How your daily targets work

1. What it shows

Food & weight is a goal you can choose in FemNote. If you choose it, you answer a few questions: your month and year of birth, your height and weight, whether you are pregnant or breastfeeding, whether you have ever had an eating disorder, your goal (to lose weight, keep your weight, gain weight or get stronger, with a target weight and a pace if you want to lose or gain), what a usual day looks like and how often you work out.

From your answers, your phone works out daily targets for:

• energy, in kcal
• protein
• fat and saturated fat
• carbohydrate
• fibre
• salt

Sugars are shown without a target. Your other goals in FemNote never change your targets.

Your targets are worked out again every day, from your latest weigh-in. The app shows this method too, under How we calculate.

2. Your daily energy

The energy to keep your weight comes from the equations for women aged 19 and over of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2023). They estimate how much energy you use in a day from your age, height, weight and how active you are. They are based on measurements of the energy people really use in daily life, with a method called doubly labelled water, and include people with overweight and obesity.

There is one equation for each activity category, in kcal a day:

• Inactive: 584.90 − 7.01 × age + 5.72 × height in cm + 11.71 × weight in kg
• Low active: 575.77 − 7.01 × age + 6.60 × height in cm + 12.14 × weight in kg
• Active: 710.25 − 7.01 × age + 6.54 × height in cm + 12.34 × weight in kg
• Very active: 511.83 − 7.01 × age + 9.07 × height in cm + 12.56 × weight in kg

FemNote is for women from 18. At 18 we use age 19 in the equations, the youngest age they cover. Your age is counted from your month and year of birth.

Your resting energy is the energy your body uses at complete rest. FemNote works it out with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation for women: 10 × weight in kg + 6.25 × height in cm − 5 × age − 161. Of the common equations, it comes within 10% of measured resting energy for the most people, with and without obesity (Frankenfield and others, 2005). FemNote uses it only as a floor, see Losing or gaining weight.

3. How your answers set your activity

The National Academies use four activity categories, based on your physical activity level: the energy you use in a day divided by the energy you use at rest. Inactive is below 1.53, low active 1.53 to 1.68, active 1.68 to 1.85 and very active 1.85 to 2.50.

Your usual day gives a starting level:

• Mostly sitting: 1.45
• Sitting and walking: 1.60
• On your feet most of the day: 1.75
• Doing physically hard work: 1.95

These levels sit inside the lifestyle ranges of FAO, WHO and UNU (2004): 1.40 to 1.69 for a sitting or light lifestyle, 1.70 to 1.99 for an active one, and 2.00 to 2.40 for a vigorous one.

Workouts add to that level: 0.03 for 1 or 2 a week, 0.08 for 3 or 4, and 0.12 for 5 or more. Each answer counts as its middle (1.5, 3.5 or 5.5 workouts a week), and each workout as 45 minutes at a fairly hard effort (6 MET), spread over the week.

Some examples: mostly sitting with no workouts is inactive (1.45), and with 3 or 4 workouts a week low active (1.53). On your feet most of the day with 5 or more workouts is very active (1.87).

Strength training does not change your activity level, but it can raise your protein target, see Protein.

4. Losing or gaining weight

Keep my weight and Get stronger use the energy to keep your weight. To lose or gain weight, you choose a pace:

• Gently: about 0.25 kg a week, 275 kcal a day less (to lose) or more (to gain).
• Steadily: about 0.5 kg a week, 550 kcal a day less or more.

These amounts use the common figure of 7,700 kcal for a kilogram of body weight. Over months that figure overestimates how fast weight changes, because the body uses less energy as weight goes down (Hall and others, 2011). So FemNote never predicts when you will reach a weight, and works out your target again from every weigh-in.

Guidelines advise taking 500 to 750 kcal a day off the energy to keep your weight (AHA/ACC/TOS, 2013), and losing no more than 0.5 to 1 kg a week (NICE, 2025). FemNote's paces stay at or below the lower end of both.

When you want to lose weight, two limits always apply:

• FemNote never takes off more than 25% of the energy to keep your weight.
• Your target is never below 1,200 kcal, the lowest amount the AHA/ACC/TOS guideline advises for women who want to lose weight, or below your resting energy, whichever is higher. If the energy to keep your weight is already below that floor, your target is the energy to keep your weight.

Once your weight reaches your target weight, your targets follow Keep my weight.

5. Before your period

The energy your body uses at rest can rise slightly in the luteal phase, the days between ovulation and your period. Studies find the effect small overall, and in studies since 2000 it was not significant (Benton and others, 2020). A review of studies from 2020 to 2025 found a rise of about 30 to 120 kcal a day, small enough that it may overlap with normal differences from day to day (Hurtová and others, 2026).

