What should your day look like?
Give us a few details and we will describe your daily plate in hand measures. We do not ask for a goal weight and we promise no timelines.
How this calculation works
The tool runs the same engine as the afiet app, in three steps.
First it estimates the energy your body uses at rest. With no body composition data it uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the one most dietitians reach for. If you have measured your body fat, it switches to Katch-McArdle, which works from fat free mass and is the better estimate when that is known.
Second it widens that figure into a maintenance range using your activity level. Not a single number: every step in this chain carries a double digit margin, and a single figure would be false precision. A range is the honest form of the answer.
Third it splits the energy into protein, fat and carbohydrate, and converts the result into hand measures. Grams per hand unit come from the app's own table:
| Measure | What it holds | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palm | protein foods | 22 g | 28 g |
| Cupped hand | grains and starch | 25 g | 30 g |
| Thumb | added fat | 10 g | 12 g |
Vegetables work differently. Fists are derived from your fiber target rather than a macro, with a floor of three fists a day, because a day that clears its fiber but eats no vegetables is not the day we are describing.
Two shares in that conversion are worth knowing about, because they are why the readings look sane. Only about 55% of your carbohydrate is expected to arrive as grains and starch, and only about 45% of your fat as added fat. The rest rides inside fruit, dairy, legumes and protein foods, and none of that is served by the spoonful. Counting the totals in cupped hands and thumbs produced readings like "13-14 cupped hands" for an ordinary day, which is not an instruction anyone can follow.
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How to read your result
These are ranges to aim around, not targets to hit. afiet will not make you count them during the day; they exist so the shape of a normal day is visible.
Notice what the tool never asks and never gives. It does not ask for a goal weight, it does not produce one, and it promises no timeline. Those three absences are a product decision, not an oversight: a target weight becomes a deadline, a deadline becomes guilt, and guilt is the reason most people quit. What we give you instead is what a balanced day looks like at your size and activity level, which is something you can act on tomorrow morning.
The site always shows the maintenance table, whatever your situation. Producing an energy deficit for a visitor we do not know would be a health decision made on almost no information, and we do not make those.
Under 18, the engine produces no target at all and the screen turns to balance language. At that age nutrition is assessed with age percentiles, not a formula, and a calculator has no business setting an intake for a growing body.
Living this every day
A one-off calculation does not build a habit. The reason the output is in hands rather than grams is that a hand is with you at every meal, needs no scale, and scales to your own body automatically. A palm of protein at lunch is a decision you can make in a second, standing at a counter.
In the app, that turns into five food groups that fill with colour as the day goes on, a week you read by rhythm rather than perfection, and a table you share with the people you eat with. On a missed day it says tomorrow is a new table. That is the whole product, and it starts from the same numbers as this page.
Frequently asked questions
- How many calories should I eat a day?
- This tool estimates the range your body uses to maintain itself, which for most adults is the sensible place to start. It shows the figures in a collapsed section on purpose; the hand measures are the part meant to be used.
- Why do you give ranges instead of one number?
- Because every step of the estimate carries a real margin. A single number would look precise and be wrong; a range is the honest version of the same answer.
- What is a palm, a fist, a cupped hand and a thumb?
- Portion measures using your own hand: a palm of protein foods, a fist of vegetables, a cupped hand of grains, a thumb of added fat. Because the measure is your hand, it already scales to your body.
- Why do you not ask about losing weight?
- Because we do not know you well enough to set an energy deficit safely, and because a target with a date attached is where guilt starts. We show what a balanced day looks like and let your body follow at its own pace.
- Does it work for children and teenagers?
- No. Under 18 the engine withholds targets entirely and shows balance language instead, because assessment at that age is done with age percentiles rather than a formula.
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