Turn your daily calories into protein, carbohydrate and fat targets you can actually plan meals around.
Macronutrients are the three components of food that carry calories: protein, carbohydrate and fat. Protein and carbohydrate each supply about 4 kcal per gram, and fat about 9 kcal per gram. Your calorie target sets how much food you eat; your macro split decides what that food is made of.
Two of the three macros are set deliberately and the third fills the gap, which keeps the totals honest the split always adds up to your calorie target.
1. Start from a calorie target
calorie target = your TDEE, or a figure you enter yourself
2. Set protein from body weight
protein g = weight in kg × g/kg, and protein kcal = protein g × 4
3. Take fat as a share of calories
fat kcal = calorie target × fat %, and fat g = fat kcal ÷ 9
4. Give the rest to carbohydrates
carb kcal = calorie target − protein kcal − fat kcal, and carb g = carb kcal ÷ 4
Protein is set per kilogram of body weight rather than as a percentage, because the amount your body can use tracks your size far more closely than it tracks how much you happen to be eating. That is why the target stays the same whether you are eating at maintenance or in a deficit. The default of 1.6 g/kg sits in the middle of the range commonly used by active adults; the lower and higher options move it either side.
Carbohydrates are the most flexible of the three, which is why they receive whatever calories are left. They are the body’s most readily available fuel, so people doing a lot of training often end up with a larger carbohydrate share simply because their calorie target is larger.
Fat is taken as a percentage of total calories, and the calculator keeps the choice between 20% and 30%. Dietary fat is involved in hormone production and in absorbing the fat-soluble vitamins, so the lower bound is there to stop the split pushing fat down unhelpfully far in pursuit of more carbohydrates.
These are starting points, not prescriptions. The calorie target underneath them is itself an estimate, and individual needs vary with training, body composition, health, and how accurately food is tracked. Treat the numbers as a hypothesis: eat close to them for two or three weeks, watch how your weight, energy and training respond, and adjust from what actually happens rather than from the arithmetic.
Macro targets are built on a calorie estimate, so they are a reasonable starting point rather than a prescription.
If you have a medical condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a history of eating disorders, or are making a significant change to how you eat or train, consider speaking with a qualified healthcare professional.
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