How to Manually Calculate Portions to Track Your Macros

Reviewed by Brian St. Pierre, MS, RD

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There are many ways to track your nutritional intake.

Choosing the right method for you can seem daunting.

That’s why we developed the “hand portioning method.”

It will be easy for anyone to manage their nutrition, Any Your health and fitness goals.

Breakdown: Hand potion method

Precision Nutrition’s manual portioning method provides an easy solution for tracking your macros and helping you control your food intake without weighing, measuring or counting calories.

The method is simple: measure portions by hand.

Instead of measuring precisely, use your hand as a reliable portion gauge.

Hand portions are particularly effective because they match the natural proportions of the body, plus adult hands are the same size, which keeps portions consistent.

The overview is as follows:

• protein: The amount of protein is determined by the palm of your hand.
• vegetables: The size of your fist determines the amount of vegetables you can eat.
• carbohydrates: The amount of carbohydrates you take is determined by the size of the serving in your palm.
• fat: Your thumb determines the size of the fat area.

Once you know what each portion size is, you can aim to meet the daily recommended portion balance that’s right for you.

How many can you eat with your hands?

Most people can meet their nutritional needs by eating the following:

• Eat 1-2 handfuls of protein-rich foods with each meal
• 1-2 handfuls of vegetables with each meal
• Eat 1 to 2 cups of carbohydrates with most meals
• Eat 1 to 2 thumbs’ worth of fatty foods at most meals

Depending on your goals and physique, you may need to adjust these general recommendations up or down.

Advantages of the Hand Portioning Method

When it comes to tracking macros, the hand portioning method has several advantages.

1. Accuracy with minimal effort: Our in-house studies have shown that hand portion tracking is 95 percent as accurate as other tracking methods, but without the hassle of meticulous measurements. Check out these results and see for yourself how well hand portion tracking works.
2. Customize to suit your dietary preferences: This method can be applied whether you are following a Mediterranean diet, paleo diet, vegetarian diet, ketogenic diet or a completely plant-based diet.
3. Easily manage your macronutrient splits. Hand portioning allows you to fine-tune your macronutrient distribution – adjusting the percentages of protein, carbohydrates and fat to suit your personal needs and goals.
4. Tools to help you estimate your calorie intake: One handful represents the approximate amount of protein, carbohydrates, fat and calories: one handful of protein has about 130-145 kcal, one handful of vegetables has about 25 kcal, one cup of carbohydrates has about 110-120 kcal, and one thumbful of fat has about 90-100 kcal.

Potential variety of food options

Our portion size system assumes a mix of high-, medium- and low-fat protein sources; carbohydrates from a mix of fruits, starchy tubers, beans and whole grains; fats from full-fat whole foods (such as nuts, cheese and avocado), blended foods (such as pesto or nut butters) and pressed oils.

Additionally, the way portions are hand-adjusted can be tailored to suit individual dietary preferences.

For example, if you’re following a ketogenic diet, you only need to increase your fat intake to compensate for the reduction in carbohydrates.

Manual portion size example: Approximate amount of each macronutrient

Here are some examples of how much you can eat using the hand portioning method:

However, these are only estimates, and actual serving sizes will vary based on your individual hand size and physical needs.

Men’s

Palm-sized protein This is equivalent to about 4 ounces of cooked meat/tofu, 1 cup of Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, 1 scoop of protein powder, or 2 whole eggs.

Fist-sized vegetables This equates to about 1 cup of non-starchy vegetables such as spinach, carrots, cauliflower, or bell peppers.

Carbohydrates in cups About ⅔ cup of cooked grains or legumes, 1 medium-sized fruit, or 1 medium-sized tuber.

thumb-sized fat Add in a tablespoon or so of oil, nuts, seeds, nut butter, avocado/guacamole, cheese, or dark chocolate.

For Women

Palm-sized protein This is equivalent to about 3 ounces of cooked meat/tofu, 1 cup of Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, 1 scoop of protein powder, or 2 whole eggs.

Fist-sized vegetables This equates to about 1 cup of non-starchy vegetables such as spinach, carrots, cauliflower, or bell peppers.

Carbohydrates in cups About 1/2 cup of cooked grains or legumes, 1 medium-sized fruit, or 1 medium-sized tuber.

thumb-sized fat Add in a tablespoon or so of oil, nuts, seeds, nut butter, avocado/guacamole, cheese, or dark chocolate.

Estimating macronutrient intake

For the numbers-focused folks, based on the example above, here’s roughly what macros each part provides:

Approximate macro intake for men:

• Approximately 24g protein, 2g carbs, 4.5g fat, 145kcal per serving
• 1 handful of vegetables: 1.5g protein, 5g carbs, 0g fat, 25 calories
• 1 cup serving ~ 3g protein, 25g carbs, 1g fat, 120 kcal
• Fat 1 thumb size ~ Protein 2g, Carbohydrate 2g, Fat 9g, 100kcal

Approximate macro intake for women:

• Protein per serving: 22g protein, 2g carbs, 4g fat, 130kcal
• 1 handful of vegetables: 1.5g protein, 5g carbs, 0g fat, 25 calories
• 1 cup serving ~ 3g protein, 22g carbs, 1g fat, 110 kcal
• Fat 1 thumb size ~ Protein 2g, Carbohydrate 2g, Fat 8g, 90kcal

Please keep in mind that these are estimates only.

