Set the perfect macros in three steps

The word „macros” has been heard more and more in recent years. The fitness influencer talks about it on Instagram, your friend who goes to the advanced gym mentions it after the trial workout, the family doctor discusses it in the office. Those who are just starting to dive into the topic often feel like everyone is speaking a slightly different language.

One blog says: high protein, low carbohydrate. Another says only calories matter. A third says it doesn't matter, just don't be hungry. A fourth promotes keto, a fifth advocates for veganism. There is some truth in each, but the full picture is much simpler than it appears on the surface.

For those who seriously want to train, lose weight, or build muscle, macros (protein, carbohydrates, fat) really do matter. It’s not esoteric science, not fitness mysticism, just three numbers that are worth customizing for yourself once, and from then on, you just fine-tune it. At Chili Fitness, we meet many new members who have been training and dieting casually for months or years before someone sat down with them and structured this topic. Serious change almost always begins when they become friends with the numbers.

This article will guide you through the basics. We will look at what a macronutrient is, how calorie deficit differs from macro ratio, how your body calculates, and you will get a working calculator that you can fill in with your own data. It will quickly provide a specific daily plan. In the end, we will discuss how to assemble your plate if you don’t want to measure grams for the rest of your life, and when it’s worth starting macro counting at all.

The basics: what is a macronutrient and the 4-4-9 rule

A macronutrient is one of the three nutrient groups that your body requests in the largest amounts and that provide energy. Protein. Carbohydrate. Fat. The word „macro” means just that: a large amount of nutrient, as opposed to vitamins and minerals, which we call micronutrients and you consume in milligram or microgram quantities.

The three macros provide calories, just not in the same density. One gram of protein and one gram of carbohydrate both provide 4 kcal of energy. One gram of fat provides 9 kcal. This is why fat seems „heavier” in a food: the same amount of grams releases more than twice the energy compared to protein or carbohydrates.

The official American guidelines (Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025) provide the recommended daily ratios in a range, this is called AMDR (Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range). For adults, 10-35 percent of daily caloric intake should come from protein, 20-35 percent from fat, and 45-65 percent from carbohydrates. This is a fairly flexible range, intentionally set this way because the authorities know that people with different lifestyles thrive in very different sovereign balances.

The Hungarian OKOSTÁNYÉR recommendation works with similar ranges, just visually, communicating in the language of plate quarters. There is no significant difference between the two recommendations.

The numbers may seem dry at first, but the logic is simple. The body uses all three macros for different purposes: protein builds, carbohydrates provide fuel, and fat regulates and protects. The balance between two and three determines how satiated you are, how much muscle you build, and at what energy level you train.

Protein: the key to muscle building and satiety

Protein is made up of amino acids and can practically patch up every tissue in your body. Muscle, tendon, bone, skin, hair, immune system, enzyme, hormone. There are twenty types of amino acids, nine of which the body cannot produce, these are called essential and must be obtained from the diet.

Another important property of protein is that it also robs back calories. The body spends 20-30 percent on digestion, this is called the thermic effect (TEF). For carbohydrates, this is 5-10 percent, and for fat, it's almost zero. If you consume 100 kcal of protein, net 70-80 kcal is utilized because the remainder is burned by digestion itself. This is not some trick, but physiology.

How much protein is needed? The official minimum recommendation (RDA) is 0.8 g per kilogram of body weight daily. This is the survival level, the amount below which the body starts to cannibalize muscle for the maintenance of its own tissues. Those who train or want to lose weight are recommended much more by contemporary sports nutrition literature: 1.4-2.0 g/kg body weight, according to the ISSN (International Society of Sports Nutrition).

For a 75 kg training person, this means 105-150 g of protein daily. A lot? In concrete examples, not so much:

• 1 medium chicken breast (150 g): about 35 g of protein
• 2 eggs for breakfast: about 12 g
• 1 bowl of cottage cheese (200 g): about 22 g
• 1 medium serving of lentil stew: about 15 g
• 1 handful of almonds: about 6 g

With this combination, you are already above 90 g for most of the day.

Why does this matter so much? Because in a calorie deficit, protein protects muscle. Those who reduce calories and eat little protein often do lose weight, but that loss is largely at the expense of muscle. The scale shows good news, the mirror does not. Those who want to lose weight are practically always on the best track when protein remains in the upper range, and the deficit occurs on the carbohydrate and fat side.

Carbohydrates: the fuel for performance

Your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, and this is the most efficient energy source for the brain and muscles. When you lift weights, sprint, give your all in a group class, or go for a long run, it burns tested glucose and glycogen (stored carbohydrate). Glycogen is almost entirely stored in the muscles and liver, in an amount of about 400-500 g in an average adult.

