Macros for Muscle Gain
A controlled surplus with enough protein to build and enough carbs to train hard. Muscle, not just weight on the scale.
What is a macro calculator?
A macro calculator breaks your daily calorie target into the three macronutrients that matter most: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Knowing your macros lets you build muscle, lose fat, or maintain weight while optimizing energy, recovery, and hormones.
This free tool uses the scientifically validated Mifflin–St Jeor equation to estimate your BMR, then factors in activity, goal, and diet preference to deliver personalized targets.
Frequently asked
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Eat on a schedule, not on hunger
Building is the one phase where appetite works against you. Four fed windows a day, planned in advance, is what keeps the surplus from disappearing on a busy Tuesday.
Put the biggest carb meals around training
Pre and post session. That is where they turn into fuel and recovery instead of sitting in storage.
Add reps and weight, every single week
The surplus only becomes muscle if the training gives it somewhere to go. If the log book is not moving, the extra calories are just extra calories.
Use calorie dense food when volume beats you
Whole milk, oats, nut butter, rice, olive oil, dried fruit. Trying to hit a surplus on chicken and broccoli alone is a losing fight.
Track the rate, not the number
A quarter to a half pound a week is right. Faster than that and you are buying fat you will pay for in the next cut.
What your numbers mean
Your calorie target
Maintenance plus a deliberately small surplus. Enough raw material to build with, not so much that fat comes along for the ride.
Your protein number
The bricks. Spread it across three or four meals so you take more than one shot per day at the muscle building response instead of dumping it all at dinner.
Carbs and fat
Carbs are the training fuel that lets you add weight to the bar. Fat keeps hormones where they need to be. Both stay in, in the split shown above.
How to adjust after two weeks
- 1Weigh in the same way every morningAfter the bathroom, before food or water, same clothing. One day means nothing. The seven day average is the number you read.
- 2Compare week two's average to week one'sLosing fat: you want a half pound to one percent of bodyweight down per week. Building: a quarter to half pound up. Holding steady inside those ranges means the numbers are right, so leave them alone.
- 3Move calories, not everything at onceOff target for two straight weeks? Change calories by roughly 150 to 200 and hold protein exactly where it is. Protein is what protects the muscle you already built.
- 4Recheck the calculator when your weight moves 10 lbA lighter or heavier body burns a different amount. Ten pounds in either direction is the trigger to run these numbers again.
Numbers are the easy part.
Eating them every day is where people fall off. Turn these macros into a full 7 day meal and training plan, built around your body, free.
Start my free 7 day kickstartCommon questions
What macros should I eat to build muscle?
Protein at roughly 1 gram per pound of bodyweight, fat around 25 percent of calories, and the rest in carbs, all on top of a small surplus of about 10 percent over what you burn. The calculator above sets those numbers from your own stats.
How big should a bulking surplus be?
Small. Around 200 to 300 calories over maintenance, which is a quarter to a half pound of gain per week. Bigger surpluses do not build muscle faster, they just add fat you have to diet off later.
Can I build muscle without gaining fat?
Some, especially if you are new, returning after time off, or carrying extra body fat already. That is body recomposition, and it is slower. If you have trained consistently for years, a small surplus is the faster road.
How many carbs do I need to build muscle?
More than most lifters eat. Carbs are what let you add reps and weight over time, and progressive overload is the actual muscle building stimulus. After protein and fat are set, put everything left into carbs.
How long should a building phase run?
Twelve to twenty weeks, then reassess. Run it until your lifts stop climbing or body fat drifts higher than you want to live at, then hold at maintenance before deciding what comes next.