Counting macros gets a reputation for being complicated. Spreadsheets, food scales, obsessive label-checking — the internet makes it look like a part-time job. It doesn't have to be.
This guide covers what macros actually are, how to set your targets, and how to track them in a way that improves your results without taking over your life.
What Macros Are (And Why They Matter)
Macronutrients are the three categories of nutrients that provide energy:
Protein — 4 calories per gram. Builds and repairs muscle tissue. The most important macro for anyone training. Protein also has the highest thermic effect of food (your body burns more calories digesting it) and is the most satiating macro per calorie.
Carbohydrates — 4 calories per gram. Your body's preferred fuel source during moderate to high intensity exercise. Contrary to decades of diet culture, carbohydrates do not inherently cause fat gain — excess total calories do.
Fat — 9 calories per gram. Essential for hormone production, vitamin absorption, and brain function. Fat is calorie-dense, which is why high-fat foods are easy to overeat — but dietary fat is not directly stored as body fat unless you're in a calorie surplus.
Total calories determine whether you gain, lose, or maintain weight. Macro split determines what you gain or lose — muscle versus fat — and how well you perform and recover.
Setting Your Calorie Target First
Macro targets sit inside a calorie target. You need that number first.
A rough starting point: multiply your bodyweight in kilograms by 22–24 for maintenance calories (use the lower end if you're sedentary, higher if you exercise 4+ times per week). Add 200–300 calories for muscle building. Subtract 300–500 for fat loss.
These are estimates. Your actual maintenance calories depend on muscle mass, age, metabolic adaptation, and activity level. Start with the estimate, track your weight over 2–3 weeks, and adjust based on what actually happens.
Setting Your Macro Targets
Protein: Set This First
For anyone training, protein should be your anchor macro:
- Minimum: 1.6g per kg of bodyweight per day
- Optimal for muscle building or fat loss: 1.8–2.2g per kg
- Higher end useful if: you're in a calorie deficit, you're older, or you're training very frequently
A 75kg person training regularly should aim for roughly 135–165g of protein per day. This is non-negotiable if muscle maintenance or growth is a goal.
Fat: Set a Floor
Fat intake has a physiological minimum for hormone health:
- Minimum: 0.8–1.0g per kg of bodyweight
- Higher fat can work well if you prefer it — some people find higher fat diets more satiating
Don't go lower than 50–60g of fat per day regardless of bodyweight. Below this, hormone production — particularly testosterone and oestrogen — is impaired.
Carbohydrates: Fill the Remainder
Once protein and fat are set, carbohydrates take up the remaining calories.
Remaining calories ÷ 4 = grams of carbohydrates.
If your target is 2,400 calories, protein is 160g (640 cal), fat is 70g (630 cal), carbohydrates are (2,400 − 640 − 630) ÷ 4 = 282g.
Carbohydrates are the flexible macro. If you prefer a lower-carb approach, shift some carb calories to fat. Both work as long as protein is adequate.
What to Actually Track
You don't need to weigh every gram of food to get results from macro tracking. Precision helps, but consistency matters more.
What to track carefully:
- Protein sources (chicken, fish, eggs, Greek yoghurt, protein powder) — these are easy to eyeball inaccurately and protein is your most important target
- Calorie-dense foods (oils, nuts, nut butters, avocado) — a tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories, easy to undercount
What you can estimate:
- Vegetables — almost zero caloric impact, don't stress the precision
- Fruit — track roughly unless you're eating very large quantities
Tools that make it easier: A food tracking app with a barcode scanner removes the tedium of looking up entries. Use it consistently for 4–6 weeks. After that, most people develop a reliable intuitive sense of their food and can reduce formal tracking.
The Most Common Mistakes
Setting protein too low. If you're training and eating at a deficit, inadequate protein means muscle loss alongside fat loss. The result is a smaller version of yourself rather than a leaner, stronger one.
Tracking weekdays but not weekends. Untracked weekend eating is responsible for most cases where "the diet isn't working." You don't need to be rigid on weekends, but maintaining awareness matters.
Starting too strict. Hitting macros within 5g is not realistic every day and the stress of trying to is counterproductive. Aim to hit your protein target daily, keep fat above your floor, and let total calories guide everything else. Perfection is not the goal.
Ignoring liquid calories. Alcohol, juice, and full-fat lattes add up quickly and are easy to forget. If you drink regularly and are struggling with fat loss, liquid calories are usually the answer.
Chasing someone else's macro split. The optimal ratio of protein, carbs, and fat for you depends on your preferences, lifestyle, and how your body responds. A macro split you can stick to consistently beats the theoretically optimal split you abandon after three weeks.
How Macros Interact with Training
Your macro needs change based on what you're doing:
On training days: Prioritise carbohydrates before and after training. Muscle glycogen replenishment is important for performance and recovery.
On rest days: Slightly lower carbohydrates are appropriate since you don't need the same fuel. Keeping protein high on rest days is still important — muscle protein synthesis continues for 24–48 hours after training.
During a diet break or refeed: Deliberately raising calories (usually via carbohydrates) for 1–2 weeks every 6–12 weeks of a fat loss phase reduces hormonal adaptation to the deficit, improves performance, and makes long diets more sustainable.
A Simple Starting Point
If this all feels overwhelming, start here:
- Set protein at 1.8g × your bodyweight in kg
- Set fat at 1.0g × your bodyweight in kg
- Calculate total calories for your goal
- Fill remaining calories with carbohydrates
- Track for two weeks without changing anything
- Adjust based on what the scale actually does
The first two weeks are calibration, not judgment. Most people are surprised by how different their actual intake is from what they thought they were eating.
Coachbase calculates your macro targets automatically based on your goal, training schedule, and health profile — and adjusts them as your program progresses. Build your nutrition plan →