Daily Calorie/Macro Requirements Calculator (for Gaining Muscle Mass!)
If you’re looking to bulk up and lean down, one thing which you should probably be made aware of right away is the fact that your diet will play a pivotal role in determining just how much fat you actually burn and just how much muscle you’re able to build.
- The calculator is further down this page.
We can’t understate how important it is to get the right calories – and the correct ratio of protein/fat/carbs depending on your needs. This article will explain everything you need to know!
Building muscle is certainly no easy task, and getting your diet right is arguably even harder than the actual training itself. Burning fat and building muscle is all about calories and macronutrients, and if you’re able to work out exactly how many of each that you need, you will soon be reaping the rewards.
- It is often said that body building is something like 30% gym/working out, but a massive 70% diet. So get your diet correct!
Here we’ll be looking at what macronutrients and calories actually are, and how you can quickly and effectively calculate them based upon your goals and daily requirements.
In basic terms, a calorie is a unit of energy, made up of macronutrients, used by the body in order for it to function on a day to day basis. In simple everyday terms, calories can refer to energy consumption via both food and drink, as well as energy usage via everyday physical activity and exertion. We require calories for a whole variety of different processes as they are basically what fuel our bodies.
Each person requires a certain amount of calories per day, based upon their size, gender, genetics, and their activity levels and personal goals and targets. As a guideline, for the average sized male, the recommended daily intake (RDI) of calories is 2500, whilst for women it’s only 2000. In order to burn fat, you need to be in what is known as a calorie deficit, which means that if your RDI is 2500, and you only consume 2000, you will be in a deficit of 500 calories.
Anything above your daily requirements however, and you will not only not lose weight, but you could even gain weight.
Macronutrients, or Macros, are made up of protein, carbohydrates, and fat and are found in all forms of food and drink.
Macros provide all of the energy necessary to help to fuel our body’s metabolic processes and overall physical activities. Macros are the nutrients which supply our bodies with calories. In order to calculate and plan your macronutrient intake, you need to first understand what your goals actually are.
For example, if you’re looking to build muscle, you will need to consume plenty of macros derived from protein. If you’re looking at burning fat, your macros shouldn’t come primarily from high fat sources.
How to calculate your macros
Work out how many calories you need
Before we work out your fat/protein/carbohydrate amounts (or even their ratio), we must first work out how many calories you use up on a daily basis.
Check out our BMR calculator to work out how many calories in total you need.
This will tell you how many calories in total you need. Now we need to work out what ratio of carbs/fat/protein you need.
So lets work out your macro ratios…
This will depend on your needs, so select the one that matches your goals…
For bodybuilding you want to get a calorie ratio of around:
50% Carbs / 25-35% Protein / 15%-25% Fat
40% Carbs / 25-35% Protein / 25%-35% Fat
15% Carb / 30-40% Fat / 40-50% Protein
| Your total calorie requirements per day: (From our daily calorie calculator) | kcals | |||||||||
| Enter your ratio % here | ||||||||||
| Protein: | % | |||||||||
| Fat: | % | |||||||||
| Carbs: | % | |||||||||
| This is how many grams of each you should eat a day | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
What do the nutrients do?
Protein If your goal is indeed to build muscle, as protein is essential for the growth and repair of muscle tissue, you will need to consume at least 1 gram of protein for every pound of bodyweight that you weigh. So, if you weigh 200lbs, you should be consuming at least 200 grams of protein per day.
Fat – Fat has a bad reputation but in reality fat is vital for us, providing that we get it from the right sources. A great method of calculating just how much fat you should consume on a daily basis is to consume around 0.4 grams of fat for every pound of bodyweight. Make sure the fat comes from healthy sources of fat and not from trans fats or saturated fats.
Carbohydrates – Now that you know how much protein and fat you should be consuming, you will lastly need to ensure that the remaining macros you consume, come from complex carbohydrates. So, in order to work out just how much carbohydrates you should be consuming, simply subtract your target amounts of fat and protein from your daily calorie requirements, and the remainder will be how many carbs you should be consuming. So in basic terms, if you need 2500 calories per day, and you consume 800 calories from protein, and 900 calories from fat, that will give you 1700 calories in total. So 2500 – 1700 = 800, meaning that you should be consuming around 800 calories worth of carbohydrates per day.
GymGeek
The admin staff at Gym Geek are all gym rats who love to share their fitness advice and knowledge!
Thanks for making a calculator!