Our mission is one sentence: “To give every woman nutrition built for her body, at every stage of her life.” A mission like that is only worth anything if we can show our work. So here it is. All twelve goals, the physiology under each one, in plain words. Where the evidence is strong we say so. Where it is thin — five of the twelve — we say that too, and we name which.
For most of the history of nutrition science, the body being studied was a man’s. Hers was assumed to be a smaller version of it.
It is not. It is a body that spends thirty-odd years losing blood on a schedule, that can build another person out of itself, that then feeds that person from itself, and that at some point loses the hormone which had been quietly protecting its bones the whole time. None of that is a rounding error. It is in the reference tables, in black and white: a menstruating woman needs more than twice the iron of an adult man. That number rises again in pregnancy, falls below his while she is breastfeeding, and lands back on his after 51.
Which means an app that shows her one flat chart is not being neutral. It is being wrong about her, four times over, and calling it a default. That is the thing we built FemQQ to stop doing — and this page is the reasoning, out loud, so you can check it rather than trust us.
Not four marketing segments. Four genuinely different sets of demands on one body — which is why the numbers move, and why FemQQ scores against the one she is actually in.
Iron leaves the body in blood. A menstruating woman loses some every cycle and has no way to make more — it comes from what she eats, or it comes from her stores, and her stores are finite. That single fact is why the reference intake for a woman 19–50 is more than double a man’s. It is also why tiredness that a man would be told to sleep off is worth a different question in a woman.
Blood volume rises substantially across a pregnancy, and the baby and placenta are built out of her. So iron climbs again and folate climbs with it, because the neural tube closes in the first weeks — often before a woman knows for certain she is pregnant. This is the one stage where the numbers are least negotiable and where the app is most insistent that her midwife, not an app, is in charge.
Everything in breast milk passed through her first, so some requirements go up — omega-3 and iodine among them — while iron drops below the adult figure, because periods have usually paused and that monthly loss has stopped. It is the clearest example of why ‘more of everything’ is not nutrition advice: at this stage, one of her headline numbers goes down.
Falling estrogen changes the balance of bone remodelling, and muscle is harder to hold onto with each decade. So calcium rises and protein stays high, while iron falls back to the male figure now that periods have stopped. Four stages, and the same nutrient has four different right answers.
These are the figures FemQQ scores against, read straight out of the app. The left-hand column is the adult male reference intake for the same nutrient, for scale. An app that quietly uses the male figure is not being neutral — it is being wrong for every woman using it.
men 8mg
19–50 18mg · pregnant 27mg · breastfeeding 9mg · 51+ 8mg
men 1.6g
19–50 1.1g · pregnant 1.4g · breastfeeding 1.3g · 51+ 1.1g
We know this because we got it wrong. Until October 2026 FemQQ scored omega-3 against 1.6g — the men’s figure. Every woman who was actually meeting her requirement was shown 69% and told her ring was short. We found it while generating this site from the app’s own data and fixed it. A male default is not a hypothetical; it is the thing that happens unless someone checks.
Calories are the half most apps stop at, which is how a day can be under budget and still be a poor day. FemQQ’s three rings are built from iron, folate, omega-3, magnesium, B12, vitamin D and the rest — the nutrients menstruating, pregnant and postpartum women are most commonly short of — rather than from a generic chart. The daily energy budget moves through the cycle instead of sitting flat, and is held rather than cut in pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
Well evidenced means the nutrient-to-outcome link has trials or a guideline behind it. Weaker evidence means it does not — small trials, borrowed populations, or a mechanism that sounds firmer than the data. We keep those goals in the app because correcting a low intake is reasonable either way, but labelling them equally would be dishonest. Nothing on this page is a claim that FemQQ treats or prevents anything; it is why a nutrient is on a list.
Lose fat steadily without crash dieting — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
75g a day
The most filling of the three macronutrients. Higher-protein days reliably end with fewer calories eaten, without anyone having to count them.
25g a day
Slows how fast the stomach empties and blunts the blood-sugar swing that drives the next craving.
under 25g a day
The easiest calories to lose, because they are rarely the ones you enjoyed. Nothing here burns fat — it makes the deficit liveable.
Build muscle, fuel your training — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
75g a day
Muscle is built from it, and spreading it across the day keeps more of what you eat available for that. This is the one nutrient here with a direct line to the result.
18mg a day
Iron carries oxygen to working muscle, and women who train are the group most likely to be short of it. Low stores show up as heavy legs long before a blood test gets asked for.
320mg a day
Used by every muscle contraction, and lost in sweat. A shortfall is common on a diet that is mostly refined food.
1000mg a day
Training loads bone as well as muscle, and bone only answers that load if the calcium is there to build with.
