Keto Calculator For Women
Are you considering trying the keto diet? Then you must try the keto calculator, a digital nutrition tool designed to determine your exact macronutrient breakdown.
This is essential during the keto diet, allowing users to keep carbohydrates low to stay in ketosis while maintaining energy and hormone levels.
In this article, we introduce the keto calculator for women. We cover how it works, key inputs, keto macro ratios, and how to interpret your findings for the best results.
What Is a Keto Calculator?
The keto calculator is a digital nutrition tool designed to determine your calorie and macronutrient intake for sustainable ketosis. Sources show that the ketogenic diet focuses on a high-fat diet, moderate protein, and low-carbohydrate intake, with a total allowance of 20 to 50 grams per day for a 2000-calorie diet.
When this happens, the body stops using carbohydrates as the primary energy source and switches to burning fat. This results in the state of ketosis.
How It Calculates Your Macros and Calories
The keto calculator for women uses information such as age, weight, height, and activity level to determine your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is your daily calorie allowance.
Using your BMR, the calculator then divides your daily calorie allowance into fat, protein, and carbohydrates, based on optimal ketogenic diet macronutrient percentages.
Why It’s Especially Helpful for Women Over 40
Women over 40 experience several physiological changes that can alter their quality of life. During this time, estrogen declines, resulting in menopause, which is shown to increase appetite, weight gain, and changes to fat storage, which are shown to increase insulin resistance and a greater risk of chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Because the keto diet reduces carbohydrate intake and switches to fat as its primary fuel source, it is great for weight loss. Low carbohydrate intake can improve glycemic control. This results in reduced blood glucose levels and improved insulin sensitivity.
Furthermore, because the keto diet uses fat as its primary fuel source, it is great for fat loss. This can reduce visceral fat and decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Key Inputs to Enter
The keto calculator for women requires basic information to determine your calorie and macronutrient breakdown. Below, we discuss these requirements and different goals to help you achieve the best results.
Age, Height, Weight & Activity Level
Age, height, weight, and activity level are required to determine your BMR. Below, we highlight each and how they influence your BMR:
- Age: Metabolic rates change with age, which directly influences energy expenditure.
- Height/Weight: Directly affects your energy expenditure. Larger bodies have greater energy requirements, while smaller bodies have lower requirements.
- Activity: Physical activity type, intensity, and duration influence energy expenditure and requirements.
Goals: Weight Loss, Energy, Hormone Balance
Selecting your current goals influences your BMR. Below, we highlight how calorie and macronutrient requirements will change based on different goals, including weight loss, energy, and hormone balance.
- Weight Loss: Weight loss requires a decrease in calorie intake, and you will be prescribed a calorie deficit of 200–300 kcal/day.
- Energy: For sustainable energy, calorie intake may result in a small increase in calorie intake to sustain daily function and physical activity. More calories mean more fat for fuel, and protein for recovery.
- Hormone Balance: Maintains calorie requirements in line with BMR while increasing dietary fat for greater hormone support.
Understanding Keto Macro Ratios
Macronutrient ratios are an essential part of success with the keto diet. Below, we discuss the standard ketogenic diet ratios and how to adjust them for hormonal and metabolic shifts.
Standard Ratios (70‑80% Fat, 10‑20% Protein, 5‑10% Carbs)
The ketogenic diet is a very low carbohydrate diet that relies on high fat, moderate protein, and low carbohydrate intake. Below we compare the macronutrient ratios of the standard diet and the keto diet.
Standard Diet
- Carbohydrates: 45–65% of daily calorie intake
- Protein: 10–35% of daily calorie intake
- Fats: 20–35% of daily calorie intake
Ketogenic Diet
- Carbohydrates: 5–10% of daily calorie intake
- Protein: 10–20% of daily calorie intake
- Fats: 70–80% of daily calorie intake
Adjustments for Hormonal and Metabolic Shifts
Similar to the standard diet, the keto diet has a little wiggle room to modify macronutrient intake, provided less than 10% of your daily intake comes from carbohydrates. This allows us to make slight adjustments to address hormonal and metabolic shifts.
Cutting down carbohydrate intake and entering ketosis can be jarring, especially for beginners. Here, we recommend gradually reducing carbohydrate intake over the weeks leading up to starting the diet, and beginning at 10% intake to ease into the metabolic shift.
Meanwhile, for added hormone support, fat intake can be increased to 80% while reducing carbohydrate and protein intake by 5%. This should be consumed with healthy fats, which will provide hormone support.
