HOW MACROS ARE CALCULATED
While we provide an easy way to calculate your macros with our Macro Calculator, it can be helpful to further understand what goes into the process to help you refine.
Step 1: Your Energy Expenditure
- Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) – First you need to figure out a ballpark for how much food our bodies need on a given day to fuel our activities and bodily function. Calculators are never totally precise because our day-to-day requirements fluctuate. What they can do is give us a ballpark of what our caloric needs are daily. These calculators take into consideration our sex, age, bodyweight, body composition, daily activity level, and training demands. Each of these contribute to how much energy our body burns. TDEE calculators will first find your Basal Metabolic Rate (how many calories you need to simply exist) and then adjust for activity levels to arrive at an estimate of your daily total caloric expenditure. There are different formulas for this, which give slightly varying results. In our experience, the most accurate formula is the Katch-McArdle, which works off of your body fat percentage. If you are curious, you can compare your results from entering a body fat percentage vs. leaving this number out and following the alternate formula below. Here is a tool to estimate your body fat percentage – but it is best to work off the most accurate number possible such as from an InBody or Dexa Scan.If you do not have a body fat percentage, the calculator will use the Mifflin-St. Joer Equation, which estimates your Basal Metabolic Rate based on your age, height, weight, and gender (males and females are assumed to have different amounts of lean mass; if you are not cisgender, you may prefer to calculate with a body fat percentage instead). Next we need to adjust for activity level. This is where many people need to fine-tune, as different levels of activity can lead to a large caloric difference in your TDEE. It is easy to think, “Well, I work out an hour per day and I go hard! I must be in the Heavy Activity category.” Yet if you have a desk job or are largely inactive the rest of the day, you will still likely fall on the light activity side of the scale. Here are the descriptions we use to help guide your choice:
- Limited Activity – Desk job, mostly sedentary all day, and training is 3-5x/week for under an hour each time.
- Low Activity – Some activity throughout your day but still minimal and you train 3-5x/week for around 60mins
- Moderate Activity – Moderately active throughout your day and you train 5-6x/week for 60-90mins (many of our PERSIST or ID clients)
- High Activity – Active job or moving a lot throughout your day and you train 5-6x/week for 90mins or more
- Heavy Activity – You are very active outside of your training and you also perform 5-6 workouts for 90+ minutes, or even double days
- Establish Your Goal – Now that we have your TDEE estimate, let’s adjust it based on your goal so that your daily caloric intake will support the changes you want to see.
- Challenge Fat Loss – 25% Deficit
- Recomposition (sustainable fat loss) – 10% Deficit
- Maintenance – Energy Balance
- Lean Muscle Gain – 10% Surplus
- Challenge Muscle Gain – 25% Surplus
Challenge goals vs. Sustainable change – one isn’t necessarily better than another, but it is important to know what you are up against. Challenge goals will require substantial reductions or increases in food that can make long term adherence difficult. With that said, they can help you to see more immediate changes that are motivating. A sustainable approach will likely be easier to follow long term and can always be made more aggressive later once you get into a good rhythm.