Your expenditure settings shape the starting point MacrosFirst uses to estimate how many calories you burn, and which days it learns from. Most people set them once during setup and don’t need to touch them again. They're worth revisiting if your routine changes for good, your body composition changes a lot, or you want a fresh start after a break.
To find them, go to More > Energy Expenditure. Changes save as soon as you make them. New to expenditure? Start with Energy Expenditure: How MacrosFirst Measures What You Burn.
It helps to know which settings matter when. Your estimation method, activity levels, and body fat set your starting estimate, the number MacrosFirst begins from before it has your data. With Plus, once you've been logging and weighing in for a few weeks, your measured expenditure takes over, so these settings matter less over time. On the free plan, your activity levels and body fat are also used every time you recalculate your plan, so it's worth keeping them current. See Plan Updates on the Free Plan.
Your start date is different. It decides which days of food and weight logging MacrosFirst learns from and which days it ignores. This is useful if you wish to restart your expenditure calculation but not delete your logs.
Choose where your starting estimate comes from:
MacrosFirst's estimate: we estimate your starting expenditure from your profile, using the research-based method described in Energy Expenditure. This is the default and the right choice for most people.
Manual: enter your own starting estimate. This is useful if you already know your maintenance calories well, for example from months of careful tracking.
Either way, this only sets your starting point. With Plus, MacrosFirst still learns your real expenditure from your food logs and weigh-ins over time.
Choose the date your expenditure calculation starts from: your Account creation date or a Custom date. Food logs and weigh-ins from this date onward are used to calculate your expenditure, and anything before it is ignored.
This is helpful if you've been a casual logger and want to start over fresh, without deleting any of your data. Say you logged on and off for a few months and are now ready to log consistently. Set your start date to today, and MacrosFirst begins from your starting estimate again and learns only from your new, consistent data. Nothing in your Journal changes; MacrosFirst just stops learning from the older days.
How active you are at work, or during your normal day:
Mostly seated: you sit for most of the day, like at a desk, driving, or studying.
Lightly active: you stand or move lightly for part of the day, like retail, teaching, or lab work.
Active: you're on your feet and moving most of the day, like cleaning, restaurant work, nursing, or deliveries on foot or by bike.
Very active: hard physical work most of the day, like construction, farming, landscaping, or lifting and carrying heavy loads.
How active you are outside of work:
Rarely active: little to no exercise or active hobbies.
Lightly active: light activity about once a week, like a walk, an easy bike ride, or gardening.
Moderately active: light activity most days, like 10 to 30 minutes of walking or cycling.
Active: workouts or sports 2 to 3 times a week that get you breathing hard.
Very active: hard training 4 or more times a week, like running, intense gym sessions, or competitive sports.
For both questions, pick the level that matches a typical week, not your most active one. Together, your two answers adjust your starting estimate for how much you move, using an approach that was validated against gold-standard measurements of what people actually burn.
Choose the range that looks most like you, or tap Enter manually to type an exact number between 3% and 70%. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Body fat helps MacrosFirst understand how many calories each pound of weight change represents, since fat and lean tissue store very different amounts of energy. For very lean, muscular builds, it also adjusts your starting estimate, because muscle burns more than a typical body of the same weight.
If your routine changes for good, like a new job or a new training habit that's here to stay, update your activity levels. If your body composition changes a lot, update your body fat. You don't need to change anything for a short-term change, like a busy week or a vacation. With Plus, your measured expenditure picks up real changes on its own within a few weeks.
Your settings are the starting point, and your data does the rest. These articles explain how the two fit together:
"How is my starting estimate calculated?" Energy Expenditure
"How much do I need to log for my expenditure to update?" What Data MacrosFirst Needs
"What am I looking at on the expenditure chart?" Reading Your Expenditure Chart
What if my calorie target still looks off? If something seems wrong after changing your settings, a few common causes explain most surprises, and each one has a simple fix: Troubleshooting: My Calorie Target Looks Wrong.
