To change your expenditure version, go to Settings > Expenditure > Expenditure Version
Recommendation
We recommend using the Expenditure V3 algorithm for all people and circumstances. When the Expenditure V1 algorithm was released, it was the best solution on the market for back-calculating expenditure. V2 was a notable improvement on V1, and V3 is an even larger improvement on V2.
Compared with Expenditure V2, the improvements in V3 include:
Reduced the frequency and magnitude of over-correction periods.
Earlier response to true changes in energy expenditure.
Better handling of missing data.
A ~10% improvement in prospective accuracy.
You can read more about Expenditure V3 here.
Expenditure V2 FAQ
What is average expenditure?
Average expenditure is the output of our expenditure algorithm; you can learn how expenditure is calculated in the expenditure knowledge base article.
For a more comprehensive breakdown of expenditure that includes the why behind it, you should check out the algorithms and philosophy article.
How do I interpret changes in expenditure?
We have a complete knowledge base article dedicated to this topic: how to interpret changes to your energy expenditure.
What is flux range?
Flux range is an indicator of change magnitude. It tells you about time periods where notable movement/change in your expenditure is occurring and how large the navigable space of that change is.
Navigable space refers to the fact that the algorithm could have taken any path through that shaded area of the chart. One of the features of Expenditure V3 is the algorithm's ability to navigate through the flux range intelligently instead of relying on a fixed route.
This intelligence is similar to how a modern GPS navigation system might consider things like roadblocks, traffic, and fuel efficiency when choosing which roads to use while navigating you to your destination. In this GPS navigation example, the navigable space would be the number of unique routes the system had the potential to choose.
Notably, if a GPS navigation system has to choose between more potential routes, that does not lower its confidence in the selected course. The expenditure algorithm behaves the same when faced with a larger flux range.
It's tempting to think of flux range as a confidence interval, and that's not a harmful simplification, but it's not technically accurate. If it were a confidence interval, it would mean that a larger flux range represents a larger potential for error, but this is not a direct relationship.
If all this sounds a little wild and confusing, have no fear, there's no need to interpret the flux range yourself. We only show the flux range for fun and curiosity.
What is the paused status?
Paused status indicates when the expenditure algorithm is not actively calculating new results. Paused status is shown when data availability is too low for the algorithm to continue processing and reverts to a holding strategy.
Paused status is communicated by showing a square point maker instead or a circular point marker on the chart.
Expenditure V3 pauses less frequently than V1 and V2 did, since it can still perform well with more missing nutrition data than the previous versions of the algorithm.
Of note, a pause doesn’t need to be a cause for concern. When data availability is low, pausing preserves your last known, high-confidence expenditure value, instead of the algorithm making less informed updates based on low levels of data.
You can still get great results with occasional pausing. An obvious scenario is vacationing; if you choose not to track on vacation, the paused status should be a comforting signal that everything is handled and will resume without issue a short while after you return to tracking.
How frequently do I need to log my weight and nutrition data for the algorithm to keep updating?
It’s best to log your nutrition every day, and to log your weight at least three times per week.
However, minimum logging requirements for Expenditure V1 and V2 are:
Nutrition Data: 6 out of 7 days per week
Weight data: 1 day per week
Minimum logging requirements for Expenditure V3 are:
Nutrition Data: 4 out of 7 days per week
Weight data: 1 day per week
What should I do if I have a persistent or one-off challenge tracking nutrition often enough to not receive expenditure updates?
When talking about regular tracking and not intentional breaks like vacations, this is the ranking from best to worst on how to handle the inability to track a day of nutrition fully:
Nutrition is roughly estimated within 30% of your typical tracking accuracy.
Nutrition is not logged; A 0 Calorie day of nutrition is ignored unless the day is marked as a fasting day.
Nutrition is partially logged.
The 1st and 2nd are both good options, and the 3rd should always be avoided. A few good strategies for estimating a full day of Calorie intake are:
Paying attention to intuitive eating cues like hunger and fullness at key parts of the day or surrounding meals.
Running through a loose mental map of the day’s food consumption.
Comparing the day you are trying to estimate to previous days of eating that are similar.
One good way to take the result of these strategies and turn it into a number is to get your weekly Calorie intake average from the Nutrition page on the dashboard and estimate up or down from that figure.
Why have you released multiple expenditure versions?
We don't believe that being the best at something is an excuse not to seek improvement. We were, and are still, motivated to pursue excellence in this domain.
Why are Expenditure V1 and V2 still available if Expenditure V3 is better in every way?
We didn't want to interrupt anyone's current program if they weren't ready to swap over. Existing users can choose to swap over whenever they please.
Also, we thought it would be fun to keep the older expenditure algorithms around for reminiscing purposes.
Read next:
Now that you understand your expenditure version, you might enjoy one of these articles next:
Set a Manual Initial Expenditure Estimate
Change Your Expenditure Start Date
How to Change Your Expenditure Estimate from Dynamic to Static