This calorie and macro calculator will help you to calculate for:
- Cutting phases — fat loss while maintaining muscle mass (or even growing some).
- Bulking phases — weight gain while minimizing fat gain and maximizing the rate of muscle growth,
- Recomp phases — for simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain while achieving weight maintenance.
Regardless of your body type, dietary preference or restriction, and whatever your fitness goals are, this is my recommended starting point to calculate your macro intake.
The RippedBody Macro Calculator For Cutting, Bulking, and Recomp
(⚠️If the calculator hasn’t loaded above, please reload the page. 🙏🏻)
MAKE SURE YOU SPEND 3 MINUTES READING THE NOTES BELOW AFTER USING THE CALCULATOR 👊🏻
1. “Does this macro calculator work, and why should I trust it?”
Well, you’re right to question what you find on the internet, especially in the fitness industry.
For what it’s worth, these calculations are based on the recommendations in my internationally bestselling book, The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Nutrition. This is a 290-page, fully-referenced guide for powerlifters and physique athletes, and particularly popular among coaches, which I co-authored with Dr. Eric Helms and Andrea Valdez. I’ve been coaching online as a full-time job since 2011. If I didn’t get results for my clients (view over 100 client results in photos here), I’d get fired.
However, you’re probably wondering whether your calculations are ‘correct’ for you. This is the wrong way to approach things because…
2. You will need to adjust these macros sooner or later to achieve the desired rate of weight change
Why sooner? Because the calculations are based on equations derived from group averages. You might be on either side of this average, so consider them a starting point from which to adjust.
Why later? Because energy needs change over time as we diet and bulk. Your metabolism will gradually adapt to fight a caloric deficit, and energy needs increase when we gain weight. These things happen for some people more than others, and this is not something a calculator can predict.
For these two reasons, I don’t recommend using a calculator when transitioning between bulking and cutting. Use your progress data instead:
👉 How To Cut After Bulking
👉 How To Bulk After Cutting
Knowing how impatient people are to see results, I’ve factored the error and metabolic adaptation into the macro calculations.
But before we get into that…
People consistently make the same simple mistakes when acting on these calculations. So, I have built a free, 7-lesson email course that has helped 100,000 people so far avoid them.
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So, as I was saying, I’ve factored the energy need adaptions into the calculations in the following couple of ways…
3. For those cutting, the macro calculator sets energy intake at a level where bodyweight losses would be 0.75% per week were your metabolism not to adapt
But it will, and many people will find their resulting weight loss to be around 0.5%, which, from experience, is 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 macro 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. Because of this, a 30-year-old, 6ft, 200 lb novice male’s daily intake will change from 3070 kcal to 3245 kcal.
Unfortunately, there’s a tricky little bitch called NEAT, which can impact energy needswaymore from person to person, especially when bulking.
NEAT is the nickname for ‘non-exercise activity thermogenesis,’ which is the energy expended for everything we do aside from sleeping, digesting food, 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. These people are commonly referred to as ‘hard gainers,’ but there is nothing wrong with them; they simply need to eat more.
This cannot be factored into the macro calculator, which is why tracking average weight change and adjusting caloric intake based on the outcome is so critical.
5. So now you’re probably wondering, “What is a desirable rate of weight loss or gain?”
Weight loss: I recommend 0.5–1% of body weight loss per week when cutting. — The leaner you get, the slower you should take it.
Weight gain: I recommend 0.5–2% 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:
- Beginner — 2%
- Novice — 1.5%
- Intermediate — 1%
- Advanced — 0.5%
This is the upper end of the ranges recommended in my book, The Muscle and Strength Nutrition Pyramid, which makes changes easier to track, especially when you aren’t working with a coach and are doing things yourself.
6. Most people will have a jump in scale weight in the first week, especially when cutting
This will be due to the change in your body’s gut content, water, and muscle glycogen. It happens whenever you change the number of carbohydrates you eat or the total food intake in general.
So, before deciding to adjust, track for several weeks first, taking the average scale weight each day, and ignore the first week of data.
