How to set your macros
Macros are the three energy nutrients — protein, carbohydrate, and fat — that add up to your calories. Set your calorie target first, lock protein to protect muscle, then split the rest between carbs and fat around what you enjoy and can sustain. There's no single magic ratio; adherence beats precision.
What are macros?
Macronutrients — protein, carbohydrate, and fat — are the three nutrients that carry energy. Protein and carbs are about 4 calories per gram; fat is about 9. Add them up in the right amounts and you have both your calorie total and the quality of what you're eating.
Alcohol is a fourth energy source (about 7 kcal/g) but isn't a macro you'd target. Fibre is a carbohydrate you generally want more of, not a separate slider.
Calories come first
Your macros have to add up to your calorie target, so set the calorie number before you split it. If you don't have one yet, start with your TDEE — our free TDEE calculator gives you a first estimate — then subtract a deficit to lose or add a surplus to gain.
Set protein first
Protein is the macro that does the most work: it protects muscle in a deficit, keeps you full, and has the highest thermic effect. A common, evidence-backed range is 1.6–2.2 g of protein per kg of bodyweight (roughly 0.7–1.0 g per lb). Lock that in before anything else.
Split the rest between carbs and fat
Once protein and total calories are fixed, the remaining calories go to carbs and fat — and this split is mostly personal preference:
- Prefer training energy? Lean toward more carbs and keep fat around a floor of ~0.5 g/kg.
- Prefer feeling full on less food? Lean toward more fat and fewer carbs.
- No strong preference? A roughly even split of the leftover calories is perfectly fine.
Our macro calculator does this arithmetic for you: enter a calorie target and a goal, and it returns grams of protein, carbs, and fat.
Adjust over time
Macros aren't set once. As your weight trend moves your real burn changes, so your calorie target — and therefore your macros — should follow it. That's the whole point of an adaptive target: it re-fits weekly so you're not chasing a stale number.