How MacroKit Turns One Goal Into Your Daily Macro Targets
Your daily macro targets come from three numbers chained together: the calories you burn (TDEE), an offset for the goal you picked, and a protein floor set by your bodyweight. You pick one goal and the math fills in the grams.
By the end of this you'll be able to check MacroKit's output against your own arithmetic and know exactly why each number landed where it did. Let me run the full chain with one real example: a 180 lb man, 5'10", age 30, training four days a week. I'll carry him from raw stats to a plate.
What is TDEE and how does MacroKit estimate it?
TDEE is your total daily energy expenditure, every calorie you burn in 24 hours, including sleeping, digesting, walking to the car, and training. It is the single most important number in the chain, because the goal offset is a percentage of it and the macros are a slice of what's left.
MacroKit estimates it in two steps. First it calculates your resting burn with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which research found more accurate than the older Harris-Benedict formula for most people (Mifflin et al., 1990). For men the formula is:
BMR = (10 x weight kg) + (6.25 x height cm) - (5 x age) + 5
Women use the same formula with -161 in place of +5. For our 180 lb (81.6 kg), 178 cm, 30-year-old man:
BMR = 816 + 1112.5 - 150 + 5 = 1784 calories
That is what he'd burn lying in bed all day. Nobody does that, so the second step multiplies BMR by an activity factor:
| Activity level | Multiplier | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1.2 | Desk job, no training |
| Light | 1.375 | 1-3 light sessions a week |
| Moderate | 1.55 | 3-5 training days |
| Very active | 1.725 | 6-7 hard sessions |
| Athlete | 1.9 | Two-a-days, physical job |
Our lifter trains four days, so moderate (1.55) fits:
TDEE = 1784 x 1.55 = 2765 calories
That 2765 is his maintenance. Eat that and his weight holds. Every macro target below is built off it.
How does the goal offset change calories for a cut, bulk, or recomp?
The goal offset is a percentage MacroKit adds to or subtracts from TDEE based on the one button you pressed. A cut needs an energy deficit, a bulk needs a surplus, and a recomp sits at or near maintenance and leans on protein and training to shift body composition slowly.
Here are the defaults, applied to his 2765 maintenance:
- Cut: minus 20 percent.
2765 x 0.80 = 2212 calories. That is roughly a 550-calorie daily deficit, which trends toward about a pound a week. Aggressive enough to see progress, gentle enough to hold onto muscle. - Bulk: plus 10 percent.
2765 x 1.10 = 3042 calories. A lean gaining surplus of around 275 calories, aimed at adding tissue without much extra fat. - Recomp: maintenance, give or take 5 percent. Around 2765 calories, sometimes a touch under on rest days and over on training days.
I use a percentage rather than a flat 500-calorie cut for everyone because a 130 lb person and a 230 lb person do not burn the same amount, so they should not eat into the same fixed number. A percentage scales with the body it's attached to. The rest of this walkthrough follows the cut at 2212 calories.
How does the protein-first split assign your macros?
Protein-first means MacroKit sets your protein target before it touches carbs or fat, then fills the remaining calories around it. Most calculators split by percentage of total calories, which lets protein sag when calories drop on a cut. That is backwards. Protein need is tied to your bodyweight and your training, not to how many calories you happen to be eating this week.
The order:
- Protein first. Set at 1 gram per pound of bodyweight on a cut, which sits inside the 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg range the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends for building and keeping muscle (Jäger et al., 2017). For our 180 lb lifter that's 180 g protein, or
180 x 4 = 720 calories. - Fat second. Set at 25 percent of total calories to keep hormones and satiety in a good place.
2212 x 0.25 = 553 calories, divided by 9 calories per gram is 61 g fat. - Carbs last. Carbs take whatever calories are left after protein and fat are paid.
2212 - 720 - 553 = 939 calories, divided by 4 is 235 g carbs.
Carbs are the flex lever on purpose. They are the macro you can move up or down without touching the parts that protect muscle and hormones, so on a cut they shrink first and on a bulk they grow first.
What do the final macro numbers look like on a plate?
The full chain for the 180 lb lifter on a cut lands at 2212 calories split 180 g protein, 61 g fat, and 235 g carbs. Here it is start to finish:
| Step | Value |
|---|---|
| BMR (Mifflin-St Jeor) | 1784 cal |
| TDEE (x1.55) | 2765 cal |
| Cut offset (-20%) | 2212 cal |
| Protein (1 g/lb) | 180 g (720 cal) |
| Fat (25%) | 61 g (553 cal) |
| Carbs (remainder) | 235 g (939 cal) |
Grams are abstract until you see them as food, so here is one day that lands close:
- Breakfast: 3 whole eggs, 4 egg whites, 80 g oats with a banana. Roughly 38 g protein.
- Lunch: 6 oz chicken breast, 1.5 cups cooked rice, mixed peppers. Roughly 52 g protein.
- Snack: 200 g 0% Greek yogurt with berries. Roughly 20 g protein.
- Dinner: 6 oz 93/7 ground beef, a large potato, broccoli. Roughly 48 g protein.
- Evening: a scoop of whey in water. Roughly 25 g protein.
That stacks to about 183 g protein with carbs and fat filling in around it. This is the part MacroKit does for you after the math: it builds a week of real meals that hit the targets, so you are not the one solving a constraint problem at 6 a.m. You can see the whole tool at getmacrokit.com.
Why does protein get locked first?
Protein gets locked first because it is the macro that decides whether the weight you lose is fat or muscle. Across thousands of cut logs I've looked at, the people who hold their strength while leaning out have one thing in common, and it isn't a clever carb-cycling scheme. They hit protein every single day, floor included, even on the days they ate badly otherwise. Protein near 1 g per pound combined with resistance training is the single biggest lever for keeping muscle in a deficit.
Fat sits at 25 percent because dropping it much lower tends to wreck satiety and, over weeks, hormones. Carbs flex because they fuel training and they are the easiest macro to add back when a cut stalls and you need a diet break. The order is ranked by what protects your results when calories get tight.
Frequently asked questions
Is TDEE an exact number?
No. It is an estimate with a margin of roughly 5 to 10 percent, because activity multipliers are buckets, not measurements. MacroKit gives you a precise starting point, then you adjust based on two weeks of real scale-weight data.
Why 1 gram of protein per pound instead of per kilogram?
Per pound is the practical shorthand that lands inside the evidence-backed 1.6 to 2.2 g/kg window for a lifter in a deficit. It is easy to remember and easy to hit.
What changes for a bulk or recomp?
The offset and the protein anchor. A bulk adds about 10 percent to TDEE and most of those extra calories go to carbs. A recomp holds calories at maintenance and leans hard on protein and progressive training.
Today's step: weigh yourself first thing tomorrow, plug your real height, weight, and age into the Mifflin-St Jeor formula above, and write down your maintenance number. That one figure is the anchor for every macro decision you'll make for the next month.