The question I get asked more than any other is: “what should my macros be?”
This is a great question! Knowing your macros is the only way to be certain you are on the right path to achieving your fitness goals.
BUT...there isn't a straightforward one-size-fits-all answer to this question. So, I’ve written this comprehensive guide to teach you the exact process I use to calculate macros for my clients and myself.
Try our FREE Vegan Nutrition Calculator to figure out your macros in less than 5 minutes! Find out what you need to eat to meet your goals.
Why Online Macro Calculators Suck
Most people use online macro calculators like IIFYM Online Macro Calculator to determine their macros. In my opinion, the main problem with these online macro calculators is that they use very general activity multipliers to calculate your daily energy expenditure.
In other words, if you describe your activity level as “sedentary” or “very active” then the calculator will assign you a number from 1.0 to 2.0. The calculator then multiplies your basal metabolic rate (BMR) (the amount of calories someone of your gender, age, height, and weight burns, on average, when at rest) by this number to arrive at your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).
So while these calculators can seem very convenient, they can be quite misleading in reality.
Based on my experience, I’ve found these calculators can be off by as much 30%!! If you are trying to lose weight and you are aiming for 2,000 calories per day, this 30% error could translate to you overeating or undereating by 600 calories!!
This will obviously make it nearly impossible to achieve your fitness goals.
So I recommend you calculate your macros more accurately by doing it yourself. And don’t worry, the math is simple and I will show you the steps in the rest of this article.
Step 1: Determine Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)
The first step in calculating your macros is to determine your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). As the name implies, your TDEE is the total number of calories you burn each day.
Many factors determine the total amount of energy that your body burns every day, such as body weight, age, total lean mass, body temperature, the thermic effect of foods (the amount of energy it “costs” to process food for use and storage), stimulant use such as caffeine, and physical activity.
We can group all of these factors into two general categories:
Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): the amount of calories required to keep your body functioning at rest. BMR is more commonly known as your body’s metabolism.
Your Average Activity Burn per Day: the amount of calories you burn each day from activities like walking the dog, cleaning the house, weightlifting, and anything else that gets you moving.
To calculate your TDEE, you simply calculate your BMR and Average Activity Burn per Day and add these two numbers.
As you can imagine, these calculations aren’t an exact science, but we’re going to do our best to determine your TDEE based on your physical characteristics, lifestyle, and fitness goals.
Let’s begin by calculating your BMR.
Step 1A: Calculate Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
There are three widely used and accepted formulas in metabolic literature: the Harris-Benedict equation, the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, and the Katch-McArdle equation. These formulas approximate a person’s BMR.
For simplicity, you can just use the Katch-McArdle calculation. The equation is simple and it gets the job done.
BMR = 370 + (21.6 x LBM), where LBM is your lean body mass in kilograms
To calculate your Lean Body Mass (LBM), you must estimate your body fat percentage. The easiest way to estimate your body fat percentage if you have no idea what it might be is to look at pictures of people whose body fat percentages you know and make an educated guess.
Yes, you really can just guess your body fat percentage by a picture of someone else. It is the easiest way and just as accurate as most inexpensive methods like biometrical impedance analysis.
Contrary to popular belief, biometrical impedance analysis isn't very accurate. I have a rather expensive scale that sends electrical currents through my feet and I know for a fact that it can be off by upwards of +/- 5% when measuring my body fat percentage.
There are very accurate ways to measure body fat percentage: Bod Pod ($75 for a scan), DEXA scan ($50-150), and water displacement tests (also very expensive). If you happen to have results from one of these tests, use that body fat number instead, but these tests are unnecessary for our macro calculation purposes.
Example BMR Calculation
As an example, I will run through my own BMR calculation.
Here’s a picture of me that I took last week.
Based on the pictures of example body fat percentages for males, I’d guess that I am about 9% body fat. My fasted body weight (measured in the morning) is 170 pounds.
So let’s plug these numbers into the Katch-McArdle equation:
BMR = 370 + (21.6 x LBM), where LBM is your lean body mass in kilograms
First, I need to know my LBM. LBM is simply your total body weight minus fat weight.
So, my lean body mass (LBM) = 170 pounds x (100% - 9%)
LBM = 170 pounds x 91%
LBM = 170 pounds x 0.91
LBM = 154.7 pounds
So now I have my LBM in pounds. But for the equation, we need LBM in kilograms. There are about 2.2 pounds (lbs) in a kilogram (kg). So to find my LBM in kilograms, I must divide 154.7 pounds by 2.2 (pounds per kilogram).
