How to Calculate Your Macros for Weight Loss or Muscle Gain

Macros — short for macronutrients — are the three nutrients that supply calories: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Calculating your macros means deciding how many grams of each to eat each day to hit your calorie target and support your specific goal.

Why Macros Matter Beyond Calories

Total calories determine whether you lose, maintain, or gain weight. Macro split determines what you lose or gain — fat, muscle, or both — and affects hunger, energy, and performance. Two people eating 1,800 kcal can have very different results depending on their macro distribution.

Step 1: Know Your Calorie Target

Macros start with calories. You need your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) first, then adjust for your goal:

Goal	Calorie target
Fat loss	TDEE − 300–500 kcal
Maintenance	TDEE
Muscle gain (lean bulk)	TDEE + 200–400 kcal

See How to Calculate Your TDEE for the formula, or use the TDEE Calculator directly.

Step 2: Set Protein First

Protein is the most important macro to get right. It preserves muscle during a deficit and supports growth during a surplus.

General targets:

Goal	Protein target
Fat loss	1.8–2.2 g per kg of bodyweight
Maintenance	1.4–1.8 g per kg
Muscle gain	1.6–2.2 g per kg
High-intensity athletes	Up to 2.4 g per kg

Each gram of protein = 4 kcal.

Step 3: Set Fat

Fat supports hormone production and vitamin absorption. A minimum of ~0.6–0.8 g per kg bodyweight is the physiological floor; most plans target 25–35% of total calories from fat.

Each gram of fat = 9 kcal.

Step 4: Fill Remaining Calories with Carbs

Once protein and fat grams are set, the remaining calories come from carbohydrates. Carbs fuel training performance and glycogen storage.

Each gram of carbohydrate = 4 kcal.

Worked Example

Person: 75 kg male, TDEE 2,600 kcal, goal: lean bulk at 2,850 kcal/day.

Macro	Target	Grams	Calories
Protein	2.0 g × 75 kg	150 g	600 kcal
Fat	30% of 2,850 kcal	95 g	855 kcal
Carbs	Remainder	(2,850 − 600 − 855) ÷ 4	349 g / 1,395 kcal
Total			2,850 kcal

Use the Macro Calculator to compute this instantly for your own weight, goal, and activity level.

Common Macro Splits by Goal

Goal	Protein	Carbs	Fat
Fat loss (preserve muscle)	35–40%	30–35%	25–30%
Maintenance / recomp	25–35%	35–45%	25–35%
Muscle gain	25–30%	45–55%	20–30%
Ketogenic (low-carb)	20–25%	5–10%	65–75%
Endurance athlete	15–20%	55–65%	20–25%

These are starting points, not rules. Adjust based on how you feel, training performance, and weekly weight trend.

Practical Tracking Tips

Weigh food in grams, not cups. Volume measures vary wildly by density. A "cup" of oats can range from 75 g to 130 g depending on how it's packed.

Log before you eat, not after. Pre-logging forces intentional choices. After-the-fact logging often under-reports portions.

Track a 7-day average, not daily. One high-carb day and one low-carb day average out fine. Obsessing over single-day variance stresses compliance unnecessarily.

Protein is the least flexible macro. You can shuffle fat and carb proportions to taste, but hitting your protein target daily is the one macro that most directly protects the results you're working for.

When Macros Don't Matter

For most people starting out, getting calories roughly right matters more than precise macro splits. Once you've been consistent at a calorie target for 3–4 weeks and want to optimise further — performance, hunger, energy — that's when dialling in macros pays off.

Track current calories with the Calorie Counter and pair it with your BMR from the BMR Calculator to build a complete picture.