Macros — short for macronutrients — are the three nutrient groups that supply almost all your calories: protein, carbohydrate and fat. “Counting macros” means tracking grams of each instead of only total calories, so you control not just how much you eat, but what that food is made of.
The three macros, at a glance
| Macro | Calories per gram | Main jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Protein | 4 | Builds and repairs muscle, keeps you full |
| Carbohydrate | 4 | Main fuel, especially for brain and hard training |
| Fat | 9 | Hormones, vitamin absorption, long-lasting energy |
Alcohol, at 7 kcal per gram, is sometimes called a fourth macro — it supplies calories with no nutrition, which is why it stalls fat loss so effectively.
How to split your calories
Start with protein, because it has the clearest target: 1.2–2.4 g/kg depending on your goal (see the Protein Calculator). Then fill the rest with carbs and fat to suit your training and taste — a common starting split for a 2,740 kcal maintenance target is about 160 g protein, 330 g carbohydrate and 90 g fat, but there is no single “correct” split. Higher-carb suits endurance and heavy training; higher-fat suits people who prefer it and train less intensely. Both can work at the same calorie total.
Do you need to count macros?
Not everyone. If your goal is simply to eat better, a plate approach — half vegetables, a palm of protein, a fist of carbs, some healthy fat — gets most of the benefit without tracking. Counting helps when progress stalls, when you train seriously, or when you want to learn what your usual meals actually contain. A week or two of tracking is often enough education to eat well by eye afterwards.
Common mistakes
- Setting protein too low and filling the gap with carbs or fat — muscle suffers.
- Cutting fat too far — hormones, hunger and vitamin absorption suffer below about 0.6 g/kg.
- Treating macro targets as daily law — weekly averages matter more than any single meal.
- Ignoring fibre, micronutrients and food quality — macros describe energy, not health on their own.
See the methodology for the macro split behind the TDEE calculator.