So, my LBM is 70.2 kilograms (kg).
Now I’ll plug this into the Katch-McArdle equation.
BMR = 370 + (21.6 x 70.2 kg)
BMR = 370 + (1516.32)
BMR = 1886.32
This means that my BMR is 1,886 calories.
Now that we’ve calculated our BMR, let’s calculate our activity burn.
Step 1B: Calculate Your Average Activity Burn per Day
Your energy balance each week, total calories consumed vs. total calories burned, is extremely important in achieving your fitness goals (i.e. cutting, maintaining, or bulking), but your daily energy balance can vary a bit as long as you are consistent over long periods of time.
In other words, your average energy balance over time matters most in achieving your fitness goals. Don’t sweat the small dietary road bumps. We all have them.
To calculate your Average Activity Burn per Day, you should first list all of the activities you do during a typical/average week and the amount of time you spend doing them.
For example, here’s what my average activity each week looks like right now:
Weight training day 1: Chest and calves (75 minutes)
Weight training day 2: Back and biceps (75 minutes)
Weight training day 3: Legs (75 minutes)
Weight training day 4: Arms and shoulders (75 minutes)
Weight training day 5: Chest and calves (75 minutes)
Weight training day 6: Legs (75 minutes)
Walking the dog (90 minutes per week)
StairMaster (60 minutes per week)
Cleaning the house (120 minutes per week)
After you have listed all of your total activity, we will now calculate the number of calories you burn from each of these activities.
When I calculate the activity burn for my clients and myself I use MET (Metabolic Equivalent) data for physical activities from "The Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide" by B. E. Ainsworth.
Each individual activity from my database of over 600 activities has a MET value associated with it. A MET value represents the ratio of energy (i.e. calories) required to perform a particular activity relative to your BMR. My macronutrient calculator estimates your calorie burn by multiplying the MET value for your chosen activity by the duration time of your activity and by your calculated BMR.
Since I cannot easily share this database with you, please use one of the following sites to calculate your activity burn for each of your activities.
My Fitness Pal Calories Burned From Exercise
Using these resources, I found my activity burn to be as follows:
Weight training day 1: Chest and calves (75 minutes) = 485 calories
Weight training day 2: Back and biceps (75 minutes) = 485 calories
Weight training day 3: Legs (75 minutes) = 485 calories
Weight training day 4: Arms and shoulders (75 minutes) = 485 calories
Weight training day 5: Chest and calves (75 minutes) = 485 calories
Weight training day 6: Legs (75 minutes) = 485 calories
Walking the dog (90 minutes per week) = 230 calories
StairMaster (60 minutes per week) = 620 calories
Cleaning the house (120 minutes per week) = 300 calories
Now, add all of your activity burn calories together to arrive at your Total Activity Burn per Week.
My Total Activity Burn per Week is 4,060 calories.
Now remember, our goal is to determine our Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), so we need to know how many calories we burn per day from activity.
Your Average Activity Burn per Day is the average number of calories you burn each day from your total exercise per week (your Total Activity Burn per Week divided by 7).
My Average Activity Burn per Day is 580 calories (4,060 calories divided by 7).
So, we now know our BMR and Average Activity Burn per Day. We simply add these two numbers together to arrive at our TDEE.
My TDEE is 1,886 calories + 580 calories = 2,466 calories.
And that’s it!
Once again, this isn’t an exact science, but it is much more accurate that the online macro calculators that use general activity multipliers.
The 3 Principles of Body Composition
There are three foundational principles when it comes to building muscle and shredding fat that are well established both scientifically and anecdotally:
A caloric surplus is necessary for maximizing muscle growth
A caloric deficit is necessary for shredding fat
A high-protein diet is vital for both maximizing muscle growth and minimizing muscle loss while shredding fat
Caloric Deficit for Shredding Fat
You must burn more energy than you consume to achieve meaningful fat loss. This is called a caloric deficit (i.e. consume less calories than you burn).
However, eating very little, known as starvation dieting, isn’t ideal for weight loss. If your caloric deficit is too extreme, your metabolism will slow, you will lose muscle along with fat, and you’ll really hate the process.
Caloric Surplus for Muscle Growth
Contrary to shredding fat, you must consume more energy to achieve meaningful muscle growth. This is called a caloric surplus (i.e. consume more calories than you burn).
