diff --git a/mace/cli/run_train.py b/mace/cli/run_train.py
index 478d0a9b..866ffeb5 100644
--- a/mace/cli/run_train.py
+++ b/mace/cli/run_train.py
@@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ def main() -> None:
 
         if args.multiheads_finetuning:
             logging.info("Using multiheads finetuning mode")
+            args.loss = "universal"
             if heads is not None:
                 heads = list(dict.fromkeys(["pbe_mp"] + heads))
                 args.heads = heads
@@ -552,7 +553,6 @@ def main() -> None:
             model_config["atomic_inter_shift"] = [args.mean] * len(heads)
         model_config["atomic_inter_scale"] = [1.0] * len(heads)
         args.model = "FoundationMACE"
-        args.loss = "universal"
         model_config["heads"] = args.heads
         logging.info("Model configuration extracted from foundation model")
         logging.info("Using universal loss function for fine-tuning")