How the calculator works
1. Resting burn. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) comes from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation: 10 × weight in kg + 6.25 × height in cm − 5 × age, plus 5 for men or minus 161 for women.
2. Maintenance.BMR is multiplied by an activity factor from your training days, from 1.375 at two days a week up to 1.9 at six or more. That's your maintenance, or TDEE.
3. Your goal. Building muscle adds up to 10% (never more than 400 kcal), a cut takes off 15%, a recomp takes off 5%.
4. Macros. Protein is set per kilogram of body weight, fat is 25% of calories (never under 0.7 g/kg), and carbs fill the rest.
Protein by goal
- Build muscle
- 2.0 g per kg
- Recomp
- 2.2 g per kg
- Lose fat
- 2.4 g per kg
- Maintain
- 2.0 g per kg
Making the numbers work
Any calculator is a starting point. Weigh yourself a few mornings a week and look at the weekly average. Building muscle, aim to gain about 0.25 to 0.5% of your body weight a week; cutting, to lose about 0.5 to 1%.
If the trend stalls for two to three weeks, move calories by 100 to 200 a day and keep protein where it is. Most of the change should come from carbs and fat.
Hitting the numbers is the hard part. In the MyCoach Ed app, you snap a photo of a meal and it works out the portions and macros, then shows what's left for the day.