NO-NONSENSE DIET & TRAINING GUIDES

THE CALORIE AND MACRO

CALCULATOR

RESULTS

Your target calorie intake on training days is 3,002 with the following macros:

• protein: 189g.

• fat: 69g.

• carbs: 406g.

Your target calorie intake on rest days is 2,402 with the following macros:

• protein: 189g.

• fat: 86g.

• carbs: 218g.

For those who have no experience making meals out of their macro numbers,
here’s a rough idea of how this could look as food on your training days.

I typically have clients split this across 2-3 meals:

"509g of rice or pasta or 2,373g of potatoes (uncooked weights)."

"756g of lean, uncooked chicken, pork, beef, white fish."

"3 fist-sized portions of non-starchy* vegetables."

"2 portions of fruit."

And on your rest days:

"240g of rice or pasta or 1,120g of potatoes (uncooked weights)."

"756g of lean, uncooked chicken, pork, beef, white fish."

"3 fist-sized portions of non-starchy* vegetables."

"2 portions of fruit."

(*Spinach, celery, broccoli, cucumbers (almost anything green), radishes, onions,

garlic, tomatoes, carrots, beets, etc.)

Boom. You now have your starting numbers, but please make sure you read
 the notes below to learn why you may need to tweak them and how to do so.
(If you're obese, please note points 10 and 11 on adjusting protein intake
downwards.)

I've seen a lot of people screw things up and needlessly waste months (sometimes
YEARS) by making some simple, but critical, mistakes.

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NOTES ON THE CALCULATOR

1. These calorie and macro calculations are based on a simplified version

of the recommendations in my book, The Muscle and Strength Nutrition
Pyramid.

(The food example numbers come from the simplified counting rules in my
macro counting guide, which I’ll come back to in a moment.)

The book is a 290-page, fully-referenced distillation of the scientific literature

put into a practical guide for powerlifters and physique athletes.

Yes, the calculator works for regular people. I’ve been coaching male
physique trainees full-time, online since 2011. If I don’t get my clients results, I
get fired.

The point I wish to make here is that this is a very well thought out
calculator. However…

2. You will need to adjust these numbers sooner or later to achieve the
desired rate of weight change.

Your energy needs decrease when dieting and part of that is because your
metabolism will adapt to a caloric deficit over time. Additionally, energy
needs increase over time when bulking. This is your body fighting to keep
the status quo.
This happens more for some people than others and is not something a
calculation can take into account. However, knowing how impatient people
are to see results, I’ve factored this into the calculations in the following
couple of ways.

3. For those cutting, I’ve calculated energy intake at a level where

bodyweight losses would be 0.75% per week, were the metabolism not
to adapt.

But it will, and many people will find their resulting weight loss to be around
0.5%, which from experience, seems to be the sweet spot for busy
individuals with real lives who can’t afford the brain fog that comes with
higher caloric deficits.

Additionally, the total nerds among you (love you guys!) who have been
getting your calculators out to check my math, may have noticed that…

4. For those bulking, I’ve upped the caloric surplus by 50% to anticipate
some of the increased energy needs when bulking.

This is not an extreme change. For a 30-year-old 200lb novice male, their
daily intake will change from 3200 kcal to 3340 kcal because of this.

Unfortunately, there’s a tricky little bitch called NEAT who can impact energy
needs way more from person to person, especially when bulking.

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy expended for

everything we do that is not sleeping, eating, or sports-like exercise. It
ranges from the energy expended walking to work, typing and texting
friends, shaking up a protein shake, performing yard work, and fidgeting.

Some people ramp up NEAT much more than others which explains those
who claim not to be able to gain weight (a.k.a. ‘hard gainers’) when, in fact,
they need to eat more.

This cannot be factored into an initial calculation either, which is why

tracking average weight change and then adjusting caloric intake based on
the outcome is so critical.

5. Desirable rates of weight change are as follows:

0.5-1% of body weight loss per week when cutting. (The leaner you get, the
slower you should take it.)
1-3% of body weight gain per month when bulking. (The more experienced a
trainee you are, the closer you are likely to your genetic potential so the
slower you should take things.)

Readers of The Muscle and Strength Nutrition Pyramid may notice that
these figures are double the 1.5, 1% and 0.5% rates we recommend in there
for the novice, intermediate, and advanced trainees respectively. I often
recommend these higher rates because the changes are easier to track, and
the training progressions are more obvious, which makes it easier to stay
motivated.