If you don’t eat enough calories, you will struggle to gain muscle. This is because a caloric deficit decreases your body’s ability to synthesize skeletal muscle proteins, reduces anabolic hormone levels while increasing catabolic hormone levels, and impairs workout performance which in turn impairs progression in your workouts and therefore muscle growth.
I recommend that you maintain a slight 10% caloric surplus when bulking. In other words, you should eat around 110% of your total daily energy expenditure to be in the “sweet spot” for gaining lean muscle.”
It is worth noting that most gym “newbies,” people with less than a year of weightlifting training under their belts, can build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but can’t optimally do both simultaneously. The rest of us will do best by alternating between periods of cutting and bulking.
Step 2: Determine Your MAIN Fitness Goal
Most people I know want to both shred fat and gain more muscle, but unless you are a newbie weightlifter, you cannot both shred fat and gain muscle at the same time.
Doing so would violate the 3 Principles of Body Composition. In order to maximize muscle growth, you must maintain a caloric surplus. In order to shred fat, you must maintain a caloric deficit.
So which one should you pick? Here’s my rule of thumb:
If you have a body fat percentage greater than 15% as a male, you should cut down to 10-12% before beginning to bulk (i.e. gain muscle). If you are a female with a body fat percentage greater than 20%, you should cut down to 15-17% before beginning to bulk.
If you are a male around 10-12% body fat or female around 15-17% body fat, then you’re ready to begin a lean bulk.
Starting to build muscle with a shredded physique is ideal for several reasons:
High body fat levels reduce insulin sensitivity, thereby suppressing muscle protein synthesis (known as MPS, which is a vital component of hypertrophy, the muscle growth process).
High body fat levels create imbalances in hormonal levels, causing testosterone levels to drop and estrogen levels to rise in men.
Bulking from a shredded physique until you reach 15% body fat as a man or 20% as a woman, then cutting back to 10-12% or 15-17%, respectively, saves you from long, grueling cuts.
So here’s the bottom line: body fat makes you fatter, makes it more difficult to build muscle, and creates hormonal imbalances. If your goal is to gain muscle, you should start with a lean physique, 10-12% body fat for men and 15-17% body fat for women.
Step 3: Determine Your Daily Calorie Target
Now that you have determined your main fitness goal, this step is easy. If you decided that it is time to shred fat, then you should aim for a 20% caloric deficit every day. Simply multiply your TDEE by 0.8 to figure out how many calories you should eat every day for fat loss.
For example, I am currently shredding. My TDEE is 2,466 calories, so my Daily Calorie Target should be 1,973 calories per day (2,466 calories x 0.8) to efficiently burn fat.
If I decided to start a lean bulk right now to build muscle, I would aim for a 10% caloric surplus every day. If you also want to lean bulk, simply multiply your TDEE by 1.1 to determine how many calories you should eat every day.
For example, if I stopped shredding and began a lean bulk, I should aim to eat 2,713 calories (2,466 calories x 1.1).
Step 4: Calculate Your Macros
Macronutrients, often referred to as “macros,” are substances required in large amount in the human diet. There are three primary macronutrients that the human body needs in order to function properly: carbohydrates, fat, and protein.
Regardless of the sources foodwise, 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.
Step 4A: Determine how much protein you should be eating
According to U.S. and Canadian dietary reference intakes, the recommended daily allowance for protein is 0.36 grams per pound of bodyweight (0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight) for healthy adults. This amount is “the average daily intake level that is sufficient to meet the nutrient requirement of nearly all [~98%] of healthy adults.”
As long as you are eating a calorically sufficient diet, this recommendation is extremely easy to meet.
However, many decades of research and anecdotal evidence proves athletes, particularly those who lift heavy weights regularly, need more protein than the average person.
Still, the truth is that I can’t tell you exactly how much protein you need. Only expensive nitrogen balance testing can tell you for sure. However, when it comes to fitness, people tend to fall into one of three groups. Here’s my simple chart:
As things stand right now in the scientific literature, if you are serious about putting on as much muscle mass as possible, and you want to be safe in terms of consuming enough protein to promote that muscle growth, I recommend 0.9 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight for bulking and 1.1 grams per pound of lean body mass (LBM) for cutting.
Keep in mind that my recommendation is likely more than anyone needs to maximize muscle and strength gains, especially for people without serious physique or strength goals.
