*We currently have a technical problem with our calculator. It will be back up in running very soon. In the mean-time please use your My Fitness Pal App Calculator :)

Welcome to your Macro Calculator

Whether your goal is to lose weight, maintain or gain. You can use this easy to use calculator to work out your calorie  intake to reach your specific goal. This is based on your basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is adjusted to your daily activity level giving you an estimate on your total daily energy expenditure.

It’s simple; To lose weight you will need fewer calories, to gain weight you will need to increase them. When you are on a fitness plan, your goal may be to loose fat and tone or gain lean muscle without gaining fat.  This method is what you can use to reach these specific goals.  

Throw away the idea of a common diet, this is a simple way of learning to have healthy relationship with food without restrictions.  

What is flexible dieting?

It’s designed to fit around your lifestyle and preferences as long as you hit your Macronutrients target for the day. What does this mean? You can eat what you want, and when you want. Have that treat, go out to dinner or that event and still be reaching your macro’s.

This helps create a healthy relationship with food and the idea is to throw out “cheat day” or “guilt eating”

Macronutrients 

Macronutrients are the nutrients that our body needs in large amounts in order to function properly. The three macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins and fats. These nutrients work together to provide a certain amount of calories to help carry out functions like thinking, moving our body, converting food into energy, growing and repairing ourselves.  Almost all our nutrients come from the food that we eat.

 Protein (4 kcals per gram)

Proteins main function in the body is to build, strengthen and repair or replace things, such as tissue. Particularly for muscles, skin, hair, nails and bones. Our cells have thousands of proteins which together help our cells do their job. Without protein, our body'd simply cannot function.

 Carbohydrate (4 kcals per gram)

Carbohydrates are our body’s source of fuel which enters our body as glucose (blood sugar) Glucose is essential, being the quickest source of energy for our body and brain. Carbohydrates are made up of 3 components: Fibre, starch and sugar. Fibre and starch are complex carbs, while sugar is a simple carb.

Fibre and starch are the two types of complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates release their energy slowly and your body accesses the energy they provide over a longer period of time.

Simple carbs are sugars. Some of these occur naturally in fruit and dairy products, but many of these foods contain refined sugars such as processed foods. Opt for nutrient dense simple carbs such as fruit and yogurt and treat yourself when you need.

Fat (9 kcals per gram)

Fats play a crucial role in maintaining healthy skin and hair and are extremely important for insulating our bodies organs and the growth &  development of cell and brain functions. They play a role in absorbing nutrients and produce important hormones in your body.

What else to consider?

Don’t forget to eat your vitamins and minerals and fibre rich foods. It’s an amazing feeling to know you can reach your goals without all those restrictions of cutting out certain food groups. Remember what you eat, is what you feel and how you perform.

So aim to eat nutrient dense foods and know that you can have that treat too in moderation.

Track your diet

It’s so easy to track your diet. We recommend using My Fitness Pal app which allows you to scan barcodes of foods you’ve eaten with your phone. How good!

When measuring, use a scale which makes it much easier and soon enough you’ll get the hang of it and won’t need to use it in the long run!

Want to change phases?

If you are for example; just reached your weight-loss or body composition goal and want to now gain lean muscle mass. It’s important you don’t suddenly increase your calories. This could result in weight gain as your metabolism needs time to get back to normal. Spend half the time you spent on weight-loss slowly building up your calories. When exercising, it’s also important to take in consideration your energy expenditure so increase your calories a little higher to meet your needs and make adjustments where you can. For example: Add 50-150 calories back into your diet by week until your weight loss has stopped and your maintenance is reached. Weight gain can occur because your body holds onto water and other nutrients with your increased food intake. Don’t worry about small weight gains. Measure your arms, chest, waist, stomach, hips and thighs and use these measurements to keep track on how you are doing more than how much you weigh. You can also use the mirror and take photo's. Use this more than watching your weight, as weight can be deceiving. If you are gaining too much, just keep your calories the same for the next week. It can be a slow process but it is crucial for your body’s recovery and making sure you don’t yo-yo with your diet.

How to make adjustments

This calculator gives you an estimate of your ideal calorie intake. Don’t stress if you are not hitting the perfect amounts. Aim within 5% of your recommended calorie intake and you are doing great!!  This will allow that flexibility and relief from over analysing everything. You can make adjustments as you go along but we recommend only adjusting in small amounts and no more than 200kcals at a time by adjusting your carbohydrates and fats while keeping your protein the same. Asses this every 7-14days. For healthy and sustainable weight-loss or weight gain you don’t want to have a sudden change as this can affect your metabolism and longevity of your goals.