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“my brain is sick,” acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, February 2018

**Disclaimer: I learned all of this from KKFit’s program. Their program goes into a lot more detail about it.

Protein = 4 calories per gram

Fat = 9 calories per gram

Carbs = 4 calories per gram

Counting Macros:

First, we want to figure out our maintenance caloric intake (calories needed just to maintain our body every day). In order to do that, multiply body weight by a number 14-17. 14 is for those who aren’t active in their day-to-day life and 17 is for those who are very active. You can be a number in between.

Ex: 150 lbs x 16 (the number I chose because I’m fairly active, but not extremely) = 2,400 calories

Again, those are just the calories you need to sustain yourself, not to bulk or lose weight. If you’d like to bulk, add 300-500 calories onto your maintenance intake. If you want to trim, subtract 300-500 calories. I chose to add 500 because I want to bulk more.

Ex: 2,400 + 500 = 2,900 calories (to bulk)

Now we have to set our protein intake. Generally, in order to maintain or gain muscle, protein intake should range between .8 - 1.2 grams of protein per pound. Like KKFit, I do 1 gram per pound because it’s easier to track.

Ex: 150 lbs x 1g of protein = 150g of protein per day

***Don’t forget that there are 4 calories per gram of protein. 4 x 150g = 600 calories

So out of our total of 2,900 calories, 600 are for protein. That leaves us with 2,300 calories to divide amongst fats and carbs.

In the program I use, they determined 45% for fats and 55% for carbs is best for them to divide it up, but percentage breakdown is left up to the discretion of each person. I use the numbers they gave me.

With our remaining calories (2,300 for me) we need to multiply by 45% to find our daily fat intake.

Ex: 2,300 x .45 = 1,035 calories, but there are 9 calories per gram of fat so:

1,035 / 9 = 115 grams

Now we are left with 1,265 calories because 1,035 went to our fats. To calculate for carbs:

1,265 x .55 = 695.75 calories, but there are 4 calories per gram of carbs so: 695.75 / 4 = 173.9 g. I’d just round up, to make it easier.

Daily Macros:

Protein: 150 grams

Fats: 115 grams

Carbs: 174 grams