Your body changes from week to week, and your weekly check-in is how your plan keeps up. Once a week, MacrosFirst reviews your past week of logging, updates your expenditure from your latest food logs and weigh-ins, applies your goal rate to your current weight, and proposes targets for the week ahead. It takes about a minute, and you always see the change before it's applied. If you're on the free plan, see Plan Updates on the Free Plan instead.
Your check-in falls on the same day every week, and you choose the day. Pick one that fits your routine, like Monday to start the week fresh, or a morning when you usually weigh in. To set it, go to More > Expenditure & Plan and tap Check-in day. Until you choose one, each check-in is due 7 days after your plan starts or after your last check-in.
When you choose a new day, your next check-in moves to the first time that day comes around at least 3 days from now, so your check-ins never land too close together. Say today is Friday. Switch to Monday, and your next check-in is in 3 days. Switch to Saturday, and tomorrow is too soon, so your next check-in is the following Saturday, 8 days away. From then on, every check-in falls on your chosen day. The same rule applies if you finish a check-in late: the next one falls on your check-in day, unless that's less than 3 days away.
The Plan tab shows a countdown to your next check-in. When it's due, you'll get a notification, and a red dot appears on the Plan tab.
There's no rush. Your check-in stays due until you complete it, and your targets stay the same until you do. Changing your check-in day doesn't push back a check-in that's already due.
Your expenditure updates gradually as you log and weigh in, and your check-in is when that latest estimate turns into new targets. A week is long enough for your trend weight to show real change through the day-to-day noise of water and food, and short enough that your targets never drift far from what your body needs. See Energy Expenditure: How MacrosFirst Measures What You Burn.
First, MacrosFirst looks at your food log for the past week. If every day reached at least 70% of its calorie target, this step completes itself, though you can still tap Review anyway. Otherwise, tap Review my log, select any days you didn't fully log, and tap Confirm and continue.
This step matters more than it might seem. A partially logged day looks like a very low-calorie day, and if your weight didn't drop to match, MacrosFirst would conclude you burn less than you really do. Marking those days incomplete leaves them out of the calculation, so they can't drag your expenditure down. Perfect logging isn't required, and this is exactly why we let you do this.
Say you logged breakfast and lunch on Thursday but forgot dinner, so Thursday shows 900 calories against a 2,000 calorie target. That's under 70%, so your check-in asks you to review the week. Mark Thursday incomplete, and MacrosFirst leaves it out instead of assuming you ate 900 calories. See What Data MacrosFirst Needs to Update Your Targets.
Next, MacrosFirst asks for your weight. If you've already weighed in today, this step completes itself.
If you haven't, we'll encourage you to weigh in for the most accurate update, but you don't have to. As long as you've weighed in at least twice in the past 14 days, MacrosFirst has what it needs to update your expenditure, and you can continue. If you haven't weighed in that recently, you'll need to log your weight to continue, because MacrosFirst can't update your expenditure without it.
Tap Continue, and MacrosFirst updates your expenditure and calculates your new plan. You'll see whether your calorie target is going up or down this week, and by how much, followed by your updated plan for the week.
Tap Accept changes to start using your new targets today. Or tap Skip, keep current plan to stay on your current targets until your next check-in.
What happens to your targets depends on your plan type.
Autopilot rebuilds your calories and macros from your plan settings. Your diet style, protein level, and higher-calorie days carry over, and only the numbers move. See Autopilot Plan Settings.
Copilot updates your weekly calorie budget and runs it through your own settings. Locked days stay exactly as they are, unlocked days share the change equally, and each day keeps its protein per pound and its carb-to-fat ratio. See Copilot Plan Settings.
You can leave a check-in partway through. Your progress is saved, so you can pick up where you left off.
Weigh in a few times a week, not just on check-in day. More weigh-ins make your trend weight and your expenditure more accurate, and they mean you'll never need a weigh-in just to finish your check-in.
Your check-in is only as good as the data behind it. These articles help you get the most out of it:
"How much do I need to log for my targets to keep updating?" What Data MacrosFirst Needs
"Why did my expenditure change this week?" Reading Your Expenditure Chart
"Why does my weekly loss get smaller over time?" Energy Balance
"Why does my calorie target look off after a check-in?" Troubleshooting
What does MacrosFirst need from me each week? Your check-in works best with consistent logging and regular weigh-ins, and a few simple habits make a big difference: What Data MacrosFirst Needs to Update Your Targets.
