How to determine daily caloric intake and micronutrient ratio?

darreneatschicken

Hello. What's the best calculator for calculating your daily required caloric intake and how do you determine your optimal macronutrient ratio?

It seems like there's a ton of information out there and a bunch of different calculators that show different results.

I'm a 25-year old male, 5'9, 146.6 lbs, 13.6% body fat. Have a sedentary job. Workout 3x a week (StrongLifts + accessory work) and am trying to build at least 2 lbs of muscle a month while minimizing fat gain.

darreneatschicken

I googled "bulking calculator" and used the top three calculators. They gave me a wide range of recommendations:

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/macronutcal.htm - 2301 calories a day

https://www.musclehacking.com/calorie-calculator/#activity-level - 2518 calories a day

https://www.freedieting.com/weight-gain-calculator - 2794 calories a day

sijomial

There isn't a single optimal macro ratio apart from on a completely personal basis.
This might help you to look at macros in a different way....
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1

If you know your current weight maintenance calorie level then use your own data which corrects for logging inaccuracy - just add 250cals / day to that number and adjust based on long terms weight trends.

BTW - first decide how you want to account for your exercise burns, MyFitnessPal style or TDEE calculator style (I think sailrabbit.com is the best TDEE calculator I've seen and gives you multiple formulae to compare).

Manga23

https://tdeecalculator.net/

I use this one......I think this is the most accurate I've seen

wiigelec

https://www.andybaker.com/building-a-simple-diet-for-mass/