Therefore, your workouts may be harder if you try to do intense strength training after multiple rounds of keto or low-carb diets. The body tries to replenish energy from fat and ketones for two days, but this is simply not the most effective fuel for maximum exertion.

Carbohydrate is therefore not an enemy, but the basis of intense training. What you should avoid is not carbohydrates, but refined, processed carbohydrates. The latter cause a rapid increase in blood sugar, contain little fiber, and are not very filling.

Good carbohydrates (complex, high in fiber): oatmeal, brown rice, buckwheat, millet, whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, legumes (lentils, chickpeas, beans), sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, fruits, vegetables.

Refined, less useful carbohydrates: soft drinks, energy drinks, white pastries, refined breakfast cereals, sweets, cakes, fried side dishes.

The difference is not moral, but mechanical. A 0.5-liter bottle of soft drink and a serving of rice topped with chicken breast contain roughly the same number of calories, but the latter continues to work in you two hours later, and your blood sugar doesn't spike with it. The calories from the soft drink are swallowable: they do not signal, do not fill you up, and disappear from the body almost unnoticed. That’s why you can eliminate 800 empty calories in a day without ever feeling like you ate.

The WHO's 2023 carbohydrate guidelines also highlight the importance of fiber intake. A daily intake of 25-30 g of fiber is recommended for adults, which is far from being met by most people. Fruits and vegetables are the answer everywhere, but consuming legumes 2-3 times a week is one of the most effective ways to increase fiber intake.

Fat: hormones, vitamins, cell membranes

Fat has long been demonized, a legacy of the 90s when „low fat” appeared on every packaged food. Back then, fat was to blame. By now, the scientific picture is more balanced: fat is an essential macro, just not all fats are the same.

Steroid hormones, including testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone, are built from fat. Four fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) simply do not absorb without fat. Cell membranes are made of fat, and their flexibility and communication are determined by what fatty acids we consume. If someone lives with a consistently low fat intake, it often shows in their hormonal balance. According to a 2021 meta-analysis, consistently low fat (below 20 percent of total calories) was associated with a decrease in testosterone in men.

The distinction is not whether „eating fat is good or bad,” but rather what fat you eat.

• Beneficial fats (unsaturated): olive oil, avocado, walnuts, almonds, cashews, salmon, tuna, mackerel, eggs, flaxseed, chia, coconut oil in moderation
• In moderation: butter, cheese, red meat, bacon occasionally
• To be avoided: industrial trans fats (fried ready meals, cheap pastries, certain types of margarine), deeply processed, hydrogenated fats

Omega-3 fatty acids are particularly important because they are anti-inflammatory, aid muscle recovery, and support cardiovascular health. It is advisable to supplement with 2-3 servings of fish per week, or if that is not possible, fish oil capsules.

The WHO recommendation for daily saturated fat intake: below 10 percent of total calories. This means about 22 g of saturated fat in a daily framework of 2000 kcal, which is not so restrictive on its own, just be careful that it does not come from industrial foods.

The calorie deficit, TDEE, and weight loss

Here comes the clarification that can remove a lot of confusion from the topic. Weight loss primarily does not depend on the macro ratio, but on whether you are in a calorie deficit. This is the basis of thermodynamics, and countless studies have confirmed it. A 2020 systematic analysis compared 121 different diets and concluded that almost all worked if there was a deficit. A 2018 study with 600 participants divided them into low-fat and low-carb groups. After a year, the low-fat group lost 5.3 kg, while the low-carb group lost 6 kg. One kilo difference. Over twelve months.

So why are we even talking about macros? For two reasons:

1. The deficit is more sustainable if you eat the right macros. High protein and high fiber carbohydrates provide a feeling of fullness, making it easier to endure the same lower calorie intake. Anyone who is hungry in the last three hours of every day will eventually give up the diet.
2. In a deficit, it matters whether you lose weight from muscle or fat. In a high-protein deficit, mostly fat is lost. In a low-protein deficit, muscle is also lost, which deteriorates your metabolism in the long run, and you will look the way you don't want to.

In short: calories determine whether you lose or gain weight. Macros determine what you lose or build, and with what energy you experience the journey.

How to calculate your own calories

Two steps. First, you calculate the maintenance calories, this is called TDEE. (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). TDEE includes your basal metabolic rate (BMR, the amount of calories you burn at rest in a day), plus all the movement you do in a day: exercise, walking, typing, housework, freezing.