Support conception and cycle health — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
400mcg a day
The one with a guideline behind it. The NHS, the CDC and the WHO all put the figure at 400mcg a day, because folate does its work in the first few weeks, often before a pregnancy is known. They differ on when to start: the NHS and WHO say once you are trying, the CDC says every woman who could become pregnant, on the grounds that half of pregnancies are not planned.
18mg a day
Women with a higher dietary iron intake had fewer ovulation problems in one large observational study — intake, not a blood test, and no trial has shown that topping iron up restores ovulation. The firmer reason is the one after conception: a pregnancy draws on your stores hard from the start.
15mcg a day
Low levels are common and come alongside lower conception rates, but a large trial that dosed women before IVF changed nothing — so read this as worth not being deficient in, not as a fertility treatment. Going above a normal level does nothing either way.
1.1g a day
The weakest one on this list. Trials point in different directions and an effect on how your ovaries respond is not established. Worth eating oily fish for the rest of your body; if you are considering a high-dose supplement, mention it to your clinic first, because it thins blood.
This goal comes with a clinician. Ask your doctor what is right for you before starting any supplement. The app says the same thing on every screen for this goal.
Protect bone and muscle through the change — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
1000mg a day
Bone loss accelerates sharply in the first years after your last period. This is about your skeleton in twenty years, not how you feel this week.
15mcg a day
Without it calcium is not absorbed properly, so the two only work as a pair.
75g a day
Muscle is lost faster after menopause. Protein, plus something that makes your muscles work, is what slows it.
25g a day
Helps with the cholesterol rise that follows menopause, and keeps appetite steady while energy needs fall.
Why we call this weaker: Bone loss after menopause and the role of calcium and vitamin D in it are well established. What is not established is that hitting a food target changes your fracture risk twenty years out, which is the outcome that actually matters here. Treat this list as the dietary half of a question that also involves exercise, and for some women medication.
Stop the afternoon crash — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
18mg a day
The strongest nutrient-to-symptom link in this app. Iron deficiency causes fatigue long before it causes anaemia, and it is the most common deficiency in menstruating women.
2.4mcg a day
Deficiency causes the kind of tiredness sleep does not fix. The risk is highest if you eat little or no animal food.
15mcg a day
Low levels track with tiredness and low mood. Correcting a real deficiency helps; topping up a normal level does not.
75g a day
Steadies blood sugar across the afternoon, so energy stops arriving and leaving in waves.
Steadier, more predictable periods — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
75g a day
The lever that actually moves cycles is eating enough overall — under-eating is a common and under-recognised reason periods become irregular or stop. Protein is the part we can measure. Irregular or missing periods are worth a doctor visit, not just a diet change.
18mg a day
Heavy periods drain iron, and low iron makes the fatigue around them worse. It will not regulate the cycle, but it changes how the cycle feels.
15mcg a day
Linked to more regular cycles, but mostly in PCOS trials and at low certainty. Worth correcting a deficiency, not worth expecting a fix.
8mg a day
Small trials suggest it eases period pain. Modest, low-certainty evidence.
Why we call this weaker: Only the iron leg is guideline-grade: a full blood count is recommended for every woman with heavy menstrual bleeding. The rest is weaker than people assume. Eating enough overall is the lever that genuinely moves cycles, and irregular or missing periods are a reason to see a doctor rather than to adjust a diet — the app says so on this goal.
Blood sugar and insulin-aware eating — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
25g a day
Insulin resistance is one of the factors behind PCOS, though not the whole of it and not what the condition is diagnosed on. The 2023 international guideline found no evidence that any one diet composition beats another, and recommends sustainable healthy eating built around what you will actually keep eating — fiber is the part of that this app can count.
75g a day
Keeps you full and steadies blood sugar, which matters more when insulin is already working hard.
under 25g a day
A sugar load hits harder when cells respond poorly to insulin. This is the single highest-value thing to cut.
1.1g a day
Modest improvements in triglycerides and insulin markers in PCOS trials.
Eat for two without guesswork — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
400mcg a day
Requirement rises to 600mcg a day, counting food and any supplement together rather than as a pill on its own. It builds the neural tube in the first weeks — the reason it matters is mostly behind you by the time you feel pregnant, so the point is not to stop.
18mg a day
Public health guidance puts the requirement at 27mg: a pregnancy costs about a gram of iron, between what the baby and placenta build with and the extra red cells your own body makes. This is the hardest target in the app to hit from food alone, and whether you need a supplement on top is a question for your midwife — iron is not something to start on your own.
15mcg a day
Deficiency in pregnancy is common in every population that has been measured, and it is what sets your baby up for her first months rather than what mineralises her bones before birth. Guidance splits on whether everyone should supplement, so meeting the target from food is the part that is not controversial.
