How to count macros for muscle gain

To gain muscle, eat a small calorie surplus of roughly 200 to 300 kcal above the amount that keeps your weight steady, get plenty of protein at about 1.6 to 2.2g per kilogram of body weight, and fill most of the rest with carbs to fuel your training. Keep training hard alongside it. Muscle needs a reason to grow, so the food supports the work in the gym, it does not replace it. Here is how to set the numbers.

Start with a small surplus, not a big one

Muscle is built slowly. Your body can only add so much lean tissue in a week, and eating far more than you need just adds fat on top of the muscle. A surplus of about 200 to 300 kcal a day is enough for most people.

First work out your maintenance calories: the amount that holds your weight flat. Our calorie guide walks through the Mifflin-St Jeor and activity-multiplier maths if you have not got that figure yet. Once you have it, add 200 to 300 kcal on top. So if you hold steady at 2,400 kcal, aim for roughly 2,600 to 2,700.

Watch the scale over 2 to 3 weeks. A gain of about 0.2 to 0.5kg a week is a sensible pace for most people. Faster than that and more of what you are adding is fat. If the scale is not moving at all after a few weeks, nudge the surplus up a little.

Protein: the macro that builds the muscle

Protein gives your body the raw material to repair and grow muscle after training. This is the one to get right. For someone training regularly and trying to build, the useful range is about 1.6 to 2.2g of protein per kilogram of body weight.

So an 80kg person aiming for the middle of that range wants around 144 to 176g of protein a day. Spreading it across your meals, rather than piling it all into one, tends to suit most people better.

Good sources: chicken, beef, fish, eggs, Greek yoghurt, milk, and plant options like tofu, beans and lentils. At 4 kcal per gram, 160g of protein is 640 kcal of your day accounted for before you touch anything else.

Carbs: the fuel that makes training work

Carbs are your body's quick fuel. When you lift hard or train with intent, your muscles run largely on the carbohydrate stored in them. Eat too few and your sessions feel flat, your last few reps disappear, and you get less out of each workout. Less work in the gym means less reason for muscle to grow.

So on a muscle-gain plan, carbs earn their place. After you have set protein and fat, carbs usually take the largest share of what is left. Rice, pasta, oats, potatoes, bread and fruit all do the job. Eating a good chunk of your carbs around your training, before and after, is a common approach and helps you push harder in the session and refuel after it.

Fat: enough, not loads

Fat supports your hormones and helps you absorb certain vitamins, so you do not want it too low. A reasonable floor is about 0.6 to 1g per kilogram of body weight. Beyond that, fat is mostly there to make food taste good and hit your calorie target. At 9 kcal per gram it is the dense one, so a little goes a long way. Olive oil, nuts, oily fish, eggs and dairy cover it.

Putting the numbers together

Take an 80kg person on a 2,700 kcal muscle-gain target:

Protein: 160g. That is 640 kcal (protein is 4 kcal per gram).
Fat: 70g. That is 630 kcal (fat is 9 kcal per gram).
Carbs: whatever is left. 2,700 minus 640 minus 630 is 1,430 kcal for carbs. At 4 kcal per gram, that is about 357g.

So a day looks like roughly 160g protein, 357g carbs and 70g fat. Protein and fat set the base, carbs fill the tank. Log your food, aim to land near those numbers, and let the training do the rest.

Let the app handle the maths

Working out a surplus and splitting it three ways for every meal gets tedious fast. Fettle (stayfettle.com) sets your calorie and macro targets, then adds up protein, carbs and fat as you log, so you can see how much protein you still need before dinner. It has UK foods and barcode scanning, it is free, and there is no account to set up.

One honest note

These ranges suit most healthy, active adults, but they are general guidance, not medical advice. If you have a health condition, are pregnant, or follow a specific eating plan for medical reasons, check with your GP or a registered dietitian before changing how you eat or train.