Scott is a 48-year-old marketing professional and father who found himself at a point that will probably feel familiar to a lot of people. His health and lifestyle were starting to show him that some of his habits weren’t healthy.
“Something had to change,” he said.
That realization eventually led Scott to MacroFactor and the start of a transformation he genuinely didn’t expect.
Before MacroFactor
At the end of 2024, Scott was dealing with some less-than-optimal bloodwork while already taking medication for his blood pressure. He was overweight, drinking too much, tired all the time, and generally unhappy with how he was feeling. His doctor wanted to run more bloodwork and asked him not to drink for a few days before the test.
“My doctor scheduled another round of blood work and asked me not to drink any alcohol five days before the test,” he said. “I decided to not drink for 30 days, a full month before my blood work.”
During that month, the effects of the changes Scott was making became clear pretty quickly.
“Within the first week, I was sleeping a full eight hours. I had more energy during the day, and I was a lot more fun to be around,” he continued. “By the end of week two, I had lost 5lb and was feeling much more clear-headed. By the end of the month, I was motivated to keep stacking healthy habits. That’s when I found MacroFactor.”
And as we’ve talked about before at MacroFactor, changing habits can be hard. If you’re struggling to change an existing habit, you might enjoy our extended habit series here.
Scott leaned pretty heavily into tracking with MacroFactor and started building an exercise routine around daily movement and basic strength training. Along the way, he realized he was in for a longer haul than he had originally planned.
“Fat loss was the primary goal. I had initially thought I needed to lose 10-20lb, and I way underestimated what I actually needed to lose,” he said. “I started to count my steps, aiming for 8,000-10,000 daily, and added some basic weight training with dumbbells. The idea of tracking everything I eat felt overwhelming. But after about a week, I was in the flow and amazed at how the weight was coming off.”
Results
To be honest, Scott made it look easy. He got into a groove and worked hard at keeping the momentum.
“Since starting MacroFactor, I have lost at least 60lb,” he said. “I utilized a phased approach, with the bulk of the weight loss happening early on. Since then, I have taken diet breaks using maintenance mode and shorter cuts that eventually got me to my current weight.”
“The obvious visual change is my body, both size and composition,” he continued. “Body-fat percentage went from 28-30% down to about 10%. These are not DEXA-confirmed numbers, but using visual references and AI, along with the same body fat scale since the beginning, has tracked the downward trend.”
But for Scott, the changes went well beyond the physical. The emotional and lifestyle shifts have been just as important to him.
“The biggest change, though, has been my mental and emotional state,” he said. “I am stronger and more confident at 48 than at any other time in my life. I am more clear-headed, calm, and empathetic, generally more fun to be around. I have the energy to hang with my teenage kids. I have influenced several friends and family members to go on their own fitness journeys just by sharing my own.”
“I’m a different person. I like myself more. And I don’t see myself ever going back to the old me.”
Favorite feature
Scott plans many of his meals ahead and often logs his full day in the morning. Because of that, the ease of the food logger is a big part of what makes the process work for him.
“For me, it’s important to remove as much friction from the process as possible,” he said. “I’ve developed a set of recipes, meals, and foods that I will typically enter into my food log at the beginning of the day for the entire day. That way, there’s no guessing from meal to meal or snack to snack throughout the day.”
“I have my nutrition so dialed in that I probably don’t need to track as tediously as I still do, but I enjoy seeing the data and having the ability to monitor trends in the wrong direction,” he continued. “I weigh myself daily, and my smart scale pushes weight data directly to the app.”
And when it comes to the feature that has been most important to him, Scott points to the expenditure algorithm.
“The expenditure chart was a key feature for me,” he said. “Knowing how many Calories, on average, I expend throughout the day helped me better understand my intake and the trade-offs I needed to make in order to hit fat loss goals.”
“In general, MacroFactor upped my overall knowledge and understanding of nutrition, fitness, and how to optimize the process of fat loss.”
Parting advice
Scott has plenty of advice, but if he had to focus on one concept, it’s that all the pieces need to work together.
“Long-term success requires you to fundamentally change how you live your life and your relationship with food,” he said. “It’s a lifetime journey, not a point in time where you lose some weight, then go back to the old habits that got you there in the first place. This requires a lot of intentionality and reflection and is perhaps the most challenging aspect of this journey.”
“Understand the relationship between expenditure and intake,” he continued. “Take your time with this aspect. You’re investing in a lifelong skill set. Don’t rush it. Have fun exploring new foods and building your short list of ‘go-to’ meals and snacks that you can consume to reliably stay in a deficit. Start to understand TDEE and its components. Build a habit of walking every day. Schedule it and make it a priority.
And ultimately, build a repeatable system that brings together mindset, nutrition, and movement.”
Try MacroFactor for yourself with a 7-day free trial
Confidently control your nutrition with MacroFactor, a science-backed diet coach and macro tracker app that empowers you with the tools you need to reach your goals without rigidity.
You can try it free for 7 days on the App Store or Google Play, or learn more here.
Do you have a MacroFactor success story?
We love to learn about, celebrate, and share MacroFactor users’ success. If you’re interested in your story being featured as a MacroFactor case study, you can learn more and submit your story here.
