Macros for Weight Loss
The exact protein, carbs, and fat to eat while the fat comes off, with the deficit already built in so you are not doing the math twice.
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
Want these macro targets turned into a full meal by meal plan with recipes, shopping lists, and supplement timing?
Get your meal guide →Or start the free 7 day kickstart →How to actually hit these numbers
Build every meal around the protein first
Pick the protein, then fill the plate. Chicken, lean beef, eggs, fish, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese. Hitting protein at each meal is what makes the rest of the day fall into place.
Spend your carbs where they do work
Most of them in the meals either side of training. That is when they refill the fuel you just used and keep the next session strong instead of flat.
Do not drive fat too low
Below roughly 0.3 grams per pound, hormones and mood start paying the bill. Keep whole eggs, olive oil, avocado, and fatty fish in the week.
Eat a lot of volume for very few calories
Vegetables, berries, broth, and water make a deficit survivable. Hunger is the reason people quit, and volume is the cheapest fix for it.
Weigh in daily, judge weekly
Same time, same conditions. Read the seven day average and nothing else. Daily numbers swing on salt, sleep, and water, none of which is fat.
What your numbers mean
Your calorie target
What you burn in a day, minus a deficit big enough to move the scale and small enough to keep your lifts. Aggressive cuts feel productive for two weeks and then cost you muscle.
Your protein number
The one number that does not move. It is what decides whether the pounds you lose come off as fat or as the muscle you spent years building.
Carbs and fat
These two split what is left. Move them to fit your life, keep the calorie total the same, and the fat loss keeps happening either way.
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 lose weight?
Start with protein at roughly 1 gram per pound of bodyweight, fat at about 25 percent of your calories, and everything left over in carbs. The calculator above sets all three from your bodyweight, age, height, and activity, with the deficit already applied.
How big should the deficit be?
Around 20 percent below what you burn, which usually lands between 400 and 600 calories a day. That pace takes off a half pound to one percent of bodyweight per week and leaves enough fuel to keep training hard.
Do carbs need to be low to lose fat?
No. Fat loss comes from the calorie deficit, not from cutting one macro. Carbs are what keep your training quality up, which is what protects muscle while the fat comes off. Low carb only wins when it makes you eat less without trying.
Why is protein so high when I am eating less?
Because a deficit is the exact situation where your body will take muscle if you let it. High protein plus lifting is what makes the weight you lose come off the fat, not the frame underneath it.
What if the scale stops moving?
Give it two full weeks of seven day averages first. If the average has not moved in fourteen days, drop calories by 150 to 200 from carbs and fat, hold protein exactly where it is, and reassess two weeks later.