Macros

kharms21

Do I just do the default macros or is there a calculator based on age etc?

AnnPT77

The defaults are a reasonable place to start for most people, while working on figuring out how to eat to stay reasonably full, hit calorie goal, and that sort of thing. They're based on mainstream nutritional recommendations from outfits like USDA/NIH in the US, and similar to experts elsewhere. One exception would be someone who's trying to lose weight fast and cuts calories too low for their current body size: There's no way to get minimally adequate nutrition on too-low calories, no matter how the macro percents are set.

Speaking as an oldie (69), the only significant difference I know of it that it's more important for aging folks to spread protein through the day rather than concentrating it all in dinner or something like that, because we tend to metabolize protein a little less efficiently than younger folks. Also, there can be some lower micronutrient needs for women in menopause than pre-menopause, but that's not really a big issue, since getting a modest bit extra of those nutrients isn't dangerous.

The USDA has a more detailed calculator that considers age among other things, here:

https://www.nal.usda.gov/human-nutrition-and-food-safety/dri-calculator

Personally, I think they seriously lowball protein compared to more recent research: I think that's more a minimum to avoid actual malnutrition, rather than an optimum, in a scenario where there's evidence it's useful to get more protein when active, aging, vegetarian/vegan, or losing weight among other cases. I think this calculator, from a source generally regarded as evidence based and neutral, is better:

https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/

They've done some revisions to the guide since I last read it all the way through, but last I knew they suggested somewhere in there that it was reasonable for someone substantially overweight to use a lower weight in the calculator. Personally, I'd use a healthy goal weight.