Why the beginning is different
Gravl Macros does not run on a formula. It measures your expenditure from what you eat and how your weight responds, which is a much better answer — and one it cannot give you on day one, because on day one it has no data.
So the first stretch has rules of its own. Things are quiet, some numbers are hidden, and the weekly check-in declines to change anything. None of that is a fault. This page is the order it happens in, so you can tell "still learning" apart from "something is wrong".
The order things happen in
| When | What changes |
|---|---|
| Day 0 | Setup gives you a starting expenditure from a formula, and your first targets come from it — set up your plan |
| Days 1–6 | Nothing visible moves. The estimate holds its setup number while the app collects days |
| Day 6 | Your first weekly check-in becomes available, six days after your plan started — your weekly check-in |
| Day 7 | Seven complete logged days release the estimate. The Accuracy chip goes from Calibrating to Refining — expenditure confidence levels |
| Days 7–14 | The fastest stretch: this is when your expenditure moves the most — how your expenditure is calculated |
| Day 14 | Fourteen logged days in the last fortnight puts the chip on Refined |
| Weeks 3–4 | The estimate has found its level and the confidence band settles at its floor |
The three things that look broken and aren't
Your expenditure holds its setup number until seven complete logged days exist. The Expenditure screen says we're learning from your data — why your expenditure is paused covers that condition and the three others like it.
The change figures are hidden rather than shown as zeroes, because there is nothing to compare against yet — expenditure confidence levels.
The check-in won't change your targets, even when you have the four logged days and the weigh-in it asks for. It isn't the data gate; it's that the estimate underneath isn't ready to build on — apply or keep your targets.
What actually helps
Nothing clever. The clock only moves on two things: log every day, roughly if you must, and weigh in a few times a week. A quick-added "about 600 kcal" counts as a logged day; a blank one doesn't, and a day you can't reconstruct should be marked incomplete so it leaves the calculation cleanly.
What doesn't help: editing your targets by hand to speed things up, or starting a new plan because nothing seems to be happening — a new plan resets the check-in clock to six days and gets you no closer.
Two things worth expecting
Your expenditure will move a lot in week two, then much less. That is the shape of the thing, not the early number being wrong or the later one being stuck.
Your first real target change will be smaller than the gap suggests. The check-in moves your target 60% of the way toward the new figure, deliberately — your weekly check-in shows what that looks like over four weeks.