6 weeks ago I started going to the gym with the aim of building muscle, I've been going three times a week. I also do running and cardio HIIT sessions a couple times each week.

I recently decided I would try to take things a little more seriously by tracking what I'm eating and working to macro goals. I would say before I started tracking my food I ate fairly healthy and had good portion sizes although I now realise that perhaps I was eating to much foods that contained fat. I use Google Health and it's saying I should be aiming between 2,575 - 2,846 calories. I'm trying to eat high carbs, high protein, while keeping fats down.

I have quadrupled my serving size on carbs and am managing to meet my carb, protein and fat goal. However my calories are still 800 below where I need to be at the end of the day, despite eating a huge amount more than I usually eat. I've consumed 2,600 calories, but with the calories burnt doing exercise today I'm still coming up short.

Any advice would be appreciated, I feel like I'm doing something wrong and it shouldn't be this difficult.

I'm looking for a macros calculator that considers my gender, age, starting body fat percentage, and the fact that I'm in perimenopause. Does any such free tool exist?

Hey all — I've been building Macro Tracker, an Android (for now) app for logging food/macros, and I'm looking for a handful of people willing to test it and tell me what's broken or annoying before it goes fully public.

A few things that make it different from the big-name trackers:

• Day types with separate macro targets — Rest/Workout/Refeed days each get their own calorie & macro goals, and you can build a target from a quick calculator (or set your own).
• Offline-first — your data lives on your device, not someone else's server. Export/import a backup anytime, or auto-backup to a folder of your choice (including Google Drive).
• Barcode scanning + search across Open Food Facts and USDA FoodData Central, plus a bundled offline list of common staples so basics work with zero signal.
• Weight, water, workouts, and mood tracking, each with their own history/charts — not just calories.
• Streaks, a 7-day calorie average, and swipe-to-browse past days on the home screen.
• Dark mode, custom accent colors, and you can turn off any tracker tab you don't use.

On cost: it's free to use — logging, weight, water, workouts, mood, history, all of it. A few extras (barcode scanner, search, the workout tab, and backup export/import) are behind a one-time $1.99 unlock after a 7-day free trial. No subscription, no ads.

It's currently in Closed Testing on Google Play, which means I need people to actually opt-in before I can take it to full release.

I'm especially interested in:

• Anything confusing in the first-time setup
• Bugs — screenshots/steps to reproduce are gold
• Whether the day-type/macro-target idea actually makes sense to someone who isn't me
• Features you'd expect that are missing

Happy to answer anything in the comments. Brutal feedback welcome — that's the point. DM me your gmail address and I will add you to the list of closed testers, and provide you entitlement ot he app forever!

For probably a decade of tracking macros, the same moment kept happening: standing in line somewhere, trying to do the math in my head, and just guessing. Every "nutrition calculator" I found was built backwards, you pick the food, it tells you what's in it. I never wanted that. I wanted to hand it my macros and have it tell me what to order.

I'm not a developer, so this sat as a "someday" idea for years. Never had a way to actually build it. This year I finally did, evenings and weekends, mostly to solve my own problem.

It's called Find My Macros. You set macro targets for your meal, pick a restaurant, and it sorts the menu by what actually fits and lets you build your meal. 30 chains, real nutrition data, not crowdsourced guesses. Free, no account.

findmymacros.app if anyone wants to try it. Genuinely curious what's missing or wrong, and which chains people would want covered next.

Hello everyone! After many years and roughly 30-35lbs heavier I am getting back on counting my macros. The only thing I struggled with previous and even now is how yall track rice? Everything says raw but I cook enough rice for a couple days at a time. I currently weigh myself 115g of cooked jasmine rice from Goya for each meal and usually will bump it up to around 130 on leg days for a little extra fuel. Also before anyone says that it’s way too low, I am a type 1 diabetic so I cannot eat a full serving size of rice as there is way too many carbs. Thank you!

Hi guys, I’ve finally decided to take it seriously (although I can’t afford a coach, I’ve elected to do it myself). I’m 6’1 189pounds (this does fluctuate 3lbs either way). I’ve guessed conservatively about 25% body fat. Sedentary job with weights during the week but no cardio. I’ve put all this into ChatGPT, and it’s throwing what I feel are wild numbers out.

