Guides

How the numbers actually work.

Most questions people have before they start tracking are not about the app, they are about the mechanism underneath it. These explain the mechanism. They do not tell you what your targets should be, because that is not something a website can responsibly decide for you.

Does tracking actually work? Six months of records from 5,132 people, weight loss rising with every extra day logged, and what the study design can and cannot tell you. What a calorie deficit is The mechanism in plain terms, why every number involved is an estimate, and what that means for reading your own trend. A pound is not 3,500 calories Where the most repeated number in weight loss came from, why it overpredicts a year by about double, and what replaced it. Why the scale jumps Water, sodium, glycogen, hormones and digestion move the number far more than fat does over a few days. What each one is doing, and why the trend line is the part worth reading. Why weight loss stalls Four ordinary mechanisms produce a plateau, only one of them is metabolism, and they leave different fingerprints in your own data. Where a target comes from BMR, TDEE, the equations behind them, and why the number any app gives you is a starting hypothesis rather than a measurement. What macros do The three macronutrients, what each is for, and why a macro split is a description rather than a rule. 16:8 vs 18:6 vs OMAD What actually differs between the windows, and the practical trade-offs each one carries. How much water, actually The eight-glasses rule has no evidence behind it, and the official figure counts the water in your food. What the research actually says. Reading a label Serving size, tolerances, percent daily value, and the places the panel routinely misleads people. After weight-loss surgery The staged diet, supplements for life, the lab calendar and returning to movement. What the published guidelines describe, and why your own team’s protocol replaces them.

This is general information, not medical advice. It explains how something works; it does not tell you what your own targets should be. Anything involving a medical condition, a medication, pregnancy or nursing belongs with your doctor, pharmacist or dietitian, who can see your whole situation. The coach inside the app takes the same line.

FAQ

About these guides

Are these guides medical advice?

No. They explain how something works. What a calorie deficit is, why the scale moves overnight, what the fasting notation means, without prescribing numbers for any individual. Anything involving a medical condition, a medication, pregnancy or nursing belongs with a doctor, pharmacist or dietitian who can see your whole situation. The coach inside the app takes the same line.

Do I need Loopa to use these?

No. They are written to be useful whether or not you ever install anything. Each one ends with a short note on how Loopa handles that particular thing, clearly marked, so you can read the explanation and ignore the product part if you want to.

Why does Loopa publish guides at all?

Because most of the questions people ask before they start tracking are not really about the app, they are about the mechanism underneath it. A tracker that explains why the scale jumped is more useful than one that just displays the number, and that explanation should be somewhere you can read before you commit to anything.

How often are these updated?

When something changes or someone tells us a passage is wrong or unclear. If you find something here that is inaccurate, tell us. We will fix it.

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