The most commonly used formula is the Mifflin-St Jeor, which has been the official reference since its publication in 1990 and is considered the most accurate estimate for the adult population:

• Male BMR: (10 × weight kg) + (6.25 × height cm) − (5 × age) + 5
• Female BMR: (10 × weight kg) + (6.25 × height cm) − (5 × age) − 161

You multiply the BMR by the activity multiplier to get the TDEE. The multiplier depends on your lifestyle:

Your TDEE is now set. You adjust the target calories to this:

• Weight loss: TDEE minus 300-500 kcal per day. This means about 0.5 kg weight loss per week, which is sustainable and does not take off muscle.
• Maintenance: exactly the TDEE.
• Muscle building: TDEE plus 200-400 kcal. Slow mass gain that does not add unnecessary fat.

You will then build the macros: 1.6-2.0 g/kg body weight protein, 25-30 percent fat, the remainder carbohydrates.

Don't worry, you don't have to calculate this on paper manually. The calculator below takes care of all this with the push of a button using your own data.

Your own macro calculator

The calculator below does exactly what we went through above. It asks for your gender, age, weight, height, activity level, and goal. From these, it calculates the BMR according to Mifflin-St Jeor, multiplies it by the activity multiplier, and this gives the TDEE. It adjusts the target calories to this and allocates protein from the ISSN sports nutrition range. It sets fat to 27 percent of the target calories (the middle of the 25-30 range), and the remainder will be carbohydrates.

The calculator provides a starting point, not a strict rule. After two weeks, it's worth checking how your body responds. If you haven't lost a single gram in that time and aimed for a calorie deficit, you can reduce by an additional 100-200 kcal. If you lose more than half a kilogram per week and feel fatigued, add 100-200 kcal. The body is individual, and the formula estimates an average. Your body's reaction is the actual response.

The logic is similar for muscle building: after 4-6 weeks, if the scale hasn't moved up and you don't see changes in the mirror, add an additional 100-150 kcal.

The plate model, if you don't want to measure by grams

The numbers provide a good guideline, but no one will measure chicken breast by grams their whole life. Therefore, the Hungarian SMART PLATE and most clinical dietitians also recommend a simpler model that works in your head, without a scale.

According to the model, half of your plate should be vegetables and fruits, a quarter a quality protein source, and a quarter complex carbohydrates. The 1-2 tablespoons of quality oil used for cooking automatically accounts for fat intake as well.

When it’s worth counting macros and when it’s not

In the large middle range, macro counting Teaches effectively for 4-8 weeks. You will learn how much is in what: how much protein is in your favorite breakfast, how many carbohydrates are in a slice of bread, how much fat is in a tablespoon of oil. After two months, you will be able to estimate the values from memory, and it becomes unnecessary to measure by grams. It’s worth revisiting if you get stuck for some reason or set a new goal.

You can use a simple notebook, an Excel sheet, or a free app as a tool for counting. In Hungary, the most common choices are MyFitnessPal or Yazio, both of which have a fairly good database of Hungarian products and can recognize coded products as well.

If you are sitting down for the first time now and decide that you want to know your own macros, it’s worth following these four steps:

1. Press the calculator above and write down the numbers you get. This is your starting point, and you will work with this for the first two weeks.

2. In the first three to four days just pay attention. Eat as you usually do, just track what you eat, and read the nutritional values from the packaging. The goal is not to immediately pull your life to the target number, but to understand where you currently stand. A typical discovery: most people consume 30-50 g of protein daily, while they would need 120 g.

3. From the middle of the second week aim. Include protein: a specific protein source in every meal. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack. Once this is set, the rest usually falls into place by itself.

4. In two weeks weigh and evaluate. If your goal was weight loss, and you really lose 0.3-0.7 kg, you are on the right track. If nothing has moved, or your weight has only increased, tighten up a bit on the calorie deficit. If it went too fast, ease up a bit.

The process is not a straight line. The body changes, stress changes, the week changes. Macros are a compass, not a GPS.

If you want to move forward with Chili Fitness

The macro calculator gives a good start, but in practice, putting together your daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner is where everything is decided. That's where it turns out what you eat to get the 130 g of protein so that it doesn't get boring, doesn't drastically increase your weekly grocery bill, and fits into the weekend fried fish as well.

The personal trainers and nutrition consultants at Chili Fitness can help exactly with this. Anyone who comes for a trial workout will receive a short nutritional consultation along with the assessment. In this, we will translate the output of the above calculator into your own life: specific breakfast, lunch, dinner ideas, snack options, and a weekly outline that can be implemented in your own kitchen. If you want a companion in the long term, in the consultations associated with personal training, we will review the numbers every two weeks and adjust them in light of the results.

The numbers are there. The plate model is also there. The rest is up to you, but you don't have to tackle it alone. At Chili Fitness, we meet weekly with members who have progressed more in six weeks after putting the two together than they did in the entire previous year.

If you are just starting, restarting, or simply want to take a look at where you stand, come in for a trial workout. The numbers are already waiting in the calculator.