Macro Calculator
Split your daily calories into protein, carbs, and fat — across five plans, or build your own.
Convert a measurement
Macro Calculator — your inputs
- Sex
- Male
- Age
- 30 yrs
- Height
- 175 cm
- Weight
- 70 kg
- Activity level
- Moderate — exercise 4–5×/week
- Goal
- Maintain weight
- BMR formula
- Mifflin-St Jeor (default)
- Plan
- Balanced
- Unit system
- Metric
Key takeaways
- For weight change, total calories dominate. Two large randomised trials found no meaningful difference between macro splits at matched calories.12
- Protein is the exception — it is the one macro where the amount genuinely changes body composition rather than just the numbers.4
- Set protein first, set a fat floor (roughly 0.5–0.8 g/kg), and let carbohydrate take whatever is left.
- The IOM's acceptable ranges are wide on purpose: 45–65% carbohydrate, 20–35% fat, 10–35% protein.3
- Pick the split you can actually eat. Adherence is what separates diets that work from diets that don't.
How to use this calculator
Enter your sex, age, height, weight, activity, and goal — the same inputs the Calorie Calculator uses, so the two agree.
Switch between the five plans to compare splits. Each one is a different point inside the published ranges.
Choose **Create your own** to drag the split yourself. Moving any one macronutrient moves the other two, so the three always total 100%.
Understanding your result
Macros convert your calorie target into grams. Protein and carbohydrate provide 4 kcal per gram; fat provides 9, which is why the fat number looks small next to the others.
Each figure is shown beside the Institute of Medicine's Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range for that nutrient, so you can see how much room there actually is: 10–35% for protein, 45–65% for carbohydrate, 20–35% for fat.
Two of the plans sit deliberately outside those ranges. Low Carb and Keto are established approaches rather than points on the published range, and the calculator says so rather than quietly implying they are equivalent.
What the trials actually found
This is one of the most thoroughly tested questions in nutrition, and the answer disappoints people who want it to be more interesting.
Sacks and colleagues randomised 811 overweight adults to four diets spanning very different fat, protein and carbohydrate ratios, matched on calories, and followed them for two years. Weight loss was essentially the same across all four.1 Nearly a decade later, DIETFITS randomised 609 adults to healthy low-fat or healthy low-carbohydrate diets for twelve months — this time without calorie targets, and with genotype and insulin-secretion patterns tested as predictors of which diet would suit whom. Average weight loss differed by about a kilogram, which was not statistically significant, and neither genotype nor insulin status predicted who did better on which.2
- Healthy low-fat5.3 kg lost
- Healthy low-carb6 kg lost
| Method | Value (kg lost) |
|---|---|
| Healthy low-fat | 5.3 |
| Healthy low-carb | 6 |
What this does and does not mean
It does not mean macros are irrelevant — they change satiety, training performance, blood lipids and how easy a diet is to stick to. It means that if two people eat the same calories and the same protein, the carb-to-fat ratio is not what decides how much weight they lose.
Setting the three numbers in order
Because the evidence points that way, there is a sensible order of operations: fix the thing that matters, protect the thing that has a floor, and let the third absorb the remainder.
- Protein first. Roughly 1.6 g/kg for building, up to 2.2–2.4 g/kg in a deficit. This is the one macro with a body-composition effect independent of calories.4 The Protein Calculator sets it properly.
- Fat second, as a floor rather than a target. Below about 0.5 g/kg, fat-soluble vitamin absorption and hormone production start to suffer — a meta-analysis found low-fat diets associated with meaningfully lower testosterone in men.5 Set 0.5–0.8 g/kg and go above it freely if you prefer.
- Carbohydrate last. Whatever calories remain. Carbohydrate is the most useful fuel for hard training and the easiest macro to flex, which makes it the natural remainder.
| Split | Protein / Carb / Fat | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Balanced | 30 / 40 / 30 | Most people, most of the time. A sensible default. |
| Higher-carb | 25 / 55 / 20 | Endurance athletes and anyone training hard most days. |
| Lower-carb | 35 / 25 / 40 | People who find carbohydrate poorly satiating, or manage blood glucose. |
| Ketogenic | 25 / 5 / 70 | A specific therapeutic tool. Restrictive, and no better for weight loss at matched calories. |
Where the ratio does matter
Having said the ratio does not drive weight loss, there are places it clearly matters — and knowing which is which is the point of understanding this rather than just following a template.
