You can track macros all day, but if you don’t have specific goals in mind, you won’t know what it is you’re tracking. When it comes to body composition, there are typically three major goals:
Your TDEE is the number of calories you burn per day, so if you eat that number of calories each day, you will maintain your current weight. However, if you want to lose or gain weight, there are a few more calculations involved.
Every pound of body weight is equivalent to 3,500 calories. That means if you want to lose 2 pounds a week, you’ll have to create a deficit of 7,000 over the course of the entire week. If you want to gain 2 pounds each week, you’ll have to take in 7,000 more calories during the week.
Of course, when it comes to losing or gaining weight in a healthy way, it’s not just about calories. There are other factors involved, like building muscle, but for the sake of counting macros, calories are a good place to start. If you want to lose 2 pounds per week, you can make a goal to eat 500 fewer calories per day and to burn off another 500 daily through exercise. That will give you your 1,000-calorie daily deficit.