Macro Calculator
Enter your real stats and get grams of protein, carbs, and fat -- not just a calorie number.
Daily calories for maintain weight
2668 cal
Protein
170g
Carbs
330g
Fat
74g
Worked example, step by step
Two reference people, run through exactly the same formulas as the calculator above. Swap in your own numbers and the steps are identical.
Alex
Male · 30 · 5'9" · 170 lb · moderately active
- Weight
- 170 lb × 0.4536
- 77.1 kg
- Height
- 5'9" = 69 in × 2.54
- 175.3 cm
- BMR
- 10 × 77.1 + 6.25 × 175.3 − 5 × 30 + 5
- 1,721 cal
- TDEE
- 1,721 × 1.55 (moderately active)
- 2,668 cal
2,668 cal as balanced
| Protein | 170 lb × 1 g | 170 g | 25% |
| Fat | 25% of 2,668 ÷ 9 | 74 g | 25% |
| Carbs | the rest ÷ 4 | 330 g | 50% |
Sam
Female · 30 · 5'5" · 140 lb · lightly active
- Weight
- 140 lb × 0.4536
- 63.5 kg
- Height
- 5'5" = 65 in × 2.54
- 165.1 cm
- BMR
- 10 × 63.5 + 6.25 × 165.1 − 5 × 30 − 161
- 1,356 cal
- TDEE
- 1,356 × 1.375 (lightly active)
- 1,864 cal
1,864 cal as balanced
| Protein | 140 lb × 1 g | 140 g | 30% |
| Fat | 25% of 1,864 ÷ 9 | 52 g | 25% |
| Carbs | the rest ÷ 4 | 210 g | 45% |
Maintaining weight, so the calorie target is the TDEE itself; a cut or bulk would subtract or add its adjustment first.
What the activity levels actually mean
The multiplier is where most people go wrong, usually by picking a level too high. A desk job plus three gym sessions a week is "lightly active", not "moderately active" -- the gym hour is real, but the other 23 are sitting. Here is Alex's TDEE at every level, from the same 1,721-calorie BMR:
| Level | Who it fits | Multiplier | Alex's TDEE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Little to no exercise, desk job | × 1.2 | 2,066 cal |
| Lightly active | Light exercise 1-3 days/week | × 1.375 | 2,367 cal |
| Moderately active | Moderate exercise 3-5 days/week | × 1.55 | 2,668 cal |
| Very active | Hard exercise 6-7 days/week | × 1.725 | 2,970 cal |
| Extra active | Very hard exercise and a physical job | × 1.9 | 3,271 cal |
The gap between sedentary and very active is 904 calories a day for the same person -- more than a whole meal. When in doubt, pick the lower level and let the two-week weigh-in correct you.
Gram targets by calorie level
With this split, protein is fixed by bodyweight (170 g for a 170 lb person, shown here) and fat is 25% of calories, so only carbs move as calories change. That is deliberate: when you cut, carbs absorb the deficit and protein stays put.
Gram targets assume you weigh food. If a recipe is in cups and tablespoons, CookSubs converts cups to grams by ingredient so the number you log matches the number here.
| Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,600 | 170 g | 130 g | 44 g |
| 1,800 | 170 g | 168 g | 50 g |
| 2,000 | 170 g | 205 g | 56 g |
| 2,200 | 170 g | 243 g | 61 g |
| 2,500 | 170 g | 299 g | 69 g |
| 2,800 | 170 g | 355 g | 78 g |
| 3,200 | 170 g | 430 g | 89 g |
After two weeks: how to adjust
Every number on this page is an estimate of the average person with your stats. You are not the average person, and the only way to find your real number is to eat at the estimate and watch the scale. The rules that make that work:
- Weigh daily, judge weekly. Same scale, same time, after the bathroom, before food. Daily readings swing 2-4 lb on water alone; compare weekly averages, not days.
- Give it 14 days. The first week of any change is mostly water and glycogen. The second week is the first honest read.
- Then move 100-200 calories, not 500. Trending down when you meant to hold? Add 100-200. Trending up? Subtract 100-200. Small moves, then another two weeks.
- Recalculate when your weight changes by 10-15 lb. Your BMR moves with your bodyweight, so a target set months ago is stale.
- Keep protein fixed, flex carbs and fat. Protein is the one macro tied to keeping muscle; it is the last thing to cut and the first to hit.
Common mistakes
- Counting the workout twice. The activity multiplier already includes your training. Adding the calories your watch says you burned on top of it double-counts, often by 300-600 a day.
- Treating the number as exact. Mifflin-St Jeor is accurate to within about 10% for most healthy adults. For Alex that is a 267-calorie band either side of 2,668.
- Eating at BMR. BMR is what you burn asleep and fasting. Eating that little for long is a crash diet with a scientific-sounding name; the deficit belongs under TDEE, not under BMR.
- Rounding macros to the gram. Food labels are legally allowed to be 20% off. Hitting protein within 10-15 g and calories within 100 is precise enough; anything tighter is false accuracy.
Keep going
- Macro targets here start from your TDEE; the TDEE calculator isolates that baseline and shows how it moves with activity level alone. TDEE Calculator
- Already know you want to lose weight? The macros-for-cutting page locks in that goal instead of asking you to choose one here. Macros for Cutting
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from just tracking calories?
Calories alone don't tell you what to eat -- two people hitting the same calorie number can end up with very different results depending on how much of it is protein. This splits your target into the actual grams of protein, carbs, and fat to hit.
Why does protein get set by bodyweight instead of a percentage?
A flat percentage of calories means your protein target swings with how much you're eating, which doesn't track muscle needs well. Protein scaled to bodyweight (around 1g per pound here) stays consistent whether you're in a deficit or surplus.
How accurate is the calorie number?
It's a real, standard estimate (Mifflin-St Jeor for BMR, scaled by your activity level) -- close for most people, but actual metabolism varies. Treat the number as a starting point and adjust based on your real weight trend over 2-3 weeks.
Should I count macros or just calories?
Calories decide whether you gain or lose; macros decide what you gain or lose. If you only track one number, make it calories and hit a protein floor -- that gets 80% of the result. Full macro tracking is worth it when you are within 10-15 lb of a specific goal, or when energy and training quality matter as much as the scale.
My carbs came out very low. Is that normal?
With the balanced split, protein is set by bodyweight and fat at 25%, so carbs absorb the rest. A heavier person on a cut can see carbs fall under 100 g. That is arithmetic, not a diet recommendation: drop protein toward 0.8 g per lb, take fat to 20%, or shrink the deficit to 300 and carbs come back.
Do I need to hit these numbers every day?
No. Weekly averages are what matter. A day at 30 g under on protein and a day 30 g over average out; what does not average out is a whole week 500 calories high. Aim within 10-15 g on protein and 100 calories on the total, and let the rest float.