You can use our macro calculator to find your macros, and you have the option to download it as a PDF. Our macro calculator uses your age, weight, height, gender, activity level, and goals to calculate your calories and macronutrient needs.
You can use this report to control your food intake to achieve your fitness goals. Let's calculate your macros and get into macros in detail.
Macro Calculator
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What Are Macros
The term macro means macronutrients, which refers to the three main nutrient groups.
- Protein
- Fat
- Carbohydrate
Protein is the building block of your body. One gram of protein provides 4 Kcal of energy. Protein is vital for muscle development, skin, hair, cells, neurotransmitters, hormones, etc.
Thus protein is an essential nutrient you must add to your diet.
Fat is also an essential nutrient similar to protein. One gram of fat provides 9 Kcal of energy. Fatty acids are a vital component for cell membranes, hormones, etc., and they also provide insulation to the body.
Carbohydrates provide 4Kcal of energy, similar to proteins. There are simple carbs ( sugar, corn syrup, honey)and complex carbs(oats, sweet potato). Carbohydrates provide energy.
Carbohydrate is not an essential nutrient, as your body can synthesize glucose from protein and fat.
I am not telling you to eliminate them from your diet. Taking carbs from whole food sources will help you to get micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).
For athletes and active personals, you can meet your calorie requirements through carbohydrate intake.
What is the benefit of knowing your macros?
Most people are not aware of the calories or macros they intake. We are unknowing taking in surplus calories; i.e., we eat more food without noticing. Even while you were on a diet plan, there is a chance of eating more food.
Thus knowing your macros will help you have a balanced diet with the required nutrients. It gives you a starting point to reach your fitness goals. You can download the Macro PDF after calculating your macros and use it to control your intake.
What Is The Difference Between Macros And Calories
Calories! You must be aware of calorie in and calorie out.
People are using calories in and out principle to lose weight or build muscle. A calorie deficit can help you lose fat, and a calorie surplus can help you gain muscle(If you lift weights).
With calories, you can control the quantity of food you intake, but you cant make sure that you are getting enough macronutrients in the right amounts. Protein and fats are essential nutrients, so it is vital to get them through your diet.
If you are not getting these nutrients, you may find it difficult to lose weight, build muscle, and harm your athletic performance. The study published in N Engl J Med study shows that food quality is as important as the quantity of food you consume.
A macronutrient-based diet will ensure that you get the nutrients in the required ratios. Based on your goals and diet preferences, you can adjust your macronutrient ratios.
The advantages of a macro diet
- It can be adjusted to your fitness goals and diet preferences
- You can better control the quality of food
- It helps you to keep your calorie intake in the recommended range
- It's flexible and can be customized to individual requirements
How To Calculate Your Macros Using Our Free Macro Calculator
We calculate your macros based on your age, gender, height, weight, activity level, and fitness goals. The calculator will use this information to calculate your daily calorie expenditure and will use this to generate your macro report and PDF. You can download the macro PDF report in your inbox.
How Does The Macro Calculator Work?
There are various methods to find out your daily calorie consumption. But here, we use specific formulas to calculate your macros. You can also use this formula to calculate your daily calorie expenditure and can use that info to calculate your macros.
Calculating Your BMR
First, you need to find out your BMR; this is your basal metabolic rate. It's the energy or calorie that you will spend while at rest. It's the energy required for your survival.
Here we use this formula to calculate the BMR
BMR for Men = 66.47 + (13.75 * weight [kg]) + (5.003 * size [cm]) − (6.755 * age [years])
BMR for Women = 655.1 + (9.563 * weight [kg]) + (1.85 * size [cm]) − (4.676 * age [years])
Using Your Activity Level To Calculate TDEE
You are not simply sitting all day. You move, play, exercise, and do other activities too.
That's why you need to consider your activity level to find out your total calorie expenditure(TDEE).
After finding the BMR, you can calculate your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE. It's the total energy you spend daily, which depends on your activity level.
TDEE= BMR x Activity multiplier
Here your activity level is categorized into four
Sedentary: Office working with little or no exercise and who spends most of the time sitting. For sedentary people, the activity multiplier is 1.2
Light activities: those who exercise a few times a week and do physical activities less than 30 min. For light activity level people, the activity multiplier is 1.375.
Moderate level: those who exercise 3-5 times a week, do physical activities and move a lot during the day. For moderate-level people, the activity multiplier is 1.55.
Heavy activity level: Those who do intense exercise 6-7 times per week and move a lot. For heavy active level, the activity multiplier is 1.725
E.g.:
If you workout 3-4 times per week and do office work, you will be in a light activity group, and your activity multiplier will be 1.375.
So your TDEE will be BMR x 1.375
This is the calorie that you need to maintain; your Physique. This figure is important because, whether you want to lose weight or gain muscle, you need to adjust TDEE.
If you increase or decrease your physical activities, you must recalculate your TDEE and adjust your macros.
Sedentary people(or people at any activity level) on a weight loss program must recalculate their TDEE and adjust their macros if they start exercising or increase their daily activities. This will help them to continue their weight loss journey.
Increased physical activities with reduced calorie intake can cause muscle breakdown and cause weight loss plateaus.
Goal-based Adjusting
You need to adjust your TDEE based on your goals. Your goals can be fat loss, maintain Physique, build muscle, or athletic performance. To achieve these goals, you need to adjust your calorie intake. So let's look into each case.
For Maintaining physical performance and Physique
Calculate your macros based on your TDEE and follow it and track your results. If you change your activity levels, recalculate your TDEE and macros.
For Fat Loss and to improve Physique
To lose fat, you have to decrease your calorie intake. But this doesn't mean you have to follow a low-calorie diet plan. Lowering your calorie intake too low will hurt your muscles and lead you to weight loss plateaus.
You have to reduce calories within a safe range without affecting your metabolism. The safe range we follow is 10 -20%, as in the calculator, you can select these as suggested and aggressive.
Your calorie reduction will be 10% in the suggested phase, and in the aggressive phase, your calorie reduction will be 20%.
For Muscle Building and improving physical performance
To build muscle or to improve physical performance, you need to increase your calorie intake. Here also, you need to be aware of the increase in calories. The recommended range will be 10-20%, which you can select in the macro calculator.
The suggested phase will be 10%, and the aggressive phase will increase your calorie intake by 20%.
Using Macro Split To Find Out Your Macro Ratios And Food Quantity
You got your required calories based on your Physique, activity level, and goals. Now you need to convert your calories into macros.
Before finding your macros, you need to fix your macro ratios. I.e., the amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrate in your diet.
Highly active persons can follow a diet with 40% calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 30% fats.
Those who exercise 3-5 days and looking to build muscle can follow a diet with 40% calories from protein, 30% each from carb and fats.
Those who want to follow the keto diet can go for macro ratios with 60% calories from fat, 30% from protein, and 10% carbohydrates.
Finding Your Daily Protein Requirement
After deciding your macro split, it's time to find out your protein quantity. For that, you need to multiply your calorie requirement by protein percentage and then divide that by 4. This will give you the amount of protein you need to take daily.
Let's find your protein requirement for a 2000 KCal diet with 40% calories from protein.
Daily protein requirement: 2000 x .4 / 4 = 200 grams of protein
Finding Your Daily Fat Requirement
Like finding your protein quantity, you have to multiply your macro percentage with your daily calorie requirement and then divide it by 9(As fat gives 9 Kcal per gram).
Let's find your fat requirement for a 2000 calorie diet with 30% calories from fat.
Daily fat requirement: 2000 x .3 / 9 = 67 grams of fat
Finding your Daily Carbohydrate Requirement
Now let's calculate your carbohydrate requirement in a similar way we have done with protein and fat.
For a 2000 calorie diet with 30% calories coming from carbohydrates.
Daily carbohydrate requirement: 2000 x .3 / 4 = 150grams of carbohydrate
Converting Daily Macros to Macros Per Meal
The next step is to choose your meal frequency, whether it's two, three, four or six, or even one. Yes, some people follow One Meal A Day or simply OMAD.
After choosing your meal frequency, divide your macros by the number of meals. This will give you macros per meal, i.e., your protein, fat, and carbs for each meal.
How To Use The Macros In Real Life
You can find out macro-friendly recipes and adjust their quantity to fit in your macros. You can also check our macro-friendly recipes.
You can start with these 20 macro-friendly high protein recipes. You can download the recipes in PDF format.
Just a suggestion, You can increase your carb intake on your workout days. It helps to fuel your workouts as carbs are your body's favorite source of energy.
How To Stick On With Your Macro Diet
As with any diet program, macro diet also needs to be tracked. In that way, you can ensure that you get enough macros per day.
You can use the myfitnesspal app to enter your food details. It will track your per meal and daily macros. That way, you can make sure that you are within your macronutrient split.
There are many apps available in the app store and play store which helps you track your macros. We will be reviewing those apps in the future and will update them.
You can either calculate your macros by using the above steps with formulae or use our macro calculator and download the printable macro PDF report.
