How To Calculate Macros For Fat Loss (The 5-Step Formula)
Maintenance is bodyweight × 12, minus 500. Protein 1g/lb, fat 0.3g/lb, carbs fill the rest. At 200 lb: 1,900 calories, 200g protein, 60g fat, 140g carbs.
By Justin Myers · October 14, 2026
The engineering approach to losing the gut: deficits that don't wreck your life, and how to keep muscle while you cut.
Maintenance is bodyweight × 12, minus 500. Protein 1g/lb, fat 0.3g/lb, carbs fill the rest. At 200 lb: 1,900 calories, 200g protein, 60g fat, 140g carbs.
By Justin Myers · October 14, 2026
About 20 weeks at a 500-calorie deficit. Heavier and above 15% body fat? As few as 8-11. Your timeline by body fat, and the 5 steps to get there.
By Justin Myers · October 12, 2026
Not until about 60. A study of 6,600+ people found size-adjusted metabolism holds steady from 20 to 60. What drops in your 30s is how much you move.
By Justin Myers · October 11, 2026
Boiled potato has a third fewer calories per gram than white rice, 4x the fiber and 10x the potassium. Why potatoes win a cut, and when rice wins.
By Justin Myers · October 5, 2026
About 10,000 a day, on top of a calorie deficit. At 200 lb, 10,000 steps burn ~350-400 net calories. Your number by bodyweight, and why walking alone stalls.
By Justin Myers · October 3, 2026
Eat whole foods 80% of the time and anything the other 20%. It works for weight loss only if the 20% fits your calories. The math, and how to set it up.
By Justin Myers · October 2, 2026
Mostly single-ingredient foods, 1g of protein per pound, a calorie deficit, and real lifting. Why the 90/10 list works, what it can't do, and the other 10%.
By Justin Myers · September 30, 2026
Either works if your app entry matches what you weighed. Mix them and 100g of dry pasta logs as 158 calories, not 371. The rule for meat, rice, pasta and oats.
By Justin Myers · September 28, 2026
Boiled potatoes scored 323% on the only satiety index ever published; a croissant scored 47. The foods that actually fill you up — and the ones that don't.
By Justin Myers · September 27, 2026
Yes — the deficit is a weekly total, not a daily one. But a 1,000-calorie bank covers two-thirds of a 1,495-calorie restaurant meal. Here's the real math.
By Justin Myers · September 16, 2026
About 6 calories a day, not the 50 the internet repeats. The real number, why lifting still raises your metabolism, and what actually moves your burn.
By Justin Myers · September 11, 2026
Regain isn't a broken metabolism — it's that a diet has an end date and maintenance never got a plan. The four-part system that held the weight off.
By Justin Myers · September 10, 2026
Most cuts should run 8-16 weeks. Length is an output of fat-to-lose divided by rate - here's the ceiling, the stop signals, and when to break a long cut up.
By Justin Myers · September 2, 2026
Yes — but recomposition mostly works for beginners, returners, and heavier lifters, and it's slow. Who it works for, the real timeline, and when to cut instead.
By Justin Myers · August 23, 2026
Same deficit that got you to 15% — what changes is pace. About 1% of bodyweight a week above 15% BF, 0.5% below. For most guys that's 4–6 months, not 12 weeks.
By Justin Myers · August 2, 2026
Yes — but through calories and appetite, not a broken metabolism. A regular beer is 153 calories. Here's the math for drinking inside a deficit.
By Justin Myers · July 27, 2026
Cut if you're above 15% body fat. Bulk under 12%. In between, your goal decides — here's the rule, the partitioning research behind it, and how long it takes.
By Justin Myers · July 25, 2026
A little — a post-meal walk adds daily movement and blunts your blood-sugar spike, but it won't burn off the meal. Fat loss still comes down to a deficit.
By Justin Myers · July 24, 2026
Little to none is required — a calorie deficit burns fat, not cardio. Here's when cardio actually helps, and why steps beat it for most people.
By Justin Myers · July 19, 2026
If the scale won't move, you're almost never in the deficit you think — untracked calories or water is hiding it. Here's how to tell which one, and fix it.
By Justin Myers · July 18, 2026
You lose muscle in a cut from crash deficits, low protein, and skipped lifting. Fix those five levers and the scale weight you drop is fat, not muscle.
By Justin Myers · July 17, 2026
About 500 calories a day below maintenance — roughly 20–25% under — for a pound of fat a week. Here's why bigger isn't faster, and how to find your number.
By Justin Myers · July 17, 2026
Why the belly is where fat loss after 30 gets won or lost, what moves the needle (and what doesn't), and the engineer's system for losing it on a real schedule.
By Justin Myers · June 7, 2026