and your expenditure is stable.
Give it a little time. MacrosFirst doesn't guess how many calories your workouts burn. It measures your expenditure from your calorie intake and how your body weight responds, so a new program shows up as soon as it starts showing up in that data. If you're burning more while eating about the same, your weight trend will start to shift, and your expenditure will rise to match over the following weeks. Expect to see it soon, just not instantly. That's the same deliberate, gradual approach that keeps one unusual day from throwing off your targets.
A new program can also hide its effect at first. Muscles often hold extra water while they recover from new training, so the scale may hold steady or even tick up for a week or two, even though you're burning more.
If you sync or log your steps, they help here too. A noticeable change in your usual daily step count is one of the signals MacrosFirst uses, so it can help your expenditure start adjusting a little sooner, before the change fully shows up on the scale. This works best for activity that adds steps, like walking or running, and less for activities like lifting or cycling.
That's expected. Wearables are notoriously inaccurate at estimating calories burned, often off by 20% or more, and the error varies from person to person. MacrosFirst measures your expenditure from what actually happened: what you ate and how your weight responded. See Why we don't use wearable calorie estimates.
After a break, the first few weeks of new data can move your expenditure more than usual, especially if your logging habits changed. If you'd like a clean slate, you can set a new expenditure Start date so MacrosFirst ignores the older data. See Expenditure Settings.
Your expenditure chart is where everything comes together. These articles explain the pieces behind it:
"How does MacrosFirst measure what I burn?" Energy Expenditure
"How much do I need to log for it to keep updating?" What Data MacrosFirst Needs
"Why does my calorie target look off?" Troubleshooting
How does my expenditure turn into weight gain or loss? Now that you can read your expenditure, the next step is seeing how it compares to what you eat, and why that gap drives your progress: Energy Balance: How Gaining and Losing Weight Works.
