Macro Target Calculator

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Sex:

Choose female or male; these are the two formula options available here.

Age:

Enter whole years, e.g. 32; values outside 15-90 stop the calculation.

years

Body weight:

Enter current body weight; accepted range after conversion is 40-250 kg.

Height:

Enter height as cm or inches; accepted range after conversion is 130-220 cm.

Activity level:

Select sedentary through athlete based on usual weekly movement and training volume.

Goal:

Maintenance locks pace at 0%; fat loss/recomp reduce calories, muscle gain adds calories.

Goal pace: {{ goalPaceLabel }}

Move 0-25%; disabled for maintenance because no calorie gap is applied.

Macro template:

Choose Balanced 30/40/30, High protein 35/35/30, Lower carb 35/25/40, or Endurance 25/50/25.

Meals per day:

Enter 2-6 meals; protein splits evenly while carbs and fat follow the meal pattern.

meals

Macro targets are planning estimates, not medical nutrition therapy. If you are pregnant, under 18, managing a clinical condition, or recovering from disordered eating, use the output only as background context and check it with a qualified clinician or dietitian.

Body fat:

Optional; enter 3-70% only when you have a credible estimate.

BMR formula:

Use Mifflin by default; select Katch or Cunningham when body fat is filled in.

Protein floor:

Optional; enter grams per kg or lb of body weight/lean mass, e.g. 1.8 g/kg.

Custom ratios:

Use protein, carb, fat order such as 30,40,30; leave blank to use the selected template.

Meal split:

Choose even, earlier, later, or training-centered timing for the same daily totals.

Metric	Value	Copy
{{ row.label }}	{{ row.value }}

Macro	Percent	Grams	Calories	g/kg	Copy
{{ row.macro }}	{{ row.percentDisplay }}%	{{ row.gramsDisplay }} g	{{ formatNumber(row.caloriesValue) }} kcal	{{ row.densityDisplay }}

Meal	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat	Share	Focus	Copy
{{ meal.name }}	{{ meal.caloriesDisplay }} kcal	{{ meal.proteinDisplay }} g	{{ meal.carbDisplay }} g	{{ meal.fatDisplay }} g	{{ meal.shareDisplay }}	{{ meal.focus }}

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Macro planning turns a daily calorie estimate into grams of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Calories set the size and direction of the plan. Macros decide how that energy is divided across foods and meals. Two people can have the same calorie target and still choose very different macro splits because their training, appetite, food preferences, and health context differ.

The energy estimate usually starts with resting energy. Basal metabolic rate (BMR) or resting metabolic rate (RMR) approximates the calories used at rest before daily movement and exercise are added. Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) applies an activity factor to estimate maintenance calories. A fat-loss plan subtracts from that maintenance estimate, a gain plan adds to it, and a maintenance plan keeps the calorie target near the estimated baseline.

Protein, carbohydrate, and fat carry different practical jobs. Protein supports tissue repair and helps many people stay full. Carbohydrate is the most adjustable training-fuel lever, especially when sessions are long, frequent, or intense. Fat provides essential fatty acids and supports food variety, but each gram carries more calories than protein or carbohydrate, so small fat changes can move the day quickly.

BMR: Estimated resting energy before activity is added.
TDEE: Estimated maintenance calories after activity is applied.
Goal gap: A planned deficit or surplus from maintenance calories.
Macro ratio: The percentage of target calories assigned to protein, carbohydrate, and fat.

Macro planning can fail when the calorie estimate is treated as a measured fact. Predictive equations describe a population average, while real energy use changes with lean mass, job demands, training volume, sleep, medications, illness, and underreporting or overreporting intake. A plan becomes more useful after it is compared with several weeks of body-weight trend, training performance, appetite, and clinical needs where relevant.

Macro planning choices and common mistakes
Choice	What it changes	Common mistake
Activity level	Maintenance calories before any goal gap.	Choosing the training week you want instead of the week you repeat.
Goal pace	Daily deficit or surplus and implied weekly weight change.	Making the gap larger when hunger, sleep, or training quality is already poor.
Protein target	Grams reserved for protein before carbohydrate and fat share the rest.	Raising protein without noticing the calories removed from other macros.
Meal pattern	How daily grams are distributed across meals.	Reading meal timing as a change in the daily macro total.

Macro targets are planning numbers for generally healthy adults and older teens, not medical nutrition therapy. Pregnancy, diabetes, kidney disease, eating-disorder recovery, prescribed diets, and weight-sensitive medications all need professional review because a simple calorie and macro split can miss safety-critical context.

How to Use This Tool:

Start by making the energy estimate plausible. Then adjust the macro split and meal pattern.