1000mg a day
Pregnancy roughly doubles how much calcium you absorb from food, which is how the baby gets hers — so the target is about giving that system something to work with. Meeting it protects you, not just her.
This goal comes with a clinician. Ask your doctor or midwife what is right for you — especially before starting or changing a supplement. The app says the same thing on every screen for this goal.
Rebuild iron, energy and strength — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
18mg a day
Birth costs blood, and stores are often already low from pregnancy. Low iron is one of the few causes of postnatal exhaustion that is worth getting checked — treating it helps some women and not others, but it is a question with an answer.
2.4mcg a day
Needed for energy and, if you are breastfeeding, for the milk too — a low intake shows up in the baby before it shows up in you.
15mcg a day
Depleted by pregnancy and rarely restored by a life spent indoors with a newborn.
1.1g a day
DHA passes into breast milk, so what you eat is what she gets.
This goal comes with a clinician. Ask your doctor or midwife what is right for you, particularly if you are breastfeeding. The app says the same thing on every screen for this goal.
Navigate the years before menopause — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
1000mg a day
Bone loss starts before periods stop. Building the habit now is worth more than starting after.
15mcg a day
Calcium is not absorbed properly without it — the two only work as a pair.
18mg a day
Perimenopausal bleeding is often heavier and far less predictable, which empties iron stores faster than a regular cycle does. Bleeding that is newly heavy is worth a doctor visit as well — what needs ruling out at this age is not nutritional.
75g a day
Muscle starts going before menopause does. Protein is the dietary half of holding on to it.
Why we call this weaker: Everything on this list is inference from what happens after menopause, applied earlier. That is reasonable — bone loss and muscle loss do start before periods stop — but it is reasoning, not a trial in perimenopausal women. Newly heavy bleeding is the one item here that is not a nutrition question at all.
Calmer evenings, deeper rest — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
320mg a day
Three small trials in older adults, all at risk of bias, and the review that pooled them declined to turn them into a recommendation. Worth correcting a low intake. Not worth expecting a sedative.
18mg a day
Restless legs is a common and badly under-recognised cause of broken sleep, and low iron stores are the mechanism behind it. If that sounds like your nights, the step that helps is a doctor checking ferritin and transferrin saturation — the treatment is usually prescribed iron, not eaten iron.
15mcg a day
Low levels track with poorer sleep. The trials that have tested it are small, in other populations, and came back inconsistent — the direction of cause is genuinely unclear.
Why we call this weaker: The honest summary is three small trials at risk of bias, and the review that pooled them declined to make a recommendation. We dropped evening protein from this list entirely rather than re-hedge it, because the trial that is usually cited for it found no difference against no snack at all. Restless legs is the one mechanism here with a firm link, and the step that helps is a doctor checking your iron stores, not eating more iron.
Calmer digestion day to day — the name of the setting, not a result it promises. Below is each nutrient this goal moves to the front, the daily figure for a woman 19–50, and why it is on the list at all.
25g a day
The type matters more than the amount. Guidelines recommend soluble fibre — oats, psyllium — for bloating and pain, and recommend against wheat bran, which does not help and makes it worse for some people.
320mg a day
Draws water into the bowel and eases the constipation sitting behind a lot of persistent bloating.
under 25g a day
Large sugar loads and the sugar alcohols in "no added sugar" products ferment in the gut, which is exactly the gas you are trying to avoid.
Why we call this weaker: The fibre guidance is guideline-backed but comes from trials in people with IBS, and the magnesium leg only reaches bloating by way of constipation. A borrowed population plus an indirect route is not strong evidence, whatever the mechanism sounds like.
Everything above explains why a nutrient is on a goal’s list. None of it says that hitting a target will fix your sleep, regulate your cycle, improve your fertility or protect your bones — those are outcomes, and an app that promised them would be claiming to be something it is not. FemQQ is a nutrition and wellness tool. It does not diagnose, treat, prevent or monitor any condition and is not a medical device. Where a goal touches something a clinician should see — missing periods, newly heavy bleeding, exhaustion after a birth, anything in pregnancy — the app sends you to one, and so does this page.
Who builds FemQQ → · What we are trying to do → · All 12 goals →
FemQQ is a nutrition and wellness tool. It does not diagnose, treat, prevent or monitor any condition, it is not a medical device, and nothing on this page claims that using the app changes a health outcome. The explanations here are why a nutrient is on a goal's list; the figures are published population reference intakes for women at that life stage, not personal advice or a prescription. Several of the goals on this page rest on weak evidence and are labelled as such. Talk to your doctor or midwife about what is right for you.