Net Carbs vs Total Carbs
Carbohydrate intake must be closely monitored during the keto diet. However, given that limited carbs can be consumed, it is important to note which carbohydrates can affect ketosis; this is where net carbs and total carbs come in.
Total carbs refer to the total number of carbohydrates listed on a nutrition label, which includes fiber and sugar alcohols.
Meanwhile, net carbs only account for digestible carbohydrates, which do not include fiber and sugar alcohols, as they are not digested and do not contribute to blood sugar levels.
Why Net Carbs Matter for Women Over 40
For women over 40, the net carb approach is important as it still allows for dietary fiber intake. Research shows that dietary fiber supports gut health and improves regularity, while decreasing blood cholesterol and blood glucose levels after meals.
These benefits are invaluable; they not only provide sustainable energy levels but also improve weight management and support cardiovascular health.
Using a Net Carb Calculator
To calculate your net carbohydrate, subtract fiber and sugar alcohol from your total carbs consumed. This can also be done using net carb calculators online.
Interpreting Your Calculator Results
Using the keto calculator is a great first step toward keto success, but now we need to interpret the data. Here we discuss what this information means and how to use it for a successful keto diet.
Daily Macro Grams & Calories
While the keto diet comes with several advantages, monitoring total calorie intake is still essential to achieving your goals.
To highlight how this works, here is an example of common results seen using the keto calculator, including total calories and macronutrient ratio.
- Calories: 1400 kcal
- Fat: 70% of daily calorie intake
- Protein: 20% of daily calorie intake
- Carbohydrates: 10% of daily calorie intake
Fat is the most energy-dense macronutrient, containing 9 kcal/g, while both protein and carbohydrates contain 4 kcal/g. Converting your calories will provide you with daily targets for each macronutrient.
This can feel like a lot to think about for beginners. To reduce those overwhelming feelings, we recommend tracking your nutrition using a nutrition app and focusing on sticking to or below your daily carbohydrate intake to maintain ketosis. From here, you can begin thinking about daily protein intake and healthy fat intake through nutrient-dense food sources.
Tracking Ketosis & Energy Markers
While undergoing the ketogenic diet, there is a balancing act of trying to maintain ketosis while keeping up energy levels.
Tracking ketosis can be done through urine strips, blood, and breath ketone meters. Blood is considered to be the most accurate; however, urine is more convenient, albeit less accurate. These should be tested in a fasted state for the best results.
Meanwhile, energy levels can be improved through checking in with yourself and monitoring symptoms, including fatigue, brain fog, changes to sleep, and appetite. If you are experiencing low energy, focus on meeting your daily calorie requirements and consuming sufficient healthy fats and supplementing electrolytes.
Conclusion & Next Steps
Keto Calculator Summary
The keto diet has a higher price of entry compared to more traditional nutrition plans; however, with that comes some amazing benefits.
Fortunately, the keto calculator can help you determine the exact amount of calories and macronutrients to help you not only begin but also maintain ketosis.
Suggested Complementary Tools (net-carb calculator, macro calculator, keto resources)
To accompany this, we also recommend using complimentary apps, including:
- Net-carb Calculator: Ensure you are only tracking digestible carbohydrates.
- Macro Calculator: Helps you track and hit your macronutrient targets.
Meanwhile, consider checking out these other resources to deepen your knowledge of the ketogenic diet.
- "The Ketogenic Bible" by Jacob Wilson, PhD & Ryan Lowery, PhD: Science-heavy, includes citations to clinical trials and metabolic studies.
- "Ketone Therapy" by Dr. Mary Newport: Focus on therapeutic uses (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s), evidence discussed.
Sources
- Masood W, Annamaraju P, Khan Suheb MZ, et al. Ketogenic Diet. [Updated 2023 Jun 16]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/
- Kuryłowicz A. Estrogens in Adipose Tissue Physiology and Obesity-Related Dysfunction. Biomedicines. 2023 Feb 24;11(3):690. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines11030690. PMID: 36979669; PMCID: PMC10045924. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10045924/
- Andrews, R., Lacey, A., Bache, K. and Kidd, E.J., 2024. The role of menopausal symptoms on future health and longevity: A systematic scoping review of longitudinal evidence. Maturitas, 190, 108130. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2024.108130. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378512224002251
- Holesh JE, Aslam S, Martin A. Physiology, Carbohydrates. 2023 May 12. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan–. PMID: 29083823. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29083823/