Choose Sex, enter Age, and fill in Body weight and Height. Results require age 15 to 90, weight that converts to 40 to 250 kg, and height that converts to 130 to 220 cm.
Set Activity level from the week you normally repeat. This controls the multiplier used to move from resting energy to estimated maintenance calories.
Choose Goal. Maintenance keeps Goal pace at 0%; fat loss, recomposition, and muscle gain apply a 0% to 25% pace to the maintenance estimate.
Pick a Macro template, or enter Custom ratios in protein, carbohydrate, fat order. Custom ratios must contain three numbers that total about 100.
Use Body fat only when the estimate is credible. Katch-McArdle and Cunningham need lean body mass; without body fat, the result uses Mifflin-St Jeor and shows a warning.
Enter a Protein floor when protein should be set from body weight or lean mass before the remaining calories are divided between carbohydrate and fat.
Set Meals per day from 2 to 6, then choose an even, front-loaded, back-loaded, or training-centered meal split.
Review the calorie plan, macro targets, meal rows, and warnings. Fix range errors or invalid ratios before using the numbers; treat warnings as prompts to slow the pace or review the split.

Interpreting Results:

Target calories is the main daily planning number. It starts from estimated maintenance calories and then applies the selected goal adjustment. Protein and carbohydrate grams use 4 kcal per gram; fat grams use 9 kcal per gram.

Estimated weekly change translates the daily calorie gap into a scale pace using 7,700 kcal per kilogram. That pace is an estimate, not a prediction. Water balance, menstrual cycle phase, sodium, training soreness, glycogen, and digestive contents can hide or exaggerate short-term changes.

Macro target result checks
Output	What to check	Useful boundary
Maintenance calories	Compare against recent intake and body-weight trend.	Activity factors can overstate needs when training is irregular.
Estimated weekly change	Check whether the pace is realistic for the goal.	Fat-loss or recomp deficits above `1%` of body weight per week are flagged as aggressive.
Protein density	Read daily protein relative to body weight.	Below `1.6 g/kg` while dieting triggers a protein warning.
Fat density	Check whether the split leaves enough dietary fat.	Below about `0.6 g/kg` or below `20%` of calories is marked lean-side fat.
Carbohydrate density	Compare carbohydrate with training demand.	Very active and athlete settings warn below `3 g/kg`.

The meal split rows are a distribution plan, not a new macro calculation. Protein is kept nearly even, while carbohydrate and fat move according to the selected pattern. Use those rows to judge whether the target can become real meals rather than only a clean daily total.

When progress differs from the estimate for more than a short trend window, review the calorie target and activity level before blaming the macro ratio. The split matters, but it sits inside the larger energy estimate.

Technical Details:

Macro target math has an energy stage and a macro stage. The energy stage estimates resting energy, multiplies it by an activity factor, and applies a goal adjustment. The macro stage allocates the final calorie target to protein, carbohydrate, and fat, then converts those calorie shares into grams.

Body-fat input changes only the paths that need lean body mass. Mifflin-St Jeor uses body weight, height, age, and sex. Katch-McArdle and Cunningham use lean body mass, so they can be useful when body-fat percentage is credible and misleading when it is not.

Formula Core:

Mifflin-St Jeor estimates resting energy from weight in kilograms, height in centimeters, age in years, and a sex-specific constant.

BMR = 10 W + 6.25 H - 5 A + S

W is body weight in kilograms, H is height in centimeters, A is age in years, and S is 5 for male or -161 for female.

\begin{array}{lcl} TDEE & = & BMR \times F \\ C & = & TDEE + G \\ weekly change & = & \frac{G \times 7}{7700} \\ g_{macro} & = & \frac{C \times r}{100 \times k} \end{array}

F is the activity factor, C is target calories, G is the daily goal adjustment in calories, r is the macro percentage, and k is calories per gram. Protein and carbohydrate use 4; fat uses 9.

Activity factors and goal adjustment rules
Setting	Rule
Sedentary	`BMR x 1.2`
Lightly active	`BMR x 1.375`
Moderately active	`BMR x 1.55`
Very active	`BMR x 1.725`
Athlete	`BMR x 1.9`
Fat loss	`G = -TDEE x goal pace`
Recomposition	`G = -TDEE x goal pace x 0.6`
Muscle gain	`G = TDEE x goal pace`

Lean-Mass and Ratio Rules:

Lean-mass formulas first subtract estimated fat mass from body weight. If body-fat percentage is missing, lean-mass formulas are not used because the required input is unavailable.

\begin{array}{lcl} LBM & = & W \times (1 - \frac{BF}{100}) \\ Katch BMR & = & 370 + 21.6 LBM \\ Cunningham BMR & = & 500 + 22 LBM \end{array}

Macro templates and protein floor behavior
Rule	Details
Balanced template	`30 / 40 / 30` for protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
High protein template	`35 / 35 / 30`.
Lower carb template	`35 / 25 / 40`.
Endurance template	`25 / 50 / 25`.
Custom ratio	Three numeric percentages must total within `1` point of `100`.
Protein floor	Protein calories are set first and capped at `50%` of target calories; carbohydrate and fat split the remaining percentage in their relative ratio.

