A walkthrough, end to end.
- 1
Enter height, weight, age, sex and activity level. The calculator computes your TDEE under the hood — total maintenance calories.
- 2
Pick a goal: Lose (−500 kcal), Maintain (TDEE), or Gain (+500 kcal). The selected delta drives your daily calorie target.
- 3
Pick a macro split that matches your style of eating: Balanced (30/40/30), Low fat (25/55/20), Low carb (30/20/50), High protein (40/40/20) or Keto (25/5/70). Numbers are protein/carbs/fat as a percentage of total calories.
- 4
Read your daily macros in grams. The result row shows kcal contribution per macro plus the gram total. Hit the protein target first — it matters most for body composition.
How macros are split
Your daily calorie target is computed from BMR × activity ± goal delta. Then macros are split by percentage: protein and carbs at 4 kcal per gram, fat at 9 kcal per gram. So 30 % of a 2,000 kcal target as protein equals 600 kcal ÷ 4 = 150 g protein.
What you can do with this.
Macro calculator for muscle gain
Pick the ‘Gain’ goal (+500 kcal). For most people building muscle, the High Protein split (40/40/20) is a good default — high protein supports muscle protein synthesis, balanced carbs fuel training, modest fat covers hormones and satiety.
Macro calculator for weight loss
Pick ‘Lose’ (−500 kcal). High Protein (40/40/20) helps preserve lean mass during a deficit and improves satiety. Low Fat (25/55/20) works for people who feel full on carbs. Low Carb (30/20/50) works for people who don't.
Keto macro calculator
Pick the Keto split (25/5/70). Calories from carbs drop near zero (under ~30 g/day for most people to maintain ketosis), most calories come from fat, protein stays moderate. Choose your goal (lose/maintain/gain) and the calculator scales the gram targets to match.
IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros)
IIFYM is the practice of hitting your daily macro targets without specific food rules — ‘a calorie isn't a calorie, but a macro is a macro’. Use the Balanced or High Protein split, then eat foods you enjoy that fit the numbers. Works as long as you don't neglect fiber and micronutrients.
Macros for women vs men
The math is identical — Mifflin–St Jeor adjusts for sex in the BMR step (−161 for women, +5 for men). At the same height and activity, women's targets are 200–400 kcal lower per day. The macro splits work the same way for both.
How much protein per day?
Most evidence-based guidelines recommend 1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per kg of body weight for active adults. The High Protein split (40 % of calories from protein) lands most adults inside that range. If you're very active or in a deep cut, lean toward 2.0–2.4 g/kg.
Macro calculator 2026 — what's current
The 4-4-9 kcal-per-gram math hasn't changed in 2026. What's evolved is consensus that protein matters most for body composition, with carbs and fat being largely interchangeable for most goals — exactly what the High Protein, Balanced, and Low Carb splits above let you choose between. Keto remains a valid option for people who do well on it but is no longer pitched as universally superior.
Frequently asked.
For most people: Balanced (30/40/30) or High Protein (40/40/20). Pick High Protein during cuts (helps preserve muscle) or muscle-gain phases (supports synthesis). Pick Low Carb / Keto if you have a personal reason — neither is metabolically magic.
Protein. Hit your protein target consistently — it's the macro most tied to body composition (muscle preservation during a cut, muscle gain during a surplus) and satiety. Carbs and fat are largely interchangeable for body composition outcomes.
Pure energy density. A gram of fat releases more energy when oxidized than a gram of protein or carbohydrate. This is why fat-heavy splits look like very small gram numbers compared to balanced splits at the same calorie total.
For 2–4 weeks if you're new to it — long enough to learn what your portions look like and where you tend to drift. After that, most people can eyeball it for maintenance and only track strictly during goal-driven phases (cuts or bulks).
About 0.3 g per kg of body weight for hormone health (so a 70 kg person ≈ 21 g/day). Below that for sustained periods can hurt sex hormones. Most splits exceed this comfortably; the ‘Low fat’ preset is intentionally still well above the minimum.
No. Every calculation runs in your browser. There's no server processing, no analytics on inputs, no cookies storing your numbers.