Macro Calculator

Calculating and tracking is a habit that has enough benefits to vastly outweigh the inconvenience of entering your food in an app every time you eat. There are a number of tracking apps available and they each take a little getting used to, but follow the macros calculated for your body composition and goals as your limits each day to keep yourself on track.

Body Composition

Enter your weight in either pounds or kilograms, then fill in your height, age, and gender. (If you are non-binary, select the gender most like your hormone profile.)

Enter your approximate body fat percent. Use Bodyfat Estimation Chart as a guide.

Your Lean Body Mass, BMR (basal metabolic rate), and TEF (thermic effect of food) will automatically calculate on the right.

Your lean body mass is all of your muscles, bones, organs, and essential tissues not including any fat mass. Your BMR, or basal metabolic rate, is roughly how many calories you would burn when performing no activity (as in lying still) on an empty stomach. TEF is the thermic effect of food. It’s how many calories it takes to digest and process the food that you’ve eaten. It’s not a huge number, but it does count towards your daily calorie burn.

lbs
kg
ft
in
cm
years
%
to help estimate your bodyfat percentage.
kg
lbs
%
kcal
kcal

Activity Level

Choose your activity level for a typical day. Do not include any workouts when entering your choice. There will be another section for your workouts later, so don’t worry, these calories burned will get counted.

Choosing your activity level accurately will ensure the final macro calculation gives you an appropriate macro split and calorie allotment. If you increase or decrease your activity, you can come back and recalculate, but be realistic about your daily movement levels.

If you’ve already manually calculated your TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure, you can enter it here instead of choosing an activity level.

kcal

Daily Calories

The days you work out and the days you rest will have different values, so remember to change your goals in your tracker for those days.

If you’re aiming primarily to lose fat, aim for a 25% deficit or less, since a greater deficit can cause feelings of lethargy, brain fog, and uncontrollable cravings. If you’re primarily aiming for muscle gain, aim for a surplus of no more than 15%. This will allow you to continue building muscle without the risk of gaining fat along with it.

Calorie Goal

 
%
%

Calories without Exercise

kcal

Calories with Exercise

kcal

Daily Excercise Info

If you incorporate any kind of movement practice, enter what your typical workouts look like here. Weights and cardio are what most people choose, and if you have other activities you can enter that information based on what those would equate to as well. Be as accurate as possible as this will change your calorie targets for the day.

Activity Minutes Kcal burned / min Total Kcal burned
Weights
Cardio
Other
     

Daily Macros

If your goal is to maintain muscle mass, your protein ratio is between 0.69 and 0.8

If your goal is to gain muscle, your protein ratio is between 0.8 and 1.2

Eating less than 0.69g/lb of lean body mass can lead to muscle loss, and while the scale may go down, you’ll be losing vital muscle tissue. This is true independent of your age, gender, or activity level. There is no statistically significant benefit to eating more than 0.82g/lb of lean mass beyond the beginner level. In the beginning of a workout program you tend to see greater muscle gains, and further gains happen more slowly.

The gold standard recommendation to be sure you remain in ketosis is 20g net carbs per day. Some people find that they have better energy or gain weight more reliably at a slightly higher level, up to 30g, so see where you feel best.

Remember to count NET carbs, not TOTAL carbs, since things like fiber and sugar alcohols get removed from the calculation.

Protein Ratio Macronutrients Macro Grams Kcal per gram Daily Calories Daily %
Protein 4
Net Carbs 4
  Fat 9