What is a Macro Calculator?
A macronutrient (macro) calculator determines the optimal ratio of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats you should consume daily to reach a specific health or physique goal. Unlike simple calorie counting, tracking macros ensures that the weight you lose is fat (not muscle) and the weight you gain is muscle (not fat).
How does the TDEE Calculator work?
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) represents the total number of calories your body burns in a 24-hour period. Our calculator uses the highly regarded Mifflin-St Jeor equation to first calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — the calories you burn simply by existing.
We then multiply your BMR by an activity multiplier to account for your lifestyle and exercise habits. Finally, we adjust the total based on whether you want to lose fat (-500 calories) or build muscle (+500 calories).
Why track macros instead of just calories?
- ✓Protein builds and preserves muscle mass, keeping you full and boosting metabolism.
- ✓Carbohydrates provide the primary energy source for high-intensity workouts and brain function.
- ✓Fats are essential for hormone regulation, nutrient absorption, and joint health.
Numbers are the easy part
A macro target tells you what to eat. It does not tell you what to train, and for most people that is the half that decides whether the physique actually changes.
Dietly Fit starts at the other end: one photo a week is scored out of 100, the scan names the weak point holding the number down, and the week of training is built around fixing it. Food logging is in the same app, with targets set from your goal rather than a generic number \u2014 so these macros have somewhere to go.
Common questions
- What are macros?
- Protein, carbohydrate and fat — the three nutrients that carry calories. Your calorie target decides how much you lose or gain; the split between those three decides how much of the change is muscle rather than fat, and how full you feel getting there.
- Do I have to hit my macros exactly?
- No. Protein is the one worth hitting closely, because it is what protects muscle in a deficit. Carbs and fat can move around each other freely as long as the calorie total holds — within about 5 grams of protein and 100 calories on the day is close enough for the result to be the same.
- Why did my numbers change when I picked a different activity level?
- The activity multiplier is applied to your BMR, so one step up adds roughly 150–250 calories a day. Most people pick a level too high: the multipliers describe your whole week including rest days, so three or four gym sessions on top of a desk job is 'moderately active', not 'very active'.
- Should my macros be different on rest days?
- They can be, but they do not need to be. Calorie cycling — more carbs on training days, fewer on rest days — works if the weekly total is unchanged, and it is one more thing to get wrong. Hold one set of numbers every day until the weekly trend tells you to change them.
- How long before I change these numbers?
- Two weeks. Bodyweight swings with water, salt and glycogen by a kilo or more day to day, so a single weigh-in tells you nothing. Take the two-week average against the previous two-week average, and only adjust if the trend disagrees with the goal.