Meal allocation happens after the daily grams are known. Protein is divided evenly across meals. Carbohydrate and fat use timing weights for the selected meal pattern, then grams are rounded to one decimal place while preserving the intended total as closely as possible.

For the default 32-year-old female example at 70 kg, 170 cm, and light activity, Mifflin-St Jeor gives about 1,442 kcal BMR. Multiplying by 1.375 gives about 1,983 kcal maintenance. A balanced split turns that target into about 148.7 g protein, 198.3 g carbohydrate, and 66.1 g fat.

Accuracy and Health Limits:

Macro targets are estimates for planning meals, not diagnosis, treatment, or a prescription. Predictive equations can miss individual metabolism, body composition, medication effects, and clinical needs. People who are pregnant, under 18, managing diabetes or kidney disease, recovering from disordered eating, taking weight-sensitive medication, or following a prescribed diet should review changes with a qualified clinician or registered dietitian.

The entries are used for the calculation in the browser. Avoid entering personal identifiers in notes or copied exports, and treat saved or shared results as personal health-related planning information.

Worked Examples:

Moderate Fat-Loss Plan:

A 75 kg, 180 cm, 35-year-old male using Mifflin-St Jeor has BMR near 1,705 kcal. Moderate activity multiplies that by 1.55, giving maintenance near 2,643 kcal. A 15% fat-loss pace applies about -396 kcal/day, so target calories land near 2,247 kcal.

Protein Floor Rebalance:

At 2,400 target calories and 75 kg body weight, a 2.4 g/kg body-weight protein floor sets protein near 180 g/day. That uses about 720 kcal and leaves the remaining calories for carbohydrate and fat according to their relative split.

Training-Centered Meal Split:

With 4 meals and a training-centered split, protein stays nearly even while carbohydrate is weighted around the higher-output meal. Meal calories may differ slightly from the daily target because per-meal grams are rounded to one decimal place.

Invalid Ratio:

Entering 40,40,40 as a custom ratio blocks the result because the three percentages do not total about 100. Change it to a valid split such as 30,40,30, or clear the field and use a template.

FAQ:

Which BMR formula should I choose?

Use Mifflin-St Jeor when you do not have a credible body-fat estimate. Use Katch-McArdle or Cunningham only when body fat is supplied, because those formulas depend on lean body mass.

Why did a protein floor change my carbohydrate and fat?

The protein floor reserves protein calories first. Carbohydrate and fat then divide the remaining calories, so their grams can move away from the original template.

Why does maintenance still need tracking?

Maintenance is estimated from equations and activity factors. Real intake, daily movement, and body-weight trend are needed to confirm whether the target matches your body.

What should I do with an aggressive cut warning?

Check the implied weekly change against your body weight and current training. If hunger, sleep, recovery, or adherence is already suffering, lower the goal pace before changing macro ratios.

Why did a lean-mass option fall back?

Lean-mass BMR formulas and lean-mass protein floors need body-fat input. If body fat is blank, the calculation falls back to an available body-weight path and shows a warning.

Glossary:

BMR: Basal metabolic rate, the estimated calories used at rest before activity is applied.
TDEE: Total daily energy expenditure, the estimated maintenance calories after activity is applied.
Goal pace: The selected deficit or surplus percentage from estimated maintenance calories.
Macro ratio: The percentage split assigned to protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
Protein density: Daily protein grams divided by body weight in kilograms.
Lean body mass: Body weight minus estimated fat mass when body-fat percentage is available.

References:

Estimating Resting Metabolic Rate, Endotext, NCBI Bookshelf.
A New Predictive Equation for Resting Energy Expenditure in Healthy Individuals, PubMed.
Description of the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range, National Academies via NCBI Bookshelf.
International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Protein and Exercise, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
Steps for Losing Weight, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Expert Questions and Answers, Nutrition.gov.

Macro Target Calculator

Daily Macro Targets

Current result

How to Use This Tool:

Interpreting Results:

Technical Details:

Formula Core:

Lean-Mass and Ratio Rules:

Accuracy and Health Limits:

Worked Examples:

Moderate Fat-Loss Plan:

Protein Floor Rebalance:

Training-Centered Meal Split:

Invalid Ratio:

FAQ:

Glossary:

References:

Macro Target Calculator

Daily Macro Targets

Current result

Introduction:

How to Use This Tool:

Interpreting Results:

Technical Details:

Formula Core:

Lean-Mass and Ratio Rules:

Accuracy and Health Limits:

Worked Examples:

Moderate Fat-Loss Plan:

Protein Floor Rebalance:

Training-Centered Meal Split:

Invalid Ratio:

FAQ:

Glossary:

References: