Macros for Weight Loss: How to Split Your Calories

The short answer

Keep protein high and tied to your body weight, around 2 g per kg / 0.9 g per pound a day, give fat enough room for meals to stay satisfying, and let carbs take the rest. The ratio follows from those three steps, so it'll look different for a smaller and a bigger person on the same calories. The macro calculator does the arithmetic for you.

Calories decide the weight loss, macros decide what you lose

You lose weight when you eat less energy than you burn. No split of protein, carbs and fat gets around that. What the split changes is what the lost weight is made of: with enough protein and some hard training, more of it comes from fat and less from muscle.

So set the calories first. The daily calorie needs calculator gives you a starting estimate, and progressive overload while cutting covers how big a deficit makes sense if you lift. Then split those calories, in this order.

Protein first

Protein is the macro to protect when calories come down.

• At maintenance, a large review of protein and lifting found muscle gains stopped increasing at around 1.6 g per kg / 0.7 g per pound of body weight a day.
• In a deficit, needs go up. The sports nutrition society's position on protein says lifters who are dieting may need more to hold on to lean mass, and a review of dieting lifters came to the same conclusion.

In practice, around 2 g per kg / 0.9 g per pound of body weight covers most people in a moderate deficit. Lean people cutting hard can go up to about 2.6 g per kg / 1.2 g per pound.

Fat: enough to keep meals satisfying

Fat makes food taste good and keeps meals from feeling like a punishment, and your body needs some of it. For adults, the US Dietary Guidelines list 20% to 35% of calories from fat as an acceptable range. About 25% is a good default.

On a small calorie target, a percentage can push fat very low, so it helps to keep a floor of about 0.5 g per kg / 0.2 g per pound of body weight, the bottom of the range in a review of nutrition for building muscle. Cutting fat below that doesn't speed up fat loss. Only the calorie gap does that.

Carbs: fuel for training

Whatever calories are left after protein and fat go to carbs. They're the most flexible macro, and the one most worth keeping around your workouts, because a cut only keeps your muscle if your training stays hard. If you feel flat in the gym, try putting more of your carbs in the meal before training.

What's the best macro ratio for weight loss?

There isn't one ratio that wins, as long as calories and protein are right. In a year-long trial of 609 adults, a healthy low-fat diet and a healthy low-carb diet led to about the same weight loss. When tightly controlled feeding studies swapped carbs for fat at equal calories, the differences in fat loss were tiny.

That's why fixed splits like 40/30/30 (40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat) are a poor starting point. They hand out protein as a share of calories, but protein needs follow body weight. At 1,500 kcal, 30% protein is about 113 g, whoever you are:

The same ratio fits one person and leaves the other well short. Work out protein from body weight first and let the ratio fall out of it. The macro calculator has a chart of how far a fixed ratio drifts as calories change.

What should my macros be at 1,500 calories?

Using protein at 2 g per kg / 0.9 g per pound, fat at 25% of calories and carbs for the rest:

Same calories, very different splits. Is 1,500 kcal right for you at all? That depends on your size and activity, so check with the calorie calculator rather than borrowing a number.

Macros to lose weight for women

The method doesn't change: protein from body weight, fat as a share of calories, carbs for the rest. What changes are the inputs. Protein is set by body weight, so the lower your calorie target, the bigger the share of it protein takes. The woman in the macro calculator's worked example, on 1,480 kcal, lands at 35% protein. That's expected, not a sign something is off.

Low targets have one extra risk: the less you eat, the harder it gets to cover protein and enough food overall. If your estimate comes out very low, a slower deficit is usually the better trade than squeezing protein or fat further.

Losing fat and building muscle at the same time

If you're new to lifting, coming back after a break, or carrying more body fat, you can often do both. The deficit is smaller and protein matters even more. How to build muscle and lose fat at the same time covers the calorie side and the training that makes it work.

Check and adjust after two to three weeks

Your first targets are an estimate. Log your food, weigh yourself several times a week and compare weekly averages. If your weight hasn't moved after two to three weeks, take a little off the calories, mostly from carbs or fat, and leave protein where it is. How to count macros covers the logging side, including which numbers to get right every day and which can be approximate.

When to get individual advice

If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, have kidney disease, take medication for diabetes, or have a history of disordered eating, set your targets with a doctor or registered dietitian. The same goes for anyone who needs to lose weight for a medical reason.

Tracking it in GymEvo

GymEvo's food log is free, including barcode scanning, macros per meal and calorie and macro targets. The calorie target can follow your weigh-ins automatically, so the two-to-three-week check happens without you doing the arithmetic. AI estimates from a meal photo or a spoken description are part of Premium. See GymEvo's free calorie counter.