- Training performance. Glycogen fuels high-intensity work. Cut carbohydrate hard and hard sessions will feel worse, which over months means less training stimulus.
- Satiety. Highly individual and worth taking seriously. Some people find fat filling and carbohydrate not; for others it is the reverse. Whichever is true of you is the diet you should be on.
- Blood glucose management. For people with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes, carbohydrate quantity and quality have direct clinical relevance beyond weight.
- Blood lipids. Different splits move LDL, HDL and triglycerides in different directions. If yours are a concern, this is a conversation to have with a doctor rather than a calculator.
- Very low fat. Sustained below roughly 20% of calories, there are real costs to hormone production and fat-soluble vitamin absorption.5
Precision beyond your measurement error is theatre
Hitting 30/40/30 exactly is not meaningfully better than landing within five points of it, and food labels alone carry an error margin of up to 20%. Get protein close, keep fat above the floor, and stop optimising the last few grams.
How the plans compare
The five plans are five points on the same axis. Seeing them side by side makes clear how much — and how little — separates them, and which two step outside the published ranges altogether.
| Plan | Protein | Carbs | Fat | Inside every AMDR? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balanced | 30% | 40% | 30% | Yes (success) |
| Low Fat | 25% | 55% | 20% | Yes (success) |
| Low Carb | 35% | 25% | 40% | No — carbs below 45% (warning) |
| High Protein | 40% | 35% | 25% | Yes (success) |
| Keto | 25% | 5% | 70% | No — well outside (danger) |
What the numbers look like as food
Gram targets are abstract until you can see them on a plate. The table below is the same dataset the carbohydrate, fat and protein calculators use, so the figures agree across all four pages.
| Food | Serving | Protein (g) | Carbs (g) | Fat (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protein foods | ||||
| Chicken breast, cooked | 100 g | 31 | 0 | 3.6 |
| Beef mince, cooked | 100 g | 26 | 0 | 15 |
| Pork loin, cooked | 100 g | 27.9 | 0 | 14.6 |
| Salmon, cooked | 100 g | 25.4 | 0 | 12.4 |
| Shrimp, cooked | 100 g | 24.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Egg | 1 large (50 g) | 6.3 | 0.4 | 5 |
| Tofu, firm | 100 g | 17.3 | 2.8 | 9 |
| Lentils, cooked | 1 cup (198 g) | 17.9 | 39.9 | 0.8 |
| Black beans, cooked | 1 cup (172 g) | 15.2 | 40.8 | 0.9 |
| Greek yogurt, plain 0% | 170 g | 17.3 | 6.1 | 0.4 |
| Grains and starches | ||||
| Rice, white, cooked | 1 cup (158 g) | 4.2 | 44.1 | 0.4 |
| Rice, brown, cooked | 1 cup (195 g) | 5.5 | 45.8 | 1.8 |
| Oats, dry | 40 g | 5.3 | 27 | 2.8 |
| Pasta, cooked | 1 cup (140 g) | 8.1 | 43.2 | 1.3 |
| Bread, wholemeal | 1 slice (32 g) | 4 | 14.3 | 1.1 |
| Potato, baked with skin | 1 medium (173 g) | 4.3 | 37 | 0.2 |
| Sweet potato, baked | 1 medium (114 g) | 2 | 23.6 | 0.1 |
| Quinoa, cooked | 1 cup (185 g) | 8.1 | 39.4 | 3.6 |
| Fruit and vegetables | ||||
| Apple | 1 medium (182 g) | 0.5 | 25.1 | 0.3 |
| Banana | 1 medium (118 g) | 1.3 | 27 | 0.4 |
| Orange | 1 medium (131 g) | 1.2 | 15.4 | 0.2 |
| Strawberries | 1 cup (152 g) | 1 | 11.7 | 0.5 |
| Broccoli, cooked | 1 cup (156 g) | 3.7 | 11.2 | 0.6 |
| Spinach, raw | 1 cup (30 g) | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.1 |
| Carrots, raw | 1 cup (128 g) | 1.2 | 12.3 | 0.3 |
| Avocado | 1/2 (100 g) | 2 | 8.5 | 14.7 |
| Fats, nuts and oils | ||||
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp (13.5 g) | 0 | 0 | 13.5 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14 g) | 0.1 | 0 | 11.5 |
