Macros for Bulking
A calorie surplus sized to build muscle without piling on unnecessary fat.
Daily calories for gain muscle
2968 cal
Protein
170g
Carbs
387g
Fat
82g
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
- Gain muscle
- 2,668 + 300
- 2,968 cal
2,968 cal as balanced
| Protein | 170 lb × 1 g | 170 g | 23% |
| Fat | 25% of 2,968 ÷ 9 | 82 g | 25% |
| Carbs | the rest ÷ 4 | 387 g | 52% |
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
- Gain muscle
- 1,864 + 300
- 2,164 cal
2,164 cal as balanced
| Protein | 140 lb × 1 g | 140 g | 26% |
| Fat | 25% of 2,164 ÷ 9 | 60 g | 25% |
| Carbs | the rest ÷ 4 | 266 g | 49% |
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 | Gain muscle target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Little to no exercise, desk job | × 1.2 | 2,066 cal | 2,366 cal |
| Lightly active | Light exercise 1-3 days/week | × 1.375 | 2,367 cal | 2,667 cal |
| Moderately active | Moderate exercise 3-5 days/week | × 1.55 | 2,668 cal | 2,968 cal |
| Very active | Hard exercise 6-7 days/week | × 1.725 | 2,970 cal | 3,270 cal |
| Extra active | Very hard exercise and a physical job | × 1.9 | 3,271 cal | 3,571 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. Gaining faster than about 0.5% of bodyweight a week is mostly fat -- subtract 100-200. Not gaining after two weeks? Add 100-200, mostly from carbs.
- 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
- Bulking still needs a firm protein floor to keep the surplus from turning mostly into fat; the high-protein calculator raises that target further. High-Protein Macro Calculator
- When body fat climbs to where the next cut would run long, the macros-for-cutting page sizes the deficit to bring it back down. Macros for Cutting
Frequently Asked Questions
Why only a 300 calorie surplus instead of eating a lot more?
Muscle can only be built so fast -- a large surplus mostly just adds fat instead of muscle. A smaller, steady surplus (around 300 calories here) gives your body enough extra energy to build without piling on excess fat.
Do I still need a lot of protein while bulking?
Yes -- being in a surplus doesn't replace protein's role in actually building muscle. This still scales protein to your bodyweight (about 1g per pound) rather than letting it drop just because calories are up.
How do I know if my surplus is too big?
Track your weight trend over 2-3 weeks. Gaining much faster than about 0.5-1 lb per week usually means more of it is fat than muscle -- worth dialing the surplus back if that's happening.
How fast should the scale move on a bulk?
About 0.25-0.5% of bodyweight a week: roughly 0.5-1 lb for a 170 lb person, or 2-4 lb a month. Beginners can sit at the top of that range; anyone past their first year of training should stay near the bottom, because muscle gain slows and everything above it is fat.
Clean bulk or dirty bulk?
Muscle growth is limited by training and protein, not by how much you eat, so a 1,000-calorie surplus builds the same muscle as a 300-calorie one and stores the difference as fat. Keep the surplus small and the protein steady; the food quality matters for how you feel and train, not for the physique outcome.
When do I stop bulking?
When body fat reaches a point where the next cut would be long and unpleasant -- for most men around 18-20%, for most women around 28-30% -- or when strength stalls for a month despite the surplus, which usually means recovery, not calories, is the limit. Plan the bulk for 3-6 months, then reassess.