How to Find Your TDEE and Use Macro Counting to Lower Body Fat While Strength Training
- Chelsey
- May 9, 2025
- 4 min read
If your goal is to lower body fat while getting stronger, there’s a smart, sustainable way to do it—and it doesn’t involve starving yourself or doing endless cardio. Instead, it starts with understanding your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and using macro counting to fuel your body intentionally.
Let’s break it all down: what TDEE is, how to calculate it, how macros work, and how to put it all together to reach your goals without burning out or plateauing.
What Is TDEE and Why It Matters
TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the total number of calories your body burns in a day, including your basic metabolic functions, daily movement, workouts, and even digestion. Knowing your TDEE gives you a realistic idea of how much you can eat while still making progress toward your goals.
It’s made up of:
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The calories your body needs just to stay alive at rest.
NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Calories burned through non-exercise movement (walking around, cleaning, fidgeting).
EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Calories burned during workouts.
TEF (Thermic Effect of Food): Calories your body uses to digest and process food.
When you know your TDEE, you can confidently set a calorie target that puts you in a slight caloric deficit—just enough to lose fat, but not so much that you lose muscle or feel depleted.
How to Calculate Your TDEE
Here’s a quick method to estimate your TDEE:
Find your BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation:
For women:BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) – 5 × age (years) – 161
For men:BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) – 5 × age (years) + 5
Multiply BMR by an activity factor:
Sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR × 1.2
Lightly active (light exercise 1–3 days/week): BMR × 1.375
Moderately active (moderate exercise 3–5 days/week): BMR × 1.55
Very active (hard exercise 6–7 days/week): BMR × 1.725
Extra active (twice a day training): BMR × 1.9
The result is your estimated TDEE.
Let’s say your TDEE is 2,200 calories. To lose fat while maintaining strength, you’d start with a modest deficit—maybe 300 to 500 calories per day—eating around 1,700–1,900 calories daily.
Enter Macro Counting: Why Not Just Calories?
Calories give you the quantity of food you’re eating, but macronutrients (macros) determine the quality of your results.
Macros are the building blocks of your diet:
Protein helps preserve and build lean muscle
Carbohydrates fuel your workouts and daily energy
Fats support hormones and overall health
When your goal is to lower body fat percentage while strength training, you want to lose fat, not muscle. This is where macro balance becomes key.
A Macro Blueprint for Fat Loss & Strength
Here’s a common starting point for macro percentages during a fat-loss phase:
Protein: 30–35% of total calories
Carbs: 35–40%
Fat: 25–30%
Let’s use that 1,800 calorie target and break it down:
Protein (35% of 1800 = 630 calories → ÷ 4 = 158g protein)
Carbs (35% of 1800 = 630 calories → ÷ 4 = 158g carbs)
That means your daily goal is 158g protein, 158g carbs, 60g fat.
These targets can shift depending on your preferences, how you respond to training, and how your energy feels, but this is a great place to start.
Tips to Hit Your Macros and Lower Body Fat Effectively
1. Prioritize Protein at Every Meal
Getting enough protein is the most critical factor in preserving muscle mass. Include high-protein options like eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu, tempeh, legumes, and protein powder in your meals and snacks.
2. Don’t Fear Carbs—Use Them
Carbs fuel your strength workouts. Try eating the bulk of your carbs around your workout window (before and after) to improve energy, recovery, and muscle retention.
3. Plan & Prep
If you’re winging it, hitting your macros can feel impossible. Prep protein sources, veggies, and carb-rich staples in advance. Use tools like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer to track your intake accurately.
4. Be Consistent—Not Perfect
One “off” day won’t sabotage your progress. What matters is your weekly average intake and long-term consistency. If you hit your macros 80–90% of the time, you’ll make progress.
What About Strength Training?
You can absolutely build strength in a calorie deficit—especially if you’re newer to lifting or returning after a break. Focus on:
Progressive overload: Increasing weight, reps, or intensity over time
Compound movements: Squats, deadlifts, lunges, push-ups, and rows
Recovery: Sleep, rest days, and post-workout nutrition matter
You won’t see dramatic muscle growth while in a deficit, but with proper training and enough protein, you’ll maintain muscle, build strength, and improve muscle definition as fat comes off.
When to Make Adjustments
Tracking macros is a learning process. Here’s when to consider tweaks:
If fat loss stalls for 2–3 weeks: Decrease calories by 100–200 or increase activity
If energy is tanking: You may need more carbs, sleep, or to back off training
If strength declines sharply: Make sure your protein is adequate and your deficit isn’t too aggressive
Think of macro counting like a roadmap—not a set of chains. You can make small turns, but stay focused on the destination.
The Bottom Line
If you want to lower your body fat percentage while getting stronger, eating too little is not the answer. Understanding your TDEE and using macro tracking helps you fuel your body strategically so you lose fat while maintaining lean muscle.
It’s not about restriction—it’s about precision.
When you dial in your nutrition with strength training, the results are powerful: increased muscle tone, better performance, more energy, and a healthy, sustainable fat loss process.
Start here:
Calculate your TDEE
Set a moderate calorie deficit
Break your calories into balanced macros
Strength train 3–5x/week
Track, adjust, and stay consistent
Your strongest, leanest self isn’t built by accident—it’s built by strategy.