So on the days FemNote predicts to be in your luteal phase, the last 12 days before your next period, it adds a small amount to your energy target: 5% of the energy to keep your weight, at least 30 and at most 120 kcal, rounded to 10. The app shows it on its own, for example +110 kcal before your period.

FemNote adds it only for a natural cycle with a current prediction. Never with hormonal birth control, when you have no periods or are in perimenopause, when your period is late, or when we don't know enough about your cycle yet.

Cycle predictions are estimates. Estimates only. Not a method of contraception.

6. Protein

Your protein target is a number of grams for each kilogram of a reference weight, and depends on your goal:

• Keep my weight: 0.83 g, the population reference intake of EFSA (2012). If you are active or very active, or do strength training: 1.2 g, the lower end of the range for active adults (Jäger and others, 2017).
• Lose weight: 1.4 g, inside the range of 1.2 to 1.6 g studied during weight loss (Leidy and others, 2015).
• Gain weight: 1.2 g.
• Get stronger: 1.6 g, about the amount above which more protein added no more muscle with strength training (Morton and others, 2018).
• Pregnant: 1.1 g. Breastfeeding: 1.3 g (Institute of Medicine, 2005).

The reference weight is your weight, up to the weight for your height that the protein amounts are based on (the weight at a body mass index of 25). So your protein target doesn't keep growing with body fat. FemNote doesn't show you a body mass index.

7. Fat, carbohydrate, fibre, salt and sugars

• Fat: 30% of your energy, in the middle of the range of 20 to 35% that EFSA gives (2010).
• Saturated fat: at most 10% of your energy, as the WHO advises (2023).
• Carbohydrate: the energy left after protein and fat. EFSA gives a range of 45 to 60% of energy (2010).
• Fibre: 30 g a day in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK (Gezondheidsraad, 2015; D-A-CH; SACN, 2015), and 14 g for every 1,000 kcal in the US (Institute of Medicine, 2005).
• Salt: at most 6 g a day in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK (Gezondheidsraad, 2015; DGE, 2016; SACN, 2003), and 5.8 g in the US, which is 2,300 mg of sodium (National Academies, 2019).
• Sugars: shown without a target. Guidelines set a limit for free sugars, the sugars added to food and those in honey, syrups and fruit juice (SACN, 2015), and a photo can't tell those apart from the sugars in fruit and milk.

FemNote chooses the values for your country once, so travelling doesn't change them.

Energy is rounded to 10 kcal, grams to whole numbers.

8. Meal photos and the food table

When you take a photo of a meal, our recognition service sends it to an AI model. The model recognises the items and estimates, for each one, how much it weighs as served and its nutrients per 100 grams. The app labels these as AI estimates.

You can change every portion, from 1 to 3,000 grams, or pick ½, 1½ or 2 times the amount. A portion counts as its grams times the values per 100 grams.

Before an estimate counts, your phone checks it:

• every value must be possible: the protein, carbohydrate, fat and fibre in 100 grams of food can't add up to much more than 100 grams, there are never more sugars than carbohydrate, and never more saturated fat than fat
• the energy must fit the protein, carbohydrate, fat and fibre, with the energy factors used on EU food labels (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIV): 4 kcal per gram of protein and of carbohydrate, 9 per gram of fat, 2 per gram of fibre, 2.4 per gram of polyols and 7 per gram of alcohol. If the estimate is more than 20% away, FemNote uses the energy from the nutrients instead. Below 20 kcal per 100 grams, it is left as it is.

How close are photo estimates? In recent studies, AI models estimating meals from a photo alone were off by about 120 kcal per meal on average, and some meals by much more (Rodríguez-Jiménez and others, 2025; Nakagawa and Yamamoto, 2026). Most of the difference comes from the portion size (Nakagawa and Yamamoto, 2026), and large portions tended to be estimated too low (Fridolfsson and others, 2025), so check the weights. Salt was estimated poorly by every model tested, because salt added while cooking doesn't show in a photo (Nakagawa and Yamamoto, 2026).

When you add a meal yourself, you can choose from a table of common foods that comes with the app, so searching never leaves your phone. Its values per 100 grams come from FoodData Central of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For a product with a barcode, FemNote uses the values on its label from Open Food Facts.

Items without numbers, such as a food you typed by name or an item the AI could not estimate, are counted separately and shown as such.