Those extra sensitive to fat gain may wish to be more conservative. Those
struggling with seeing changes might do better with my higher figures.

6. Most people will have a jump in scale weight in the first week.

This will be due to the change in gut content, water, and muscle glycogen in
your body. It happens whenever you change the number of carbs you eat or
the total food intake in general.

So, before deciding you need to adjust, track for several weeks first, taking
the average scale weight each day, and ignore the first week of data.

7. To make an adjustment to get your body weight change on track, we

can use the following easy math:

If you are cutting, multiply the amount you are off your weekly weight
change target by 500 kcal (or 1100 kcal for those using kg). Add or subtract
that from your caloric intake each day accordingly. Here are some examples:

If you’re losing weight 0.5 lbs slower than your target each week, reduce
daily caloric intake by 250 kcal (500*0.5).
If you’re losing weight 0.3 lbs faster than your target each week, increase
your daily caloric intake by 150 kcal daily (0.3*500).

If you are bulking, multiply the amount you are off your monthly weight
change target by 200 kcal (or 440 kcal for those using kg). Here are some
examples:

If you’re gaining weight 0.9 lbs slower than your target each month,
increase daily caloric intake by 180 kcal (200*0.9).
If you’re gaining weight 0.5 kg faster than your target each month,
 reduce daily caloric intake by ~220 kcal (440*0.5).

Make this caloric change via fat and carb changes per your preferences. This
is as simple as follows:

Table of Macro Changes for Different Calorie Adjustments

Leave protein intake as is, unless you’re obese. (More on this in a moment.)

8. Before making any adjustment, make sure your adherence is on point.

If it’s not, fix that. Solid adherence in the week only to throw it away on the
weekends is the most common screw-up pattern people follow.

9. Double-check that you are tracking things accurately.

Here’s my guide to counting macros and making meals out of them. (It’s the
simplified counting rules in this guide which gave the food value
estimations at the end of the calculator.)

But despite guides like that trying to simplify, studies consistently show that
people are terrible at tracking things. So, if you’re not losing weight at the
rate desired and you’re concerned that your macros look low, swallow your
ego and consider the possibility that you’ve screwed something up.

Log everything that passes your lips into a nutritional calculator for 2 weeks.
This will tell you if you have an issue.

10. Protein intake is calculated based on body weight rather than lean
body mass.

This is much easier than requiring people to estimate their body-fat

percentage first, and the results are roughly the same anyway. Plus, all the
methods we have available for estimating body-fat percentage are prone to
chuckle-worthy levels of error. I recommend you do not attempt it.

(Calculating protein intake based on body weight is a departure from how

I’ve suggested people do it on the site up until now, which is why I feel it’s
worth mentioning. I will edit every other guide on the site in the coming
weeks for congruency.)

11. Importantly, obese individuals will, therefore, find their protein intake
skewed too high, so you’ll need to adjust for that.

This is an easy fix — change your daily protein intake to be your height in
centimeters:

6’2 = ~188 cm
6’ = ~183 cm
5’10 = ~178 cm
5’8 = ~173 cm
5’6 = ~168 cm

So, if you’re 260 lbs and 5’11, instead of consuming ~260 g of protein as I have
in the calculator, consume 180 g and swap the 80 g remaining for carbs to
maintain the calorie balance. This will be better for satiety, diet variety, and
training quality.

Some people may argue that this protein figure is a little too low to be
protective of muscle mass when dieting.

I disagree.

Obese people have a lot of fat for the body to fuel itself off of, and this is
protective of muscle mass. Therefore, protein needs are likely a bit lower for
the 260 lb guy with 160 lbs of muscle mass vs. the 200 lb guy with the same
muscle mass.

12. Too many people make calorie and macro calculations, wait two
weeks, then decide that they “don’t work” if they don’t see the
calculated for scale weight change.

They then move to another calculator (or diet method entirely).

This is sadly common. Don’t be this person.

A simple adjustment of your caloric intake up or downwards is all that will be

needed. (Reasons 2-4, at rates described in 5, in the manner described in 6.)
Don’t make this mistake.
13. If you have already calculated your macros elsewhere and they aren’t
radically different, I don’t suggest you change them.

The key, as I’ve covered, is that you track your progress and adjust based on
the outcome.

Thank you for reading. Questions welcomed in the comments as always.

– Andy

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