As a 34-year-old engineer and powerlifter, Terry Jones has always trusted data to deliver the best results. But when it came to managing his nutrition, the tools he used couldn’t keep up. The soon-to-be dad wanted something more accurate and adaptable, and that’s when he found MacroFactor.
“Pairing my nutrition improvements in MacroFactor with my new training and coaching, I’m honestly shocked at the results I’ve seen,” he said.
Before MacroFactor
Terry has an engineering degree and knows about comparing systems. As a longtime Fitbit user, he was fine with its infrastructure at first, but as his goals evolved, he started noticing gaps in its expenditure and nutrition tracking.
“Fitbit’s ‘budget’ and MacroFactor’s expenditure are vastly different,” he said. “The Fitbit budget has been wildly inaccurate for my activity level; dating back to 2016, it is something I’ve never bothered to pay attention to after the first few months. During my 25lb weight loss in 2025, MacroFactor’s algorithm seemed spot-on.”
“Before April, I was simply exporting all of my Fitbit logging to the MacroFactor app via Health Connect,” he continued. “It turns out that the Fitbit food logging tool is much more cumbersome and lacks features compared to MacroFactor.”
The more data Terry received, the clearer those differences became. Once he switched to MacroFactor, the improvement was immediate.
Training hard and getting results
Around the same time Terry started using MacroFactor consistently, he decided to train for his first powerlifting meet and began working with a new coach.
“My squat was nowhere near competition depth, my bench press had no pause, and I never trained deadlift without a trap bar due to extreme back pain,” he said. “I reached out to a powerlifting coach in December.”
With coaching and better information on his nutrition through MacroFactor, his strength numbers began to climb and his body fat levels started to drop.
“My one-rep maxes were a 500lb squat, a 320lb bench with no pause, and a 405lb conventional deadlift,” he said. “Now my competition-standard lifts are a 495lb squat, a 345lb bench, and a 520lb deadlift, all performed to meet standards. I’ve also reduced my weight from 257.7lb to 231.5lb, for a total loss of about 26lb.”
Favorite features
For Terry, there were a few features he liked, but one stood out above the rest.
“It is hard to pick one single feature as my favorite, but if I had to pick one, it would be the expenditure calculations and the weekly check-ins that adjust the expenditure based on weight and nutrition data,” he said.
“I was training for a tennis tournament, and the expenditure algorithm was able to adjust my recommended Calorie intake during this period to help ensure I stayed on track with my original plan,” he continued.
He also appreciates the app’s level of detail, particularly its micronutrient tracking and recipe-building tools. These features make it easy for him to log the meals he eats most often.
“I eat almost the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch,” he said. “MacroFactor has a tool that lets you build your own recipes that include everything on the nutrition label, which makes creating a one-time recipe simple for quick logging in the future. While Fitbit does have a custom food creator, this feature is cumbersome as you have to manually calculate and enter the total Calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, potassium, protein, and so on. It took too much time and I never used it. Once my wife showed me the custom recipe tool on MacroFactor, I was completely ready to abandon the last part of the Fitbit app I was holding on to.”
Takeaways and looking ahead
Terry credits his progress to consistency above all else, but having accurate feedback certainly made it easier for him to get things done.
“I believe obtaining my goals simply comes down to being consistent in everything I do,” he said. “MacroFactor will give back whatever effort you put in. If you put in the work to log your daily weight, nutrition, and activity, the app will present you with such a high level of detail that it takes all the guesswork out of nutrition.”
And as life continues to evolve, his motivation goes far beyond numbers on a scale or totals on the bar.
“My wife and I are expecting our first child in December,” he said. “I never want my health to be a question mark in the future level of care I am able to provide for my kid; I need to continue my fitness journey and reach a weight of under 200lb in order to leave the obese category of BMI and all of the health risks that come along with it.”
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.
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