Sources of Recommendations

How Shelog Sets Your Calorie and Macro Targets

Shelog turns your profile and weight goal into a daily plan for calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat. These numbers are estimates designed to give you a practical starting point. They are not a diagnosis, a guarantee, or the only healthy way to eat.

There is no single macro split that is best for everyone. A useful plan needs to account for the amount of energy available, body size, age, and the direction of the user's goal. It also needs reasonable boundaries so that one input does not produce an extreme result.

This page explains how Shelog builds that starting plan and the evidence used to set its boundaries.

1. Your Calorie Target Comes First

Shelog establishes a daily calorie target before calculating protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

For adult standard plans, Shelog estimates resting energy with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. This equation uses age, height, weight, and the sex setting in the user's profile. The estimate is then combined with the selected activity level to approximate daily energy needs. The user's weight goal determines whether the plan is set below, near, or above that estimated maintenance level.

- A weight-loss goal uses a calorie target below estimated maintenance needs.
- A maintenance goal uses a calorie target near estimated maintenance needs.
- A weight-gain goal uses a calorie target above estimated maintenance needs.

The calorie target remains an estimate. Daily energy needs can differ from an equation because movement, body composition, health, medication, sleep, and normal biological variation are not fully captured by a short profile.

Younger users require age-appropriate energy rules before the macro calculation begins. The macronutrient method described below starts from the calorie target already established by the user's current plan.

2. One Framework, Three Goal Directions

Weight loss, maintenance, and weight gain do not each receive a fixed macro ratio. The goal direction first changes the calorie plan. Shelog then uses one continuous framework to turn that calorie target into protein, carbohydrate, and fat goals.

Using one framework prevents an arbitrary jump in macro targets when a user moves from weight loss to maintenance or from maintenance to weight gain. It also means that two people with the same goal may receive different gram targets because their calorie plans and body profiles differ.

The weight-gain plan is a general nutrition starting point. Shelog does not treat it as a muscle-gain prescription. Muscle gain also depends on resistance training, training history, recovery, total energy intake, and other individual factors that this calculation does not measure.

3. How Shelog Sets Protein

Shelog begins with 25% of the daily calorie target as a protein center. It then checks that result against a body-size range of 1.0 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of a protected reference weight.

The protected reference weight uses the user's current weight, goal weight, and height. It prevents a very low goal weight from pushing the protein target too low and prevents a high body weight or calorie target from pushing it unnecessarily high. This value is a calculation safeguard. It is not an "ideal weight," a diagnosis, or a target shown to the user.

Shelog then keeps protein within the age-appropriate Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range, or AMDR. For users aged 10-17, the calculation also checks the age- and sex-specific protein Recommended Dietary Allowance when the calorie plan can satisfy it within the AMDR.

The 25% center and the 1.0 to 1.6 g/kg working range are Shelog product settings. They are intended to provide a moderate, protein-aware starting point within established nutrition boundaries. They do not mean that 25% is the best ratio for every person or that more protein always produces better results.

4. How Shelog Sets Fat and Carbohydrates

After setting protein, Shelog usually begins with fat at 30% of the calorie target. If the protein share is higher, the fat share can move down within the age-appropriate boundary so that carbohydrates still receive at least 45% of calories. Carbohydrates receive the remaining calories after protein and fat are set.

This order keeps all three targets mathematically connected. Protein, carbohydrates, and fat always add back to the calorie target using the standard energy values of 4 calories per gram for protein, 4 for carbohydrates, and 9 for fat.

The result is a starting structure, not a score for a food or a rule that every meal must match the daily ratio.

5. The Nutrition Boundaries We Use

The National Academies defines AMDRs as ranges associated with nutrient adequacy and reduced chronic disease risk for generally healthy populations. Shelog uses the following age-based ranges as calculation boundaries:

Age	Protein	Carbohydrates	Fat
10-17	10%-30%	45%-65%	25%-35%
18 and older	10%-35%	45%-65%	20%-35%

For protein, the National Academies lists an RDA of 34 g per day for ages 9-13, 46 g for females aged 14-18, and 52 g for males aged 14-18. Shelog applies the relevant value to users aged 10-17 when it can be met without moving protein above the age-specific AMDR.

An AMDR is a population reference range. Being inside it does not prove that a plan is individually optimal, and being outside it on one recorded day does not by itself show that someone ate badly or harmed their progress.

6. What Your Weight Goal Changes

The main effect of the selected weight goal is the calorie target:

Goal	What Changes	What Shelog Does Not Assume
Weight loss	The plan uses a calorie target below estimated maintenance needs.	A particular macro ratio will make weight loss faster.
Maintenance	The plan uses a calorie target near estimated maintenance needs.	Everyone maintaining weight needs the same ratio.
Weight gain	The plan uses a calorie target above estimated maintenance needs.	Weight gained will mainly be muscle or that the user follows a resistance-training program.

Research comparing popular weight-loss diets has not identified one macro pattern that is best for everyone over the long term. Higher protein intake can help some adults preserve lean mass during energy restriction, but the useful amount depends on the person and the rest of the plan. This is why Shelog uses a moderate protein-aware method with boundaries instead of labeling one low-carbohydrate, low-fat, or high-protein ratio as the answer.

7. When the Plan Updates

Protein, carbohydrate, and fat targets update together when the calorie target or relevant profile information changes. Shelog does not intentionally leave one macro target on an older plan while updating the others.

Changing a weight goal may update all four targets because the new goal can change the calorie plan. Small changes in goal weight should lead to gradual changes rather than an unexplained jump caused only by crossing from one goal label to another.

8. What This Plan Does Not Personalize

The standard plan does not use food preferences, allergies, individual food records, body-fat measurements, resistance-training details, laboratory results, medication, or a medical diagnosis to calculate macro targets.

People who are pregnant or breastfeeding, under medical nutrition therapy, recovering from an eating disorder, managing kidney disease or another condition that changes nutrition needs, or preparing for intensive athletic performance may need an individualized plan from a qualified clinician or registered dietitian.

You can also choose custom targets when a professional has given you a different plan. Shelog should support that plan without presenting the standard recommendation as more correct.

9. A Starting Point, Not a Verdict

Nutrition targets can make a day easier to plan, but they cannot describe the full quality of a diet or predict an individual's outcome. Foods, appetite, culture, access, health, movement, sleep, stress, and sustainability all matter.

Use the Shelog plan as a practical starting point. If it does not feel workable, or if your health needs are more complex, review it with a qualified professional rather than making the plan increasingly restrictive on your own.

References

This article provides general education about how Shelog creates standard nutrition targets. It is not medical advice and does not replace care from a qualified health professional.