Do the Math – Calculate Your Macro Goals

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I use the simplest keto calculator available, using IDEAL body weight NOT current body weight – as many calculators do.

First, determine your ideal weight. There are many ranges and charts available, but I use the simplest version from nursing school many years ago. We use ideal weight because we want to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. If we use current weight for our calculations, then our macro goals will be set to sustain our current weight.

Start with your current height — females are allowed 100 pounds for first 5 feet and 5 pounds per inch over that. Males are allowed the same 100 pounds for the first 5 feet and 6 pounds per inch over.

Example: a 5’5” female would have an AVERAGE ideal weight of 125 lbs, while a male of same height would have average ideal weight of 130lbs. (Let me offer this one tidbit: I understand that many people freak out with these weights, but they really are ideal for the heights. Google images of people from 1950 – BEFORE the low fat craze. People were much thinner and were perfectly healthy. We’ve become desensitized to body weights for lots of reasons, but it has skewed our perspective of what a body should look like.)

Now that you’ve calculated your ideal weight, we will use that number to identify our protein needs per day. At 5’5”, a female’s average ideal weight would be around 125 lbs. Convert that to kilograms using the standard conversion factor, 2.2.

Math would look like: 125/2.2 = 56.8. So your weight in kg is 56.8. For people of average daily activity, the recommendation is 1 gram of protein per 1 kg if body weight.

So, protein needs would be approx 56.8 grams per day — divided into 2 or 3 meals per day, based on lifestyle and personal choices.

For our way of eating, we calculate our protein needs and then use that to determine our fat needs – approx double the protein goal. So you would need about 114 grams for fat per day.

Carb grams are counted as total carbs bc fiber carbohydrates DO impact some people’s glucose levels. Max carb goal should be 20 grams per day or 6-7 per meal.

I hope I’ve kept this as easy and simple as possible. Yes. There are many keto calculators but most do NOT account for metabolic disorders or they are athlete-based, resulting in very high protein intake and excess proteins will be converted into glucose in the absence of carbs — not good for anyone with insulin resistance or diabetes.