diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 37acbe94..d285079d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
 - Fix NotificationService bug returning html response on /api/v1/notifications endpoint when a notification id belonging to a deleted account is rendered by checking AccountService before NotificationTransformer. ([734b30e5](https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/commit/734b30e5))
 - Hydrate `favourited` and `reblogged` state on v1 context endpoint ([abb4f7e1](https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/commit/abb4f7e1))
 - Improve admin dashboard by moving expensive stats to its page and loading stats and recent data async on the dashboard home page ([9d52b9c2](https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/commit/9d52b9c2))
+- Update unfollow api endpoint to only decrement when appropriate, fixes #3539 ([44de1ad7](https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/commit/44de1ad7))
 -  ([](https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/commit/))
 
 ## [v0.11.3 (2022-05-09)](https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/compare/v0.11.2...v0.11.3)
diff --git a/app/Http/Controllers/Api/ApiV1Controller.php b/app/Http/Controllers/Api/ApiV1Controller.php
index 314e7f1c..148ad22f 100644
--- a/app/Http/Controllers/Api/ApiV1Controller.php
+++ b/app/Http/Controllers/Api/ApiV1Controller.php
@@ -753,7 +753,9 @@ class ApiV1Controller extends Controller
 			abort(400, 'You can only follow or unfollow ' . Follower::FOLLOW_PER_HOUR . ' users per hour');
 		}
 
-		$user->profile->decrement('following_count');
+		if($user->profile->following_count) {
+			$user->profile->decrement('following_count');
+		}
 
 		FollowRequest::whereFollowerId($user->profile_id)
 			->whereFollowingId($target->id)