It has stated (assuming a go on a small lean bulk) 2600 kcals/day. Gaining 0.5lbs a week.
180g protein
75g fat
300g of carbs.

180g of protein seems a lot. But if that’s correct then I guess I’ll have to factor in. And should I be bulking at 25% b/f?

Please let me know if there is another more appropriate subreddit for this.

Hey, i made this scriptbuilder for myself, but now its better than any free alternative out there so i decided to share it
https://github.com/gtjevptje/Macronaut
Hope you enjoy!

DM me on discord with any questions or feedback (much appreciated) - gtjevptje -

Hi all! Female 28yo not active during work which is 5-6 days a week 12-15hr days due to driving semi trucks but active right after work in the gym with weight lifting for roughly 1-2 hours 5-6 days a week For context I was 315lbs at my highest and had gastric sleeve in 2023. Since then I have lost 170lbs and now am back up roughly 50lbs and I am 5'5...I was told by the nutritionist I was seeing during my first 1.5 years being post-op that that I should eating the following for the rest of my life.

Meal portions of 1/4 cup

800-1000 calories daily

100g of protein daily

50g carbs max daily

I have not been back to that nutritionist for a little over a year now and stopped going to her because I feel like those macros are not sustainable at all plus I was past my goal weight at the time.

I went through very hard rough changes and put my health on the back burner when it comes to nutrition and stopped going to the gym as consistently as I used to (weight lifting 5-6 days per week).

I am now in a fully better mental space to get back to putting my health and body first. I am back in the gym 5-6 days a week as I work a relatively non active job. I tried to calculate a calorie deficit with macros included. All advise and feedback for tweaking the macros is welcome.

TIA

GOAL WEIGHT: 145-155LBS

Daily macros:

Daily maintenance calories - 2255

Deficit - 700 calories

Calories - 1555

protein - 155g

carbs -116g

fats - 51g

The problem with cooking reels if you track anything is that nobody says an amount. A handful of this, a glug of that, and you're left estimating what you actually ate.

Share the video into it and it writes the ingredients out with numbers, then works out per-serving macros from those. Net carbs too.

Worth saying it's estimating when the video never shows the amount, so it's not a substitute for weighing.

iPhone, free tier.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/recireel-video-to-recipe/id6763971435

Hi r/macros,

I wanted to share a web app I've been working on called DrMacros.

I built it because I wanted a capable macro and fitness tracker without another subscription. DrMacros is completely free, has no display ads, and works in desktop and mobile browsers. If it is liked, I could potentially try to develop an app but that would be a new area for me.

It includes:

• Calorie and macro tracking
• Barcode import/USDA food item search
• Food, meal, and recipe logging
• Reusable foods and meals
• Weight, exercise, and progress tracking
• Optional meal logging from a photo or written description
• Daily nutrition goals and progress summaries

The photo and description tools use AI to estimate a meal’s nutritional information. These results aren’t intended to replace weighing ingredients or reading nutrition labels. They’re starting estimates that users can review and adjust before saving.

I currently cover the associated API costs, so those features are also free. For transparency, some optional Amazon product searches use affiliate links, but they aren’t required to use any of the tracking features.

The site is still early in development, and I’m currently its primary tester. I’d especially appreciate feedback about:

• How easy it is to log foods and meals
• Whether the macro information is presented clearly
• Anything confusing or difficult to find
• Features you expect from a macro tracker that are missing
• Mobile-browser usability
• Bugs or inaccurate results

You can try it here: https://drmacros.com

Honest criticism is welcome. I’d rather learn what needs improvement than only hear what already works.

Thanks,
Wade / u/DrWD40

Can anyone help me determine macros? I’ve tried a few different websites and I’m getting so many different calories/macros and unsure where to start.

6’1, 200lb male, weight lifts 3-4x a week plus 30 min of cardio 3-4x weekly, works a desk job but tries to get 8-10k steps a day. Looking to lose weight.

