Zyra Nutrition and MacroFactor share a philosophy — that a calorie target should come from your own data rather than a one-time calculator — and they are at very different stages of delivering it. Zyra builds Zyra Nutrition, so what follows is not an outside review; it is our own product placed next to the one that defined the category, with every MacroFactor fact taken from a MacroFactor page we opened on the date at the top of this article, and every gap on our side named.
The one-line summary
MacroFactor is a native app whose expenditure estimate learns from your logs and whose targets are coached weekly; Zyra Nutrition is a web app whose targets are a documented formula you can reproduce, and whose learning loop is still being built.
Side by side
| Zyra Nutrition (ours) | MacroFactor | |
|---|---|---|
| Expenditure | Starting estimate from Mifflin-St Jeor × activity; update-from-logs engine in development, starting number shown today | A "dynamic algorithm to adapt to changes in your metabolism"1 |
| Weekly adjustment | Not yet | Weekly coaching check-ins with automatic macro adjustments1 |
| Program styles | One mode, closest to manual | Coached, Collaborative, Manual2 |
| Logging density the app asks for | 3 consecutive days to start; 3 food days + 1 weigh-in per 7-day period to keep updating | Documented in its help centre (specific minimums omitted here because the page did not render at write time) |
| Food data | Search, barcode via OpenFoodFacts import, custom foods, recipes | "Verified food database", barcode scanner, AI label scanning1 |
| Target rules | Protein 1.2–2.4 g/kg, fat floor max(0.6 g/kg, 20% kcal), calorie floors 1,500 / 1,200, deficit cap 35% — public | Coached programs include a calorie floor and a fat floor; Collaborative and Manual do not2 |
| Platforms | Web; calculators in EN, DE, ES, FR, IT, NL | iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch on the iOS listing1 |
| Price | No payment taken today; paid tier planned | $11.99/mo, $47.99/6 mo, $71.99/yr, 7-day trial1 |
What MacroFactor has that we do not
An expenditure estimate that learns. This is the whole point of MacroFactor and the biggest gap in the table. Its help centre is blunt about why: static TDEE calculators produce an average error of about 325 kcal/day, and about 20% of people get recommendations off by 500–1,000 kcal/day3. MacroFactor's answer is to invert the energy-balance equation over your own logs — calories in, minus the change in stored energy your weight trend implies, equals calories out — and to update that number as data lands. Zyra Nutrition's expenditure page is designed around the same loop and tells you what it needs (3 consecutive logged days to start; 3 food days and 1 weigh-in per 7-day period to continue), but the service that performs the update is still in development. Until it ships, Zyra Nutrition shows the onboarding estimate.
Weekly coaching. MacroFactor turns the expenditure update into a weekly check-in that adjusts your targets1, and offers three program styles — Coached, where the app handles all week-to-week adjustments; Collaborative, where it adjusts weekly calories and you set the daily distribution; and Manual, where everything is at your discretion2. Zyra Nutrition has one mode.
Native apps and a watch. MacroFactor is on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch1; Zyra Nutrition is a website.
AI-assisted food creation and label scanning1. Zyra Nutrition has barcode scanning and manual custom foods; nothing camera-based beyond the barcode.
What is different in Zyra Nutrition
The formula is public, line by line. Zyra Nutrition's target is the v2 algorithm: BMR by Mifflin-St Jeor, 10·kg + 6.25·cm − 5·age + 5 for a male profile (−161 for a female profile); a multiplier of 1.2 / 1.375 / 1.55 / 1.725 for 0 / 1–3 / 4–6 / 7+ exercise days, nudged −0.05 / 0 / +0.1 for sedentary, moderate and very active days; a rate of 0.3 / 0.5 / 0.75% of body weight per week converted at 7,700 kcal/kg; then the guardrails above. All of it runs on the free macro calculator and is written out on the methodology page. MacroFactor documents its logic in a help centre; Zyra Nutrition documents it as the calculator itself.
Public calculators, no account. MacroFactor ships as native apps1; Zyra Nutrition's calculators run on the open web, here on zyra.fit, and are its front door.
Free to use today. No payment is taken while the paid tier is being built. That is a stage, not a strategy, and we say so.
A web app. Weaker in the gym bag; stronger at a desk, and installable from nowhere.
In plain terms: if you want an app whose adaptive expenditure is already shipping and you are happy with a native subscription, MacroFactor has that today. If you want documented targets on the web now and are willing to wait for the learning loop, that is Zyra Nutrition — and we will update this page the day the loop ships.
The short version
MacroFactor's expenditure updates from your own intake and weight trend and is coached weekly across three program styles12; it is a native app with a 7-day trial and a subscription. Zyra Nutrition is a web app whose targets come from a published formula with floors and a 35% cap, with public calculators on zyra.fit and no payment taken today — and whose weekly check-in now re-estimates expenditure from your own logs and weigh-ins. Zyra builds Zyra Nutrition; the gap is named above rather than hidden. Educational overview of nutrition tracking tools only — not medical advice.