7. To make a macro adjustment to get your body weight change on track…
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 lose weight 0.5 lbs slower than your target each week, reduce caloric intake by 250 kcal daily (500*0.5). — This is approximately one cup of uncooked rice or 3 cups of cooked rice.
- If you lose weight 0.3 lbs faster than your target each week, increase caloric intake by 150 kcal daily (0.3*500). — This is approximately a 2 oz portion of uncooked pasta.
👉 More here: How to Adjust Calories and Macros as You Diet 📉
Make this caloric change via fat and carb changes per your preferences. This is as simple as follows:
If you are bulking, multiply the amount you are off your monthly weight change target by 150 kcal (or 330 kcal for those using kg). (These numbers are explained in my mega-guide on bulking). Here are some examples:
- If you’re gaining weight 1.5 lb slower than your target each month, increase daily caloric intake by 225 kcal (150*1.5).
- If you’re gaining weight 0.5 kg faster than your target each month, reduce daily caloric intake by ~165 kcal (330*0.5).
👉 More here:How to Adjust Calories and Macros as You Bulk 📈
Whether cutting or bulking, leave protein intake as is unless you have a lot of body fat to lose. (More on this in a moment.)
8. Before making any adjustments, make sure your adherence is on point
If your adherence is not on point, fix that before adjusting your macros. Solid adherence in the week only to throw it away on the weekends is the most common pattern people follow. This includes adherence to your workouts — your training routine needs to be routine; plans don’t mean anything if they aren’t followed through.
9. Double-check that you are tracking things accurately
Here’s my guide to counting macros and making meals out of them. (The simplified counting rules in this guide are what gave the food value estimations you saw 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 error levels. I recommend you do not attempt it.
11. Importantly, those with a lot of body fat to lose will need to adjust protein intake down a little, swapping for carbs or fats
While a good heuristic for many, the “1 g per lb rule” will set protein intake too high for overweight or obese people. Set your protein intake as per your height using the chart above.
So, if you’re 260 lbs and 6’0, 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 may argue that this protein figure is too low to protect muscle mass when dieting.
I disagree.
Having a lot of fat mass protects muscle mass. This makes sense when you think about it from a survival perspective. When the body chooses between releasing fatty acids or breaking down muscle into amino acids for fuel, the smarter decision for survival is to burn off fat when there is an abundance of it. Therefore, protein needs are lower for the 260-pound guy with 160 lbs of muscle mass vs. the 200-pound guy with the same muscle mass.
Using whey protein to help you meet your numbers is fine, but real food tends to be more filling. Speaking about food, don’t worry about “complete” and “incomplete” proteins — whey and animal products may be the most “complete” proteins, but as long as you hit your targets by the end of the day, it won’t make a difference.
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 macro 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 7.) 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
As I’ve covered, the key is that you track your progress and adjust based on the outcome. You’ll see I have several guides on that in the diet adjustments section of the nutrition articles page, where you’ll find helpful decision trees like this:
MACRO CALCULATOR FAQ
How do I know which activity multiplier to choose?
Just choose the one you feel is most descriptive of your situation and don’t worry about it. You’ll adjust your calculation in a few weeks based on the outcome anyway.
Why is the total energy intake calculated the same regardless of whether I choose 3 or 6 training days?
I’ve built the calculator to assume that everyone trains between 3–6 days per week. The number of workouts has not been set to affect the calorie needs calculation because in total weekly energy demands for 3 vs 6 workouts per week is small enough to ignore.
(You might burn 300 kcal in the average resistance training workout, so an additional training day adds only ~43 kcal to daily energy needs.)
In the latter step, where I give people the option for calorie and macro cycling, this just divides the calories and macros across the week based on the number of workouts. There aren’t more calories overall.
Why does the calorie intake drop each day when I select more training days and cycle them?
This answer builds on the previous one.
The option for macro cycling divides the same calories and macros across the week based on the number of workouts. The training days are set to have a higher calorie intake than the rest days. Therefore, when there are more training days, the calorie number for each day must go down to maintain the balance. There aren’t fewer calories overall.
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