With so many apps and tools and spreadsheets and websites out there trying to help you calculate your macros and your metabolism, I don't think it has to be that complicated. There's a single powerful tool that I love to use. It is my favorite macro and metabolism calculator, and I'm going to explain all the details and why so you can start using it today in today's QuickWits. Why so you can start using it today in today's Quick Wits? Welcome to the Wits and Weights podcast. I'm your host, philip Pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self-mastery by getting stronger, optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition. We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset, with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry, so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in. Welcome to another QuickWits, your secret weapon for hacking your health, your physique and your awesomeness, all in bite-sized chunks that will not make your brain hurt At least, I hope not. And today I want to introduce you to my favorite tool for dialing in your nutrition and reaching your physique goals, the tool that I've been using ever since it launched. If you are a follower of this podcast, you've heard me talk about it quite a few times and it's worth reiterating and that is an app called Macrofactor all one word. It is created by the folks at Stronger by Science you may know them folks like Dr Eric Trexler, greg Knuckles and others and it is a game changer because it's not just a food logging app. I almost wish that they had a different name, like a different category in the app store, for this app, because it is completely on a different playing field, not just in being superior for what these other apps do, but it does things that the other apps don't even do, and by the other apps I mean MyFitnessPal, chronometer, macros, plus all the other apps that people say oh no, I already use a food logging app. That is not what this is. Macrofactor is not just a macro tracker. It has a few features that are really unheard of and have not yet been developed in the industry, and there's some reasons for that that we're going to get into a bit. But it has to do with the people behind the app, who are super into the science and the evidence and have come up with very sophisticated algorithms that get you a quick, easy answer for you and your metabolism that you can't get anywhere else you can't get it from a calculator because it needs to understand your habits over time.

So first I want to talk about the food logging, because everybody thinks of it as a food logger first and foremost. And all I'm going to say about Macrofactor you know, love it or hate it, you always have to get used to a new app when it's new to you. And you know, love it or hate it, you always have to get used to a new app when it's new to you. And you know, when people start using chronometer or RP or carbon or whatever, there's going to be a learning curve, right? So once you get past that, what you're going to find is that macro factor is is not just one of. They've tested it as the fastest food logger on the market and for me, like, anything that reduces time and friction is a huge plus, because I don't want food logging to be annoying. I want it to be just in the background super quick, a breeze. You know literally seconds at most. Like when I copy and paste, it's like one second right, and when I ask my clients to look at their screen time on their phone after they get used to using the app, it's like a few minutes a day at most. It's nothing right.

The other thing about the food logging aspect of Macrofactor is the food database is verified. It is verified. I can't state how important this is. Macrofactor's food database is not verified, so there are thousands, if not, at this point, millions, of bogus entries in there. Yeah, you can find more stuff quote unquote and yet a lot of it is garbage. Not only is it verified, they just recently changed or added a feature where you can submit new entries to the database, but only after scanning in the food label. They have a built-in food label scanner. So then it's validated from that point as well, and it's important you've got accurate data.

But let's talk about why Macrofactor is more than a food logger and why I push it so much, besides being an affiliate and in fact I am an affiliate, full disclosure and I'm only an affiliate because I've been using it since launch. And then Greg Knuckles sent me a personal email saying hey, I know how much you love this and you share all your stories of your transformation with it. Do you want to be an affiliate? And I said hell, yeah. And so ever since then, I've been an affiliate and I would have told people to use it anyway. I might as well, you know, make a little bit on the side why not? So my affiliate code is witsandweights, all one word. If you download the app and enter witsandweights, you will get an extra week on the free trial.

So back to why Macrofactor is more than a food logger. I think they call it a smart nutrition coach or a nutrition sidekick or something like that. But basically, when you go into the app, you tell it your goal. Do you want to lose weight, gain weight or maintain right? Do you want to have a balanced meal, low carb, low fat, high fat, whatever? Do you want to distribute your calories? Do you want to go moderate protein, high protein, extra high? Do you lift? Do you do lifting and cardio?

It really tries to understand all the aspects about you and then the algorithms spit out a starting target based on an estimate. Now that number is pretty much bogus from the first day, meaning that it's just like every other calculator you would go online and use. And the cool thing is, from that point on, when you start logging your food and weight every day, that bogus number actually starts to become a real number of your metabolism. That is where Macrofactor stands out from everyone else. Whereas MyFitnessPal and Chronometer they use this estimate that anybody can find online. Macrofactor starts with that estimate, which could be way off, and then it starts to converge towards your true metabolism as you log your food and weight. So it's adapting to you over time and then every week you check in, it ups or lowers your calories and macros based on your target, based on your progress right and based on your actual metabolism. So you're always getting super up-to-date, effective recommendations to keep making progress.

And that's one of the ways we avoid the dreaded plateaus right, the plateaus everybody seems to experience. It's also a way that we can avoid reverse dieting. We don't have to reverse diet, we can recovery diet straight to our maintenance calories. So, yeah, macro factor basically dynamically calculates your energy expenditure, and this is a big deal because your energy changes daily based on your activity level. Of course, your muscle mass is part of that, but also your amount of protein, your stress, your sleep there's so many things that affect your metabolism and Macrofactor keeps up with those changes. So you get the right goals every week.

And then it has all the other fun frilly stuff that I like to talk about occasionally, like the tracking of micronutrients, right. Vitamins, minerals, fiber, saturated fat, and you can set targets for each one of those. It's pretty. It has a lot of great charts and visualization and fun tech stuff like that. It has something called AI Describe, where you can just use AI to tell the app all the things on your plate and it will automatically log everything for you. You know you double check it to make sure it's accurate, but it's pretty darn. It's pretty darn amazing how that works. And then they added I think in the last year they added this they have progress photos, body metrics, right, so you can celebrate your changes along the way and monitor that. It's got widgets. It's got all that fun stuff that a lot of apps have today.

But really what I love about this app because I know I'm a walking sales pitch for it is the science-based approach to not only the macros and your energy balance but the sustainability, the adherence neutral approach, which is in line with goal setting and behavior change research right. It flexibly adapts to you and does not shame you for going over or under calories, right. No stress, no guilt. That's what I really like about it. So, of course, I highly recommend Macrofactor. This is like, again, a walking advertisement for it, because there's nothing else that does what it does. If another app comes along that can actually adjust to your metabolism, they'll have some competition, but they don't do that right now. So I want you to go ahead and download Macrofactor. Give it a try. I'm going to add a free video that I made. It's on YouTube. I've shared it a couple of times in the past, but it's unlisted, so you can't find it in a search, and it tells you how to download and set it up for your initial goal of maintenance and body recomp, and then you could do that for, say, six to eight weeks, and then you can switch to like a fat loss or a muscle building goal. So I'm going to include that in the show notes as well.

Until next time again, keep learning, always, always. Keep learning. Be skeptical, evaluate all these apps and see if they're a good tool for you. It's what my clients use. It's what we use in the Physique University. It's data-driven decisions and awareness is what it's all about. All right, thanks again for tuning in to another episode of Quick Wits. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits and Weights. If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights. Please take a moment to share this episode with them and make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong.