diff --git a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/logic/recommender.go b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/logic/recommender.go
index 3907fef8f48f..f7fe2bae33fe 100644
--- a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/logic/recommender.go
+++ b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/logic/recommender.go
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ func (r *podResourceRecommender) GetRecommendedPodResources(containerNameToAggre
 	}
 
 	fraction := 1.0 / float64(containersPerPod)
-	klog.V(4).Infof("Spreading recommendation across %d containers (fraction %f)", containersPerPod, fraction)
+	klog.V(5).InfoS("Spreading recommendation across containers", "containerCount", containersPerPod, "fraction", fraction)
 	minCPU := model.ScaleResource(model.CPUAmountFromCores(*podMinCPUMillicores*0.001), fraction)
 	minMemory := model.ScaleResource(model.MemoryAmountFromBytes(*podMinMemoryMb*1024*1024), fraction)
 
diff --git a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/model/aggregate_container_state.go b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/model/aggregate_container_state.go
index a4a634611f71..12cb54100de8 100644
--- a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/model/aggregate_container_state.go
+++ b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/model/aggregate_container_state.go
@@ -197,6 +197,10 @@ func (a *AggregateContainerState) MergeContainerState(other *AggregateContainerS
 		a.LastSampleStart = other.LastSampleStart
 	}
 	a.TotalSamplesCount += other.TotalSamplesCount
+	// if at least one aggregateContainerState is underVPA, then the aggregated state will contribute to a recommendation
+	if other.IsUnderVPA {
+		a.IsUnderVPA = true
+	}
 }
 
 // NewAggregateContainerState returns a new, empty AggregateContainerState.
diff --git a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/routines/recommender.go b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/routines/recommender.go
index 573602b33fba..f6fb1132aff8 100644
--- a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/routines/recommender.go
+++ b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/routines/recommender.go
@@ -91,7 +91,9 @@ func (r *recommender) UpdateVPAs() {
 		if !found {
 			continue
 		}
-		resources := r.podResourceRecommender.GetRecommendedPodResources(GetContainerNameToAggregateStateMap(vpa), vpa.ContainersPerPod)
+		vpaContainerNameToAggregateStateMap := GetContainerNameToAggregateStateMap(vpa)
+		klog.V(5).InfoS("Calculating recommendation pod resources...", "vpa", vpa.ID.VpaName, "namespace", vpa.ID.Namespace, "targetRef", vpa.TargetRef)
+		resources := r.podResourceRecommender.GetRecommendedPodResources(vpaContainerNameToAggregateStateMap, vpa.ContainersPerPod)
 		had := vpa.HasRecommendation()
 
 		listOfResourceRecommendation := logic.MapToListOfRecommendedContainerResources(resources)
@@ -100,6 +102,26 @@ func (r *recommender) UpdateVPAs() {
 			listOfResourceRecommendation = postProcessor.Process(observedVpa, listOfResourceRecommendation)
 		}
 
+		if had {
+			totalTrackedContainerNames := len(vpaContainerNameToAggregateStateMap)
+			if totalTrackedContainerNames != vpa.ContainersPerPod {
+				// this means that there are some tracked containers that are stale, but haven't been pruned yet (or won't be pruned be at all) according to vpa pruningGracePeriod
+				// figure out which containers are stale, and just replace the calculated recommendation with the previous one in the previous vpa.Status
+				// TODO: We can save computation by checking staleness early and don't calculate a recommendation
+				now := time.Now()
+				for i, resources := range observedVpa.Status.Recommendation.ContainerRecommendations {
+					containerName := resources.ContainerName
+					containerAggregateState := vpaContainerNameToAggregateStateMap[containerName]
+					if containerAggregateState != nil && !containerAggregateState.IsUnderVPA && !containerAggregateState.IsAggregateStale(now) {
+						klog.V(5).InfoS("Container no longer exists, but is not stale. Keeping container recommendation at previous state.", "vpa", vpa.ID.VpaName, "container", containerName)
+						previousContainerRecommendation := vpa.AsStatus().Recommendation.ContainerRecommendations[i]
+						// Maybe we should add a "stale=true" field to persist in the vpa.Status.ContainerRecommendation[i] as well?
+						listOfResourceRecommendation.ContainerRecommendations[i] = previousContainerRecommendation
+					}
+				}
+			}
+		}
+
 		vpa.UpdateRecommendation(listOfResourceRecommendation)
 		if vpa.HasRecommendation() && !had {
 			metrics_recommender.ObserveRecommendationLatency(vpa.Created)