When your progress stalls on a goal where you're trying to gain, Arrow suggests new targets, and you choose whether to accept them. The suggestion can change your total calories as well as your macros. A stall here means one of two things: your trend weight isn't going up on a muscle-gain plan, or your lifts aren't going up when your goal is strength or muscle. Arrow can spot either one because your lifting log, food log and weigh-ins are in one app.
Below is what Arrow reads, what a suggestion looked like for me, and which parts we haven't published yet. If you don't use Arrow, the last section shows how to run the same weekly check by hand.
Disclosure: I make Arrow. Everything about Arrow on this page comes from the App Store listing, arrowfitnessapp.com, our existing journal pages, or my own use of the app, checked 2026-11-04. Where we haven't published the details, I say so.
01What counts as a stall in Arrow?
A stall is a plateau in progress when your goal is to gain. It shows up in one of two ways:
- Your weight trend isn't moving. You're on a muscle-gain plan, you've followed it for about a week, and your weight hasn't gone up.
- Your lifts aren't going up. Your goal is strength or muscle, and the numbers in your log have stopped climbing.
On the training side, Arrow tracks progress against a rep range. You log your sets, and when you reach the top of the range, the next session's target goes up. When you stop reaching the top of the range and the target stops moving, that's the lift version of a stall.
We haven't published the exact rule behind the lift version, such as how many sessions count or which lifts it looks at. I'd rather tell you that than guess.
02What does a suggestion look like?
Here's what happened to me. I was on a muscle-gain plan, and after about a week my weight wasn't going up. Arrow sent me a nudge without me asking: based on my weight trend and what I'd logged eating, it wanted to raise my calories and carbs. It gave me a new diet plan, and I chose whether to take it.
That's one case, and I'm not going to turn it into a rule. What I can say for sure:
- It's a suggestion. Arrow proposes the new targets, and nothing changes until you accept them.
- Total calories can change, not just the split between protein, carbs and fat.
- The direction and size depend on the situation. In my case, with my weight flat on a gain plan, calories and carbs went up. We haven't published how protein or carbs move in other cases, or by how much.
- You can still edit any target yourself. Arrow never locks you into its numbers (App Store listing).
03How does the loop work?
- You pick a goal. Lose weight, build muscle or maintain. The goal sets your workouts and your starting daily calorie, protein, carb and fat targets.
- You train and log food. Sets, reps and weight go in the workout log. Meals go in by photo (Smart Scan), voice, text, barcode or the food database. Steps come in from Apple Health.
- Your calorie target is checked every week against your weight trend. Adaptive TDEE compares how your smoothed trend weight moved with what you logged eating. It starts after about 7 complete logged days and 2 weigh-ins at least 7 days apart, and each weekly check-in moves your calorie target by at most 150 kcal (see how adaptive calorie apps work).
- If progress stalls, Arrow suggests new targets. An app that only tracks food can't react to your lifts, because it doesn't have them.
- Arrow Coach reads all of it. Coach looks at training and nutrition together, and the weekly recap covers both.
04What goes in, and what does it feed?
| Input | Where Arrow gets it | What it feeds |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | You set it in Arrow | Which workouts you get; starting calories and macros |
| Training log | The sets, reps and weight you log | Rep-range progression; the lift side of a stall |
| Steps | Apple Health | Calories and macros |
| Weigh-ins | You log them in Arrow | Trend weight; the weekly calorie check; the weight side of a stall |
| Food log | Smart Scan, voice, text, barcode, database | Adaptive TDEE (what you actually burn in a day) |
Steps matter because they change what you burn, including on days you don't lift. Having the training log next to the food log is the reason a stall suggestion is possible at all.
05When shouldn't a stall change your food?
Food is one of several things that can flatten a log. Bad sleep, a program that's run its course, a deload week, illness, a new job and missed sessions can all do it too. And if you only logged food on four days last week, the nutrition side is incomplete, and I wouldn't trust any app's read on it, ours included. That's one reason Arrow suggests instead of changing your targets for you: you know about the bad week, and the app might not.
Read the training log, the food log and the weight trend together. On a cut, falling lifts plus a fast-dropping trend weight points at the deficit. On a bulk, flat lifts plus a flat trend weight usually means you aren't actually in a surplus. Our page on reading training and food together goes through more of these patterns, and the Arrow Score is the one-number version of the same idea.
06How do you run the same check without Arrow?
This is the weekly routine I'd use with any two apps. It's my own rule of thumb, not Arrow's internal rule.
- Write down four numbers every week: the top set on 2 or 3 main lifts, average daily protein, average daily calories, and the change in your 7-day average weight.
- Call it a stall only when two or more main lifts haven't gone up by a rep or a load jump for 2 to 3 weeks, and you've trained on schedule. On a gain plan, a flat weight trend after a week or two counts too.
- Check food before the program. Is protein at or near your target most days? Is the weight trend moving the way your goal says it should?
- Change one thing at a time. Protein first if it's short, then a small step in calories, something like 100 to 200 kcal, mostly from carbs on training days.
- Give it two weeks before you judge the change.
This works. The cost is that you're the one lining up two apps' numbers every week.
07Where does Arrow fall short today?
- We haven't published the full rule. How many sessions make a lift stall, and how big a change Arrow suggests in each case, aren't public yet.
- It needs your food log. If you only log training, Arrow can't tell whether the stall is about food.
- It's paid. Arrow's AI features need a Diamond subscription. The price is shown in the App Store and can vary. There's no free tier.
- iPhone only for these features. The current version with stall suggestions and rep-range progression is on iOS. The Android app is an older version.
- No Apple Watch app is listed on the App Store page as of 2026-11-04.
08Sources
Checked 2026-11-04.
- Arrow App Store listing (description, subscription note, Coach recap, edit any target): apps.apple.com
- Arrow homepage (rep-range progression, suggested calorie target, Arrow Score): arrowfitnessapp.com
- Adaptive TDEE start condition and 150 kcal weekly cap: Which apps adjust your calories from your weight trend?
- Arrow Score components and toggles: What is the Arrow Score?
- Stall definition and the example above: my own use of Arrow, 2026-11.
This is general information, not medical advice. Talk to a professional before making changes that affect your health.