| Almonds | 28 g (about 23) | 6 | 6.1 | 14 |
| Walnuts | 28 g | 4.3 | 3.9 | 18.5 |
| Peanut butter | 2 tbsp (32 g) | 7.2 | 7.1 | 16.4 |
| Cheddar cheese | 28 g | 6.6 | 0.5 | 9.3 |
| Chia seeds | 28 g | 4.7 | 12 | 8.6 |
| Drinks and sweets | ||||
| Milk, whole | 1 cup (244 g) | 7.9 | 11.7 | 8 |
| Orange juice | 1 cup (248 g) | 1.7 | 25.8 | 0.5 |
| Cola | 1 can (355 mL) | 0 | 39 | 0 |
| Beer, regular | 1 can (355 mL) | 1.6 | 12.6 | 0 |
| Dark chocolate, 70% | 28 g | 2.2 | 12.8 | 12.1 |
The useful habit this builds is estimation, not tracking. Once you know a chicken breast is roughly 30 g of protein and a cup of rice roughly 45 g of carbohydrate, you can construct a day that lands close to your targets without weighing anything.
Terms used on this page
- Macronutrients
- Protein, carbohydrate and fat — the three components of food that supply energy. Protein and carbohydrate provide about 4 kcal per gram, fat about 9.
- AMDR
- Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range — the IOM's evidence-based ranges associated with reduced chronic disease risk while meeting nutrient needs. Deliberately wide.
- Glycogen
- Carbohydrate stored in muscle and liver, and the main fuel for high-intensity exercise. Each gram is stored with around 3 g of water, which is why cutting carbohydrate produces fast early scale weight loss that is not fat.
- Ketogenic diet
- Carbohydrate low enough (typically under 50 g/day) to shift the body toward ketones for fuel. An effective tool for some people, and not superior for weight loss when calories and protein are matched.
The formula
- 2,000 kcal, Balanced (30P/40C/30F)
- Protein = 600/4 = 150 g
- Carbs = 800/4 = 200 g
- Fat = 600/9 ≈ 67 g
Source: Calorie target × macro split. Published clinical/scientific formula.
Limitations
- Macro splits are a starting point, not a prescription — adjust based on results and preference.
- Keto's 5% carb limit is strict, sits far outside the published ranges, and is not suitable for everyone.
- The custom sliders will happily build a split outside every AMDR. That is intentional — but the ranges shown beside each figure are how you tell when you have left them.
- No macronutrient can be dragged below 5% of calories. A split with none of something is not a plan this calculator will help you build.
- Grams are rounded to whole numbers, so the three macros can multiply back to a calorie total a few kcal from the headline.
References
- 1.Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Sacks et al., New England Journal of Medicine 360(9):859–873, 2009.
- 2.Effect of low-fat vs low-carbohydrate diet on 12-month weight loss (DIETFITS randomized clinical trial). Gardner et al., JAMA 319(7):667–679, 2018.
- 3.Dietary Reference Intakes: Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges. Institute of Medicine, National Academies Press, 2005.
- 4.A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength. Morton et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine 52(6):376–384, 2018.
- 5.Effects of dietary fat and carbohydrate on serum testosterone and other hormones. Whittaker & Wu, Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 210:105878, 2021.
Frequently asked questions
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Read articleNot medical advice. This calculator is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical guidance. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making decisions about your health. Read the full medical disclaimer.
Printed from mystatura.com — for general information only, not medical advice.