Since I am a vegan bodybuilder currently in the process of shredding and I want to maximize my muscle mass and strength, I am aiming for 1.10 grams of protein per pound of LBM during my cut.
Given my LBM of 154.7 pounds, this means that I should aim for 170 grams of protein per day.
I know, I know. This number probably sounds really high. And it likely is higher than necessary.
But I’d rather hit my protein and be safe than risk burning any of my hard-earned vegan muscle gains when I’m on a caloric deficit. For example, if an experienced weightlifter (4+ years of weightlifting experience) loses just a single pound of muscle while shredding, it could take 2 to 6 months of intense weightlifting to gain that pound of muscle back during his/her next bulking period! Assuming five 1-hour workouts per week, that single pound of muscle could take upwards of 135 hours of intense weightlifting to gain back!
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather eat a bit more protein than I probably need to avoid losing any muscle instead of killing myself for 135 hours in the gym just to get back to my pre-shredding LBM.
That being said, hitting 1.1 grams of protein per pound of LBM while on a caloric deficit is difficult. It requires careful planning and most likely protein supplementation, but if you stay within the body fat percentages I recommended earlier, then you won’t be cutting for extended periods of time.
Step 4B: Determine how much fat you should be eating
You should only consume enough fat to maintain optimal health. Eating more fat wouldn’t necessarily be harmful to your health, but it would limit the amount of carbohydrates you could eat, which form the bulk nutritious foods like whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables.
Generally speaking, replacing carb calories with fat calories makes it more difficult to build muscle and strength. Remember, lower carb intake equals lower insulin response and less energy during workouts.
Still, many so-called “experts” claim eating dietary fat is the key to losing body fat. The reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. A caloric deficit along with high protein consumption is the best way to lose fat.
A 2015 study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health found that calorie for calorie, low fat dieting is more effective for fat loss than low carb for obese individuals.
Free fatty acids, which come from excess dietary fat and circulate in the bloodstream, cause inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance in our muscles.
When you put people on a low-carb diet, fat builds up in their muscles within two hours and insulin sensitivity drops.
In conclusion, I recommend consuming enough dietary fat to maintain optimal health, but no more. This should be approximately 0.3 grams per pound of bodyweight. When shredding, I typically eat a bit less than 0.3 grams per pound of bodyweight because my calories are low and I don’t like to drop my carbs very low.
Following the 0.3 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight rule of thumb, I should be consuming 51 grams of fat each day (170 pounds x 0.3).
Ideally, you should consume no oil and limit your saturated fat intake to below 10% of your daily calories. You should consume most of your dietary fat from monounsaturated fats like avocados, seeds, and nuts.
Furthermore, you must pay close attention to your EPA/DHA intake, especially as a vegan. Your body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but the conversion ratios are very low. Consequently, I use an EPA/DHA supplement and I recommend all vegans do the same.
Step 4C: Allocate the rest of your calories for carbs
So by this point, you know your Daily Calorie Target and the number of grams of protein and fat that you should be eating each day.
To calculate the grams of carbs in our macros, we will calculate how many calories we have left in our Daily Calorie Target after subtracting protein and fat calories then divide by 4 because there are 4 calories in a gram of carbs.
To determine the number of calories you are spending each day for protein, simply multiply your grams of protein by 4 because there are 4 calories in a gram of protein.
Since I am aiming for 170 grams of protein per day, this means I should be consuming 680 calories of protein per day (170 grams x 4 calories per gram).
To determine the number of calories you are spending each day for fat, simply multiply your grams of fat by 9 because there are 9 calories in a gram of fat.
Since I am aiming for 51 grams of fat per day, this means I should be consuming 459 calories of fat per day (51 grams x 9 calories per gram).
As a reminder, my Daily Calorie Target is 1,973 calories per day. To determine the number of calories I have for left for carbs, I must subtract my protein and fat calories from my Daily Calorie Target.
So my carb calories = 1,973 – 680 – 459 = 834 calories.
Just divide your carb calories by 4 (4 calories per gram) and you have your total carb macros.
For me, this means I should eat about 208 grams of carbs per day (834 calories divided by 4).
At this point, I know what my calories and macros should be to achieve my main fitness goal!
Daily Calorie Target: 1,973 calories per day
Target Macros: 170 grams of protein, 51 grams of fat, and 208 grams of carbs
Once you've done these calculations for yourself, you can use Cronometer or My Fitness Pal to track your calories and macros each day. I prefer Cronometer, but you can use whatever you prefer.
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