This is a great question! Knowing your macros is the only way to be certain you are on the right path to achieving your fitness goals.

BUT…there isn’t a straightforward one-size-fits-all answer to this question. So, I’ve written this comprehensive guide to teach you the exact process I use to calculate macros for my clients and myself.

While this spreadsheet is a very useful tool, I do recommend that you go through the calculations by hand to understand the science behind the numbers.

Many factors determine the total amount of energy that your body burns every day, such as body weight, age, total lean mass, body temperature, the thermic effect of foods (the amount of energy it “costs” to process food for use and storage), stimulant use such as caffeine, and physical activity.

We can group all of these factors into two general categories:

To calculate your TDEE, you simply calculate your BMR and Average Activity Burn per Day and add these two numbers.

As you can imagine, these calculations aren’t an exact science, but we’re going to do our best to determine your TDEE based on your physical characteristics, lifestyle, and fitness goals.

Let’s begin by calculating your BMR.

For simplicity, you can just use the Katch-McArdle calculation. The equation is simple and it gets the job done.

To calculate your Lean Body Mass (LBM), you must estimate your body fat percentage. The easiest way to estimate your body fat percentage if you have no idea what it might be is to look at pictures of people whose body fat percentages you know and make an educated guess.

Yes, you really can just guess your body fat percentage by a picture of someone else. It is the easiest way and just as accurate as most inexpensive methods like biometrical impedance analysis.

Contrary to popular belief, biometrical impedance analysis isn’t very accurate. I have a rather expensive scale that sends electrical currents through my feet and I know for a fact that it can be off by upwards of +/- 5% when measuring my body fat percentage.

There are very accurate ways to measure body fat percentage: Bod Pod ($40-75 for a scan), DEXA scan ($100-150), and water displacement tests (also very expensive). If you happen to have results from one of these tests, use that body fat number instead, but these tests are unnecessary for our macro calculation purposes.

As an example, I will run through my own BMR calculation.

Here’s a picture of me that I took last week.

In other words, your average energy balance over time matters most in achieving your fitness goals. Don’t sweat the small dietary road bumps. We all have them.

To calculate your Average Activity Burn Per Day, you should first list all of the activities you do during a typical/average week and the amount of time you spend doing them.

For example, here’s what my average activity each week looks like right now:

When I calculate the activity burn for my clients and myself I use MET (Metabolic Equivalent) data for physical activities from “The Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide” by B. E. Ainsworth.

Each individual activity from my database of over 600 activities has a MET value associated with it. A MET value represents the ratio of energy (i.e. calories) required to perform a particular activity relative to your BMR. My macronutrient calculator estimates your calorie burn by multiplying the MET value for your chosen activity by the duration time of your activity and by your calculated BMR.

Since I cannot easily share this database with you, please use one of the following sites to calculate your activity burn for each of your activities.

Using these resources, I found my activity burn to be as follows:

Doing so would violate the 3 Principles of Body Composition. In order to maximize muscle growth, you must maintain a caloric surplus. In order to shred fat, you must maintain a caloric deficit.

There are three foundational principles when it comes to building muscle and shredding fat that are well established both scientifically and anecdotally:

You must burn more energy than you consume to achieve meaningful fat loss. This is called a caloric deficit (i.e. consume less calories than you burn).

However, eating very little, known as starvation dieting, isn’t ideal for weight loss. If your caloric deficit is too extreme, your metabolism will slow, you will lose muscle along with fat, and you’ll really hate the process.

Contrary to shredding fat, you must consume more energy to achieve meaningful muscle growth. This is called a caloric surplus (i.e. consume more calories than you burn).

If you don’t eat enough calories, you will struggle to gain muscle. This is because a caloric deficit decreases your body’s ability to synthesize skeletal muscle proteins, reduces anabolic hormone levels while increasing catabolic hormone levels, and impairs workout performance which in turn impairs progression in your workouts and therefore muscle growth.

I recommend that you maintain a slight 10% caloric surplus when bulking. In other words, you should eat around 110% of your total daily energy expenditure to be in the “sweet spot” for gaining lean muscle.”

It is worth noting that most gym “newbies,” people with less than a year of weightlifting training under their belts, can build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but can’t optimally do both simultaneously. The rest of us will do best by alternating between periods of cutting and bulking.

Here’s my rule of thumb: If you have a body fat percentage greater than 15% as a male, you should cut down to 8-10% before beginning to bulk (i.e. gain muscle). If you are a female with a body fat percentage greater than 25%, you should cut down to 18-20% before beginning to bulk.

If you are a male around 8-10% body fat or female around 18-20% body fat, then you’re ready to begin a lean bulk.

Starting to build muscle with a shredded physique is ideal for several reasons:

So here’s the bottom line: body fat makes you fatter, makes it more difficult to build muscle, and creates hormonal imbalances. If your goal is to gain muscle, you should start with a lean physique, 8-10% body fat for men and 18-20% body fat for women.

For example, I am currently shredding. My TDEE is 2,568 calories, so my Daily Calorie Target should be 2,054 calories per day (2,568 calories x 0.8) to efficiently burn fat.

If I decided to start a lean bulk right now to build muscle, I would aim for a 10% caloric surplus every day. If you also want to lean bulk, simply multiply your TDEE by 1.1 to determine how many calories you should eat every day.

For example, if I stopped shredding and began a lean bulk, I should aim to eat 2,825 calories (2,568 calories x 1.1).

Regardless of the sources foodwise, 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.

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