Macro Calculator
Your daily calories plus protein, carbs and fat in grams, set for a bulk, a cut or maintenance.
Fill in your age, height and weight.
How the macro calculator works
First it estimates the calories you burn on a normal day. Your resting burn comes from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which uses your age, height, weight and sex, and is then multiplied by your activity level (from 1.2 for sedentary up to 1.9 for extra active). That's your maintenance number.
- Bulk: maintenance plus 400 kcal. Split 30% protein, 45% carbs, 25% fat.
- Cut: maintenance minus 400 kcal. Split 40% protein, 35% carbs, 25% fat, with more protein to hold on to muscle.
- Maintain: maintenance calories. Split 30% protein, 45% carbs, 25% fat.
Grams come from the calories in each nutrient: protein and carbs have 4 kcal per gram, fat has 9. These are the same goals and splits the calorie and macro calculators in the NXTSTEP Fitness app use.
Make the numbers work for you
- Treat it as a starting point. Weigh yourself a few mornings a week and compare 2-week averages.
- Bulking and not gaining? Add 100-200 kcal a day, mostly from carbs.
- Cutting and not losing? Take away 100-200 kcal, and keep protein where it is.
- Train for it. A surplus only builds muscle if your lifts keep going up. Pair it with a plan like powerbuilding or PPL.
Hit the numbers, then track the results
NXTSTEP Fitness has free calorie and macro calculators, a bodyweight tracker with trend charts, and five full training programmes to go with them. With NXT Premium, Coach Titan builds you a full meal plan around these targets.
FAQ
How much protein do I need to build muscle?
Most lifters do well on about 1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per kg of bodyweight a day. The cut split gives 40% of your calories to protein to help you keep muscle while you lose fat.
How accurate is a calorie calculator?
It's a good starting estimate, usually within a few hundred calories. Your bodyweight trend over 2 to 3 weeks is the real test, so adjust by 100 to 200 kcal from there.
Why 400 calories for a bulk or a cut?
It's a moderate change. For most people it works out at about 0.3 to 0.4 kg a week, enough to see progress without piling on fat in a bulk or losing strength in a cut.
Do I have to hit my macros exactly?
No. Landing within about 10 g of each target most days is plenty. Hit your calories and protein first. Carbs and fat can move around.