9. Safeguards

FemNote doesn't offer Lose weight when:

• your weight is low for your height (a body mass index under 18.5), or your target weight would be
• you are pregnant or breastfeeding
• you said you have ever had an eating disorder

If one of these becomes true later, for example after a weigh-in, your targets follow Keep my weight.

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, there is no energy target, no weight goal and no range for fat or carbohydrate. Protein and fibre stay (in the US, 28 g of fibre when pregnant and 29 g when breastfeeding). Talk to your midwife or doctor about what you need.

If you said you have had an eating disorder, the app turns on Hide numbers, which removes every number about food, and shows where you can find support. No food goals are added to My lists.

Anyone can hide the numbers at any time, or turn the goal off.

FemNote uses no warning colours, streaks or praise for eating less, and says in a neutral way when you are over or under a target.

Body mass index is used only for these checks and for the protein limit above. FemNote never shows it.

10. What it is not

Your targets are an estimate to guide you, not medical advice. The equations give the average for people with your answers, and your own needs can be higher or lower.

FemNote is a wellness app, not a medical device. It doesn't diagnose, treat or prevent any condition.

Talk to a doctor or dietitian before big changes to what you eat, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, managing a condition, or have a history of disordered eating.

11. Your data stays on your phone

Your answers, your weigh-ins and the nutrients of your meals are stored only in FemNote's encrypted database on your iPhone. Your targets are worked out on your phone and not stored at all. None of this is sent to our servers, and it is never part of app statistics, crash reports, emails or notifications. FemNote never reads your weight from Apple Health.

Meal photos are sent only to our recognition service, and nothing about your goal or your body goes with them, as our privacy policy explains.

The equations, the food table and its values come with the app.

12. Version and changes

This is version 1 of the method, from 19 October 2026. A dietitian will review the method and its sources.

We announce on this page every change to an equation, a value or a rule that can change your targets, with the new version number, the date and what changed.

Think something is wrong? Tell us through the support page. A real person replies within 2 working days.

13. Sources

• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2023). Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy.
• Frankenfield D, Roth-Yousey L, Compher C (2005). Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105(5), 775-789.
• FAO/WHO/UNU (2004). Human energy requirements. Report of a Joint FAO/WHO/UNU Expert Consultation.
• Jensen MD and others (2014). 2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. Circulation 129(25 Suppl 2), S102-S138.
• NICE (2025). Overweight and obesity management (NG246).
• Hall KD and others (2011). Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance on bodyweight. The Lancet 378(9793), 826-837.
• Benton MJ, Hutchins AM, Dawes JJ (2020). Effect of menstrual cycle on resting metabolism: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE 15(7), e0236025.
• Hurtová A, Gimunová M, Beníčková M (2026). Resting metabolic rate fluctuations across the menstrual cycle: a systematic review. Frontiers in Physiology 17, 1778735.
• EFSA NDA Panel (2012). Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for protein. EFSA Journal 10(2), 2557.
• Leidy HJ and others (2015). The role of protein in weight loss and maintenance. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 101(6), 1320S-1329S.
• Morton RW and others (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine 52(6), 376-384.
• Jäger R and others (2017). International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 14, 20.
• Institute of Medicine (2005). Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids.
• EFSA NDA Panel (2010). Scientific Opinions on Dietary Reference Values for fats, and for carbohydrates and dietary fibre. EFSA Journal 8(3), 1461 and 1462.
• World Health Organization (2023). Saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children: WHO guideline.
• SACN (2015). Carbohydrates and Health.
• Gezondheidsraad (2015). Richtlijnen goede voeding 2015.
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung. D-A-CH-Referenzwerte für die Nährstoffzufuhr (fibre).
• Strohm D and others (2016). Salt intake in Germany, health consequences, and resulting recommendations for action. A scientific statement from the German Nutrition Society (DGE). Ernährungs Umschau 63(3), 62-70.
• SACN (2003). Salt and Health.
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2019). Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium.
• Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, Annex XIV (energy conversion factors).
• Rodríguez-Jiménez M and others (2025). Image-Based Dietary Energy and Macronutrients Estimation with ChatGPT-5: Cross-Source Evaluation Across Escalating Context Scenarios. Nutrients 17(22), 3613.
• Fridolfsson J, Sjöberg E, Thiwång M, Pettersson S (2025). Performance Evaluation of 3 Large Language Models for Nutritional Content Estimation from Food Images. Current Developments in Nutrition 9(10), 107556.
• Nakagawa S, Yamamoto A (2026). Prompt Engineering and Model Selection for LLM-Based Nutritional Estimation from Food Images: A Multi-Dataset Investigation. Nutrients 18(12), 2017.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central. Public domain (CC0 1.0).

Food values in the food table: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central.