All aspects of calorie and macronutrient calculations are based on averages with known percentage errors.

Test the accuracy of manual partial calculations

The following example shows that using the manual weighing method is 95-100 percent accurate, just as easily as carefully weighing, measuring, and recording everything you eat.

Example 1

Our first example is a female athlete who weighs 135 pounds and has 18 percent body fat. She maintains a high activity level and participates in two training sessions per day. Here is what she eats each day:

1. Pre-workout at 6am: 16 ounces of black coffee, 1 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt, 1 cup chopped pineapple, 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, 1 cup water.
2. Workout @ 7:15-8:30 AM: Sip 16 ounces of water throughout your training session.
3. Post-workout shake @ 9am: 12 ounces of water, 2 scoops of protein powder, 1 medium apple, 1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal, 2 cups spinach, 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed, and 1 tablespoon almond butter.
4. Lunch 12pm: 3 ounces of salmon, 1 cup of steamed mixed vegetables, 1 medium sweet potato, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, 2 cups of water.
5. 4pm snack: 1 banana, 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter, 1 glass of water.
6. 5:30-6pm Workout: Sip 16 ounces of water throughout your training session.
7. Post-workout dinner @ 7pm: 3 ounces shredded chicken breast, 2 cups cooked whole wheat pasta, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic, 2 cups sauteed vegetables with white cooking wine, and 2 cups water.

If we calculate this person’s calorie and macronutrient intake, USDA Nutrient Databaseyou get:

• 2672 calories
• 170g Protein
• Carbohydrates 264g
• Fat 104g

If we were to convert this person’s intake into a palm-sized amount, it would look like this:

• Protein = 5 parms (Greek yogurt, 2x protein powder, salmon, chicken)
• Vegetables = 5 handfuls (2x spinach, mixed vegetables, 2x sauteed vegetables)
• Carbohydrates = 10 cups (2 pineapples, apples, oats, sweet potato, banana, 4 pasta)
• Fat = 9 thumbs (2 walnuts, flaxseed, almond butter, coconut oil, 2 peanut butter, 2 olive oil)

Multiplying these amounts by the approximate portion calculator for women (see section above) gives you the following estimated intake:

• 2672 kcal (exactly the same as calculated in the app or spreadsheet)
• 166 g Protein (4 g less than the app/spreadsheet would calculate)
• 273 g carbs (9 g more than the app/spreadsheet would have calculated)
• 102g fat (2g less than the app/spreadsheet would have calculated)

As you can see, the difference between tracking manually and using the hand-weighing method is only a few grams.

Example 2

The second example is a moderately active male who weighs 210 pounds and has 17 percent body fat. Here’s how much he would consume per day:

1. Wake up time 5:30am: 12 ounces of black coffee
2. Breakfast 7am: A whole-wheat wrap with a ton of peppers, leeks, and mushrooms cooked in lots of butter, topped with four eggs, about an ounce of cheese, a cup of black beans, a little pico de gallo, a glass of water, and 12 ounces of black coffee.
3. Super Shake @ 10:30am: About 10 ounces of water, 2 scoops of chocolate protein powder, 2 cups of spinach, 2 cups of frozen cherries, 1 tablespoon of cacao nibs, and 1 tablespoon of chia seeds.
4. Lunch 2pm: 4 ounces of turkey breast, about 2/3 cup of quinoa, a handful of mixed vegetables, 1 apple, 2 thumbs of roasted almonds, and 1-2 glasses of water.
5. 1-2 cups of green tea From 3pm to 4pm.
6. Dinner 6pm: 8 ounces lean sirloin, 2 cups roasted red potatoes with onions, 2 cups roasted rainbow carrots, 2 tablespoons olive oil for roasting, 1 cup wine, 1-2 cups water.

If we use the USDA Nutrient Database to calculate this person’s calorie and macronutrient intake, we get the following:

• 3130 calories
• 212 g Protein
• Carbohydrates 283 g
• Fat 111g

If we convert this person’s intake into a net amount, it would look like this:

• Protein = 7 parm (2x eggs, 2x protein powder, 2x turkey, sirloin)
• Vegetables = 6 handfuls (green onion/bell pepper/mushroom/pico, 2x spinach, mixed vegetables, 2x rainbow carrots)
• Carbohydrates = 9 cupped hands (wraps, beans, 3x cherries, quinoa, apples, 2x potatoes)
• Fat = 8 thumbs (butter, guacamole, cacao nibs, chia seeds, 2x almonds, 2x olive oil)
• Alcohol = 1 (wine)

Multiplying these amounts by approximate portion calculations for men gives you the following estimated intake:

• 3183 kcal (53 kcal more than calculated using an app or spreadsheet)
• Protein: 220g (8g more than the app/spreadsheet would calculate)
• Carbohydrates: 285g (2g more than the app/spreadsheet would have calculated)
• 113g fat (2g more than the app/spreadsheet would have calculated)

Again, the hand-measured method is almost as accurate as measuring and tracking portions manually, and a lot easier.

We help you achieve your goals

Our ultimate macro calculator helps you calculate the best macronutrient ratios for your specific nutrition and fitness goals, and from there, our manual portion methods will put you on the path to success.