r/MacroFactor

28M, 180cm. I’ve been cutting since April 20 with macrofactor, with 1–2 week maintenance breaks between 3 cut phases.

Started at 96kg (down from 106kg prior to that purely from being in a depressive part of my life) and now I’m at 76.8kg (scale) and 78 trend weight. I lift 5–6x/week and do cardio every other day. I’ve been bulking/lifting ever since i started around 4-5 years ago, so I have a decent amount of muscle. I’m now pretty vascular, can see a 4-pack (ps: thank you MF), etc.

The main thing making me want to keep cutting is the loose skin around my lower stomach. I honestly think I’d be happy with my physique if it wasn’t for that.

The confusing part in MF, my expenditure has been climbing abit (currently its at 2200), and at 1600–1700 calories it sometimes looks like I’m in a ~1200 deficit, which seems crazy.

Would you guys keep cutting to ~75–76kg and then maintain, or go straight to maintenance/recomp? And how much would you trust the rising expenditure estimate?

I’m mainly trying to figure out when to stop cutting without just chasing a flatter stomach forever.

Transitioned from cut to lean bulk. Will it level out?

Hey, everyone. I recently hit a health milestone and would appreciate your advice on next steps.

Here are some details:

• My body fat dropped from ~32% to ~24% during a cut from January to August using MF.
• I'm down ~100 lbs overall, with most of the weight lost in the last ~3 years (before pic is sometime in 2020 and after pic is recent).
• I'm currently around 190 lbs at 5'10" and in my 30s, eating at maintenance since September.
• I train 4x a week on a UL split (Persist Pump Condition) and don't take creatine.

Now that my body fat is at a more “acceptable” level, I’m unsure how to proceed. I have loose skin (belly, thighs, glutes, arms) and want to build as much muscle to help with this (while considering skin removal surgery as a possible option in the future).

Should I maintain, try to recomp (using Jeff's book?), or consider a bulk? Should I start taking creatine regardless of which approach I pursue? I experienced a lot of diet fatigue at the end of my cut so I do think I need a break from that and worry that I'll just continue to look more and more deflated. Are there other options that I should consider?

Also, should I switch my training program to something like Persist Pump Lift, Jeff's Pure Bodybuilding, or the Bodybuilding Transformation Program, or MFWO to focus more on muscle gain?

Thanks for your input!

Been using MF since June 8 and during the check in, it asked me to drop down to 1750 cals. I feel like this is a bit too low for me imo. Should I follow it or continue eating at 1801? Goal weight is 183lbs

Hi everyone, I’m 31 years old, 166 cm tall, and currently weigh about 62 kg. I started working out in June 2025; I had a very high body fat percentage and, of course, began an actual cutting phase in November 2025, when I weighed 68 kg. From that point on—as you can see from the graph—I’ve alternated between various phases of maintenance, mini-cuts, and lean bulking, and in the meantime, I’ve also had two BIA tests; the most recent one showed 18% body fat. I think summer threw me off track a bit with going out and eating larger meals than usual, but I didn’t completely derail: as you can see from the chart, my goal in June 2026 was to enter a lean bulk phase with the aim of going from roughly 60 kg to 62 kg—but very gradually; I wanted to do this from June through October.

August, however, was terrible—I quickly hit 62 kg and had to take corrective action by first switching to maintenance mode for almost a month, and now I’m trying to do a mini-cut to get back down to 60 kg and lose that little bit of fat I’ve accumulated.

I’m confused, though, about the path I should take. Compared to a year ago, I’m much more toned—my progress at the gym has been fantastic—but my belly won’t go away, and I think my body fat percentage is still around 18%, according to my last BIA test.

It's clear that to get rid of my belly for good, I'd still need to lose more weight, but I'm worried about losing too much: isn't aiming for 57–58 kg a bit too risky for my lean body mass? What do you recommend I do? Thank you so much.

Was psyched to get this cheesesteak beef (Philly Gourmet brand) cause its cheap and allegedly lean as hell. But looking at it there’s no way this meat is 2g of fat per 112g right? That would be 98% lean. Other similar products seem to list like 5x that much fat

Hello, i uploaded the bodybuilding transformation excel into the app and everything has been going fine. I am on week 5 of the first section, and as you can see by the image, Smart Progression has my first set up to 23 reps on the lateral raise. It has been increasing week by week.

Is this normal? Is there a place in the app where I can see the cutoff where the weight should increase and reps decrease? My gym equipment settings all look okay, just curious about this.