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FitDiary

Macro calculator: protein, carbs and fat for your goal

See your daily calories first, then how many grams of protein, carbs and fat make them up. It’s free and works in kg or lb, with no sign-up.

Your details

Units
Sex
Height
How active are you?
Your goal
Pace
Macro split

Your result

Enter your age, height and weight to see your macros.

What are macros?

Macros, short for macronutrients, are the three main nutrients that give food its calories: protein and carbohydrates have 4 kcal per gram, and fat has 9. Your macro targets are your daily calories split into grams of each. Counting them helps you eat enough protein while you keep to a calorie target.

Calories decide whether you lose or gain weight. Macros are what those calories are made of, and that affects how much muscle you keep and how full you feel.

How the macro calculator works

It follows the same steps the FitDiary app uses to set your targets:

  1. Daily calories: your TDEE, from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and your activity level, adjusted up or down by 250, 500 or 750 kcal for your goal. The TDEE calculator shows each step.
  2. Protein from your body weight and goal (see the table below).
  3. Fat at 25% of your calories.
  4. Carbs make up the rest.

Protein by goal

GoalPer kg of body weightPer lb
Build muscle2.2 g1.0 g
Lose weight2.0 g0.9 g
Maintain or gain weight1.8 g0.8 g

The three macro splits

  • Balanced follows the steps above and is the default.
  • High-protein raises protein to at least 2 g per kg and splits the remaining calories between carbs and fat in the same proportions as the balanced split.
  • Low-carb keeps protein the same, caps carbs at 100 g a day and puts the remaining calories into fat.

The 1.8 and 2.0 g levels sit within the 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg that the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends for most people who exercise. The 2.2 g for building muscle is the upper end found by a 2018 meta-analysis of 49 studies of strength training. Fat at 25% is within the 20 to 35% of calories that the US National Academies set as the acceptable range for adults.

In the FitDiary app these three splits are the Balanced, High-protein and Low-carb focus modes, and each meal shows how much protein, carbs and fat it adds to your day.

Worked example

Take a 30-year-old woman who is 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) tall, weighs 70 kg (154 lb), is lightly active and wants to lose about 0.5 kg a week:

  1. Calories: TDEE 1,952 kcal − 500 = 1,452 kcal a day.
  2. Protein: 70 kg × 2.0 g = 140 g, which is 560 kcal (39% of her calories).
  3. Fat: 25% of 1,452 kcal = 363 kcal, rounded down to 40 g (360 kcal).
  4. Carbs: 1,452 − 560 − 363 (fat before rounding) = 529 kcal, rounded down to 132 g (528 kcal, 36%).

Over three meals that’s about 47 g of protein, 44 g of carbs and 13 g of fat per meal. With the low-carb split she would eat 100 g of carbs and 55 g of fat (rounded) instead.

Getting that much protein at every meal is easier with a protein-rich start to the day and a snack in between: see these high-protein breakfast ideas and high-protein snacks, with the grams of protein and kcal for each.

What is the best macro ratio for weight loss?

Here is how some common ratios (carbs/protein/fat, as a percentage of calories) work out in grams:

Ratio and caloriesCarbsProteinFat
40/30/30 at 1,500 kcal150 g113 g50 g
40/30/30 at 1,800 kcal180 g135 g60 g
50/25/25 at 1,500 kcal188 g94 g42 g
50/25/25 at 1,800 kcal225 g113 g50 g
30/40/30 at 1,500 kcal113 g150 g50 g
30/40/30 at 1,800 kcal135 g180 g60 g

No single ratio is best for losing weight. In a two-year trial of 811 adults published in the New England Journal of Medicine, people on reduced-calorie diets lost similar amounts of weight whether they ate more fat, protein or carbs. Your calorie deficit matters most; enough protein helps you keep muscle while you lose fat.

Macros for women

Balanced-split macros for a lightly active 30-year-old woman, 165 cm tall, losing about 0.5 kg a week, at three different weights:

WeightCaloriesProteinCarbsFat
55 kg (121 lb)1,246 kcal110 g123 g34 g
70 kg (154 lb)1,452 kcal140 g132 g40 g
85 kg (187 lb)1,659 kcal170 g141 g46 g

A percentage split like 40/30/30 ties protein to calories, not body weight, so the heavier the woman, the less protein per kg she gets. Setting protein by body weight avoids that.

See your macros add up meal by meal

Type what you ate in one sentence and FitDiary shows the protein, carbs and fat in it, and how much is left for today.

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See how the FitDiary calorie counter works.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate the macros I need to lose weight?

Work out your TDEE and take off 250 to 750 kcal. Set protein at about 2 g per kg of body weight, fat at around 25% of your calories, and give the rest to carbs. The calculator above does this for you.

Is a 40/30/30 macro split good for weight loss?

It can work, as long as your calories are below your TDEE. A large trial found that weight loss was similar on diets with quite different macro ratios. Check that the protein it gives you is at least 1.6 g per kg of body weight.

Should I count macros or calories?

Calories first, because they decide whether your weight goes down or up. Then protein, because it helps you keep muscle and stay full. Carbs and fat can move around from day to day as long as the calories add up.

How much protein do I need?

For people who exercise, 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg of body weight a day covers most goals. This calculator uses 1.8 g to maintain, 2.0 g to lose weight and 2.2 g to build muscle. Our protein calculator works it out for you.

Do macros change when I lose weight?

Yes. Protein follows your body weight and your calories drop as you get lighter, so work your macros out again after every few kilos.

Is there a free macro counting app?

Yes. FitDiary’s free plan shows the protein, carbs and fat of everything you log. You can log by hand or scan a barcode, and send three chat messages a day to log a meal in one sentence.

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