Counting macros means tracking the three macronutrients in your food: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Each one provides a specific number of calories per gram, and by hitting target amounts of each, you get more control over your body composition and energy than calorie counting alone offers. The process boils down to four steps: calculate your calorie needs, set your macro targets, weigh or measure your food, and log everything in a tracking app.
What Macros Are and Why They Matter
Every calorie you eat comes from one of three macronutrients. Protein and carbohydrates each provide 4 calories per gram. Fat provides 9 calories per gram, more than double the other two. This is why a tablespoon of olive oil has roughly the same calories as two cups of broccoli.
The reason people count macros instead of just calories is precision. Two diets with identical calorie totals can produce very different results depending on how those calories are split. A higher protein intake preserves muscle during fat loss. Enough carbohydrates fuel training and recovery. Adequate fat supports hormones and nutrient absorption. Tracking macros lets you manage all three at once.
Step 1: Estimate Your Daily Calories
Your starting point is your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the number of calories your body burns at rest just to keep you alive. The most widely used formula for this is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which uses your weight in kilograms, height in centimeters, and age in years:
- Men: (9.99 × weight) + (6.25 × height) − (4.92 × age) + 5
- Women: (9.99 × weight) + (6.25 × height) − (4.92 × age) − 161
To convert pounds to kilograms, divide by 2.2. To convert inches to centimeters, multiply by 2.54. A 170-pound, 5’10” man who is 30 years old would calculate: (9.99 × 77.3) + (6.25 × 177.8) − (4.92 × 30) + 5, giving a BMR of roughly 1,737 calories.
BMR only covers what you burn at rest. You then multiply by an activity factor to get your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Common multipliers are 1.2 for sedentary (desk job, little exercise), 1.375 for lightly active (1 to 3 workouts per week), 1.55 for moderately active (3 to 5 workouts), and 1.725 for very active (6 to 7 intense sessions). Using the example above, a moderately active man would have a TDEE of about 2,692 calories.
From there, adjust based on your goal. To lose fat, subtract 300 to 500 calories. To gain muscle, add 200 to 300. To maintain, stay at your TDEE. These are starting points. You’ll refine them after a few weeks based on what the scale and mirror actually show you.
Step 2: Set Your Macro Targets
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend broad ranges for adults: 45 to 65% of calories from carbohydrates, 20 to 35% from fat, and 10 to 35% from protein. These ranges are intentionally wide because no single ratio is ideal for everyone. The most important factor for weight loss is being in a calorie deficit, not hitting a specific macro split.
That said, protein deserves the most attention because it’s the macro most people undereat. The standard recommendation for non-exercising adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. If you exercise regularly, you need more. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends 1.4 to 2.0 grams per kilogram for active individuals. Endurance athletes generally need 1.0 to 1.6 g/kg, while strength and power athletes benefit from 1.6 to 2.0 g/kg. For fat loss specifically, research suggests 1.2 to 2.0 g/kg helps you lose weight while retaining muscle.
A Practical Example
Say you weigh 75 kg (about 165 pounds) and your calorie target is 2,200 per day. You lift weights three times a week and want to lose some fat. Here’s one way to set your macros:
- Protein: 1.8 g/kg = 135 grams (135 × 4 = 540 calories)
- Fat: 25% of total calories = 550 calories ÷ 9 = about 61 grams
- Carbohydrates: remaining calories = 2,200 − 540 − 550 = 1,110 calories ÷ 4 = about 278 grams
Set protein first using your body weight, set fat as a percentage, and fill the rest with carbs. This approach gives protein the priority it needs while keeping fat and carbs flexible.
Step 3: Weigh and Measure Your Food
A digital kitchen scale is the single most useful tool for counting macros accurately. Measuring cups work in a pinch, but they’re inconsistent for anything that isn’t liquid. A cup of rice can vary by 30 or 40 calories depending on how tightly you pack it. A scale removes that guesswork. Models with at least a 22-pound capacity handle everything from spices to full pots of chili.
The tare function is your best friend. Place your plate or bowl on the scale, press tare to zero it out, then add your food. The scale reads only the weight of the food. You can also use the reverse method for things like cooking oil or coffee creamer: set the bottle on the scale, tare it, pour what you need, then put the bottle back. If the scale reads “-15g,” you used 15 grams.
Weigh Raw When Possible
Food loses water during cooking, and the amount varies dramatically. A steak cooked rare may lose about 10% of its mass, while a well-done steak can lose nearly 40%. If you log that well-done steak using a generic “grilled steak” database entry, you’ll likely underestimate how much protein and calories you actually ate, because you’re working with a shrunken portion that started much heavier.
Weighing ingredients before cooking solves this. A raw chicken breast that weighs 200 grams will always have the same macros regardless of how long you cook it. The same goes for pasta, rice, and oats. Search for the “raw” or “dry” version in your tracking app for the most accurate data. When you’re eating out or cooking with pre-made ingredients, logging cooked weights is fine. It’s less precise, but it’s far better than guessing.
Step 4: Log Everything in a Tracking App
You don’t need to do the math by hand. Tracking apps handle the calculations and keep a running total throughout the day. The three most popular options each have different strengths.
MyFitnessPal has the largest food database, with over 18 million entries. It uses a green checkmark to flag “verified” entries that have been validated for accuracy, which is worth looking for since user-submitted entries sometimes contain errors. The free version covers basic tracking, while the premium tier ($79.99/year) adds barcode scanning and custom macro goals.
Cronometer takes a different approach to accuracy. Rather than relying on user-generated data, it requires users to submit photos of nutrition labels before new items are added to the database. This makes its entries more reliable out of the box, which is especially useful if you eat a lot of whole foods without barcodes.
MacrosFirst is built specifically for macro counting and includes a feature that auto-calculates portion sizes. Tell it you want 30 grams of protein from chicken breast, and it tells you exactly how many grams of chicken to weigh out. It also offers voice-powered search, so you can speak your food and portion size instead of typing.
Tips That Make Tracking Sustainable
Most people who quit macro counting do so because it feels tedious, not because it’s complicated. A few habits make it dramatically easier. First, log your food before or while you eat, not at the end of the day. Trying to reconstruct meals from memory is inaccurate and frustrating. Second, build a rotation of 10 to 15 meals you eat regularly. Once they’re saved in your app, logging them takes seconds.
Perfection isn’t the goal. Hitting your targets within 5 to 10 grams on each macro is close enough to see results. Some days you’ll be over on carbs and under on fat, and that’s fine. What matters is the weekly trend, not any single meal. If you eat something without a label (a handful of nuts at a party, a slice of birthday cake), estimate and log it. A rough entry is always more useful than a blank one.
Net Carbs vs. Total Carbs
If you follow a low-carb or ketogenic diet, you may track net carbs instead of total carbs. The formula is simple: total carbohydrates minus fiber minus sugar alcohols. Fiber and sugar alcohols pass through your body without significantly affecting blood sugar, so they’re subtracted. A protein bar with 24 grams of total carbs, 10 grams of fiber, and 8 grams of sugar alcohols would have just 6 net carbs.
For most people counting macros on a standard diet, tracking total carbs is simpler and works fine. Net carbs become relevant only when you’re keeping carbs very low and need to know which ones your body actually absorbs.