Free Macro Calculator for Women - Calculate Your Macros Now

How to Use This Macro Calculator

Using our macro calculator is straightforward and takes just a minute to complete. The calculator uses validated formulas based on your age, height, weight, activity level, and goals to determine your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). From there, it calculates the optimal distribution of macronutrients to support your specific objectives.

Input Your Personal Details

Start by entering your key physical metrics, such as your age, gender, height, and current weight. These factors play a crucial role in determining your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the number of calories your body burns at rest.

Be honest here. Don’t overestimate your activity levels. If you sit at a desk most of the day but hit the gym 3-4 times a week for an hour, you would typically fall into the "moderately active" category.

Choose Your Fitness Goal

Next, select your primary goal: losing weight, gaining muscle, maintaining your current weight, or body recomposition (losing fat while gaining muscle).

The calculator will create a moderate calorie deficit for weight loss by adjusting your macros, typically reducing carbohydrates and fats while keeping protein high to preserve muscle mass. If you want to gain muscle, it suggests a slight calorie surplus with higher protein and carbohydrate intake to fuel muscle growth and recovery. Maintenance focuses on balancing your macros to sustain your weight while optimizing your overall nutrition.

Get Your Macronutrient Breakdown

After entering your information, the calculator will generate your personal macronutrient targets, displayed as both percentages and grams per day.

For instance, a weight loss plan might recommend a macro distribution of 40% protein, 30% carbohydrates, and 30% fat. For a 1,700-calorie diet, this translates to approximately 170 grams of protein, 128 grams of carbohydrates, and 57 grams of fat daily.

Remember that these numbers serve as starting points and may need adjustment based on your individual response.

What Are Macros?

Unlike micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), which you need in smaller amounts, macros provide the energy that fuels everything your body does.

Protein builds and repairs tissues, supports immune function, and creates enzymes and hormones. Meanwhile, carbohydrates serve as your body's primary and preferred energy source. Finally, fats contribute to hormone production, vitamin absorption, and brain health.

Understanding these building blocks allows you to make informed food choices that support your health and fitness goals rather than simply cutting calories.

Why Counting Macros Works

By learning how to track specific macronutrient amounts, you can optimize your nutrition for your particular goals.

For example, if you want to lose fat or weight, you’ll want to eat more protein to stay satisfied for longer periods of time and avoid common weight loss pitfalls like binge eating. But if you want to build muscle, you’ll want to eat more protein and carbohydrates.

The beauty of macro counting lies in its flexibility. You don’t need to eliminate anything. Instead, you’ll learn how ot create meals using food that you love and enjoy while still meeting your body’s nutritional requirements.

Macros vs. Calories: What's the Difference?

Calorie counting focuses solely on the energy content of food, operating on the principle that consuming fewer calories than you burn leads to weight loss, which is great until you realize that it considers 300 calories of chicken and 300 calories of ice cream as basically the same.

This might work in the short term, but it doesn’t address specific and minute changes. For example, you might end up eating fewer calories in a day, but eating ice cream over chicken can result in a higher body fat percentage.

Macro counting, however, takes nutrition a step further by focusing on food quality and nutrient balance. It helps you maintain muscle during weight loss, regulate hunger through strategic protein intake, and fuel physical activity.

Read our guide on the differences between counting macros and counting calories to learn more about each approach.

Best Foods for Macro Counting

The best foods for easy macro counting typically have simple macro profiles—foods that contain predominantly one macronutrient with minimal amounts of others.

For protein, we have chicken breast, white fish, Greek yogurt, tofu, tempeh, and lentils. On the other hand, for carbohydrates, we have foods like rice, potatoes, oats, and quinoa. When selecting fats, avocados, olive oil, and nuts have reliable fat content per serving.

The trick lies in creating balanced meals using these straightforward options, then adding variety through vegetables and seasonings.

Best Macro Ratios by Goal

Your body requires different fuels when losing fat or weight versus building muscle or maintaining your current physique.

These ratios serve as starting points that you can adjust based on your progress and how your body responds. If anything, macros are an ever-changing number. What worked during your initial weight loss phase won’t be as effective when you want to maintain your now, leaner physique, or if you want to bulk up.

Similarly, your body’s needs will also be different during perimenopause to counteract age-related symptoms, regardless of your fitness goals.

Best Macro Ratios by Age

Age-related changes in hormone levels, metabolism, and muscle mass mean that the macronutrient ratio that worked in your 30s might need adjustment as you move into your 40s, 50s, and beyond.

Understanding these age-related nutritional shifts helps you adapt your eating pattern before signs and symptoms start to change, rather than wondering why what you did previously no longer works.

Here are guides on macros for each age, starting at 40, to help you get a head start:

• Macros for Women Over 40
• Macros for Women Over 50
• Macros for Women Over 60
• Macros for Women Over 70

How to Track Your Macros

Whether you're a busy mom juggling work and family, a woman navigating perimenopause, or someone looking to revamp your nutrition approach, there are benefits to tracking macros. Using this tool provides guidance that adapts to your lifestyle.

Gone are the days of restrictive diets or wondering why you’re not losing weight despite your best efforts.

Our science-backed approach helps you fuel your body correctly while working toward the results you want to see.