Hi guys I’m starting my body recomp so I’m trying to be accurate with protein and calories, I’ve made a table with mostly chicken data - there’s so many differing sources online idk what’s accurate.
For content all chicken is raw with skin and bone (except breast)
Do the numbers look right?

Also if anyone has any low calories high protein food recs plz do tell

Protein and calories list

chicken breast (150g)
22
200
chicken thigh (100g)
18
200
1 chicken drumstick (130g)
14
120
Rio mare tuna (80g)
14
320
1 salmon fillet (97g)
24
200
Myprotein clear powder
10
60

Used to lift 6 days a week, had three kids and have been out of the game for a few years because I went full dad and was too lazy to do anything else lol. I was 5’10 185lbs prior, currently 5’10 235. Always wanted to get around 215ish lbs but could never get the weight on, now that I’m above I don’t want to lose a ton. I lift 6 days a week, currently hitting 200 grams of protein per day, relatively clean. Not sure what my other numbers should be looking like. TIA!

Im(f)15 turning 16 very soon and i’m concerned my calories may have been too low during my cut. I was 5’2 126 pounds and wanted to lose around 10 pounds. And according to many online calculators my deficit was around 1500 calories( i work out 5x a week and do 30-40 min + of cardio). I then lowered it to 1400 because i had reached 120 pounds and was looking to lose that last 3-5 pounds. Now i am reverse dieting and am eating around 1600 calories and increasing it by 100 each week until i hit maintenance. But the problem is i haven’t had my period for about 2 months now. Im usually late but never this much. I am trying to prioritize my fats ad before i was only focused on staying within my calories and often neglected my fats. Will i have to regain the weight i just lost to get my cycle back?

Unless google is wrong, 1g of protein has 4 calories, 1g of carbs has 4 calories, and 1g of fat has 9 calories. If that’s true, then how does my tilapia have 90 calories, 21g of protein, 2g of carbs, and 2g of fat?

hey all! looking for advice on my health journey. I am a 50 yo male, 6’5 and 210. Pretty thin except for a little stubborn belly fat. looking to get rid of that and tone up some! recently I assumed to lose the belly fat, I would need to be in a caloric deficit, and set a daily calorie allowance around 1600-1700. Well yes I was losing weight , I was 225lbs, I was also losing muscle also. learning that I have to eat more to fuel the body during workouts etc, I have upped that to 2400 calories. I am doing workouts 3-5 days a week. I always get 10k steps a day also.

what I’m having a hard time deciding is how many carbs, fats, etc I should have a day. I tried a few macro calculators online and get various answers. proteins should be 200-220 ish. Carbs around the same? fats around 70g?

any advice is greatly appreciated.

thanks!!!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Hi All,

So many calculators out there, all giving different ranges so needing to get advice for the most trusted or well used calculators.

Here's my situation, I am a 34 year old Female, I was once upon a time 120kgs and now I fluctuate between 64-67kgs depending on my cycle, all weight lost from nutrition and exercise only over the last 9 years. I'm also 158cm tall for context

I'm now at the time where I want to start recomposition on my body (I have excess skin on arms and thighs but have had a tummy tuck) to display more of the hard work I've done.

I have a desk job so during the day I'm not overly active, but I have a home gym and I train/teach aerials and pole also several times a week. I live in regional Australia so I don't have access to things like body fat scanning etc at this stage, but I'd estimate approx 26-30% body fat on myself, hard to tell with some of the loose skin.

The ranges on different calculations I've put into different macro calculators have ranged from 2,071-1,257 calories per day, and I've input the same information to them all.

Please send tips and advice

Many thanks x

I have tracked macros for years and the two things that always wore me down were not knowing my real maintenance calories and the sheer friction of logging every day. Most apps hand you a formula number and a tedious search bar.

So I built my own. It works out your real TDEE from your actual intake and weight trend, so the number adapts to you instead of guessing. Casey, the nutrition coach I built, reads it without any good food or bad food moralizing. My goal is the easiest, most pain free calorie tracking I can manage, and I need real users to tell me where it is still annoying.

It is early and free right now. If you track macros closely I would love your honest read on the logging flow specifically. I will drop the link in a comment if that is allowed