Leangains Macros Explained: Training vs Rest Day Splits
The Leangains method, developed by Swedish nutrition coach Martin Berkhan, pairs 16:8 intermittent fasting with resistance training and a specific way of arranging macronutrients. What confuses most people is not the fasting part — it is the macros. Leangains does not give you one set of numbers to hit every day. It gives you two: a training day and a rest day. This guide explains how those two days are built, why they differ, and how to work out your own figures.
The one rule that never changes: protein
Protein stays high and roughly constant every single day, training or not. It is the anchor of the whole method. The usual target is around 2.0 to 2.5 g per kg of body weight, or about 0.9 to 1.1 g per pound. Someone weighing 80 kg (176 lb) is therefore eating somewhere near 160 to 200 g of protein daily, whether they lifted that morning or sat at a desk.
The reason is straightforward. When you are eating at a deficit on rest days, high protein is what protects the muscle you are trying to keep. Dropping protein on rest days is the single most common mistake people make when they try to copy the approach.
Carbs and fat trade places
Everything else moves. On training days you eat more carbohydrate and less fat; on rest days you eat more fat and fewer carbs. The logic is that carbohydrate is most useful on the day you are actually depleting muscle glycogen and trying to drive recovery, and less useful on a day spent sitting still.
Calories move as well, and this is the part people skip. Leangains is a cyclical approach: training days run at a surplus of roughly 10 to 20 percent above maintenance, rest days at a deficit of roughly 10 to 20 percent below. Across a week with three or four training days, the two roughly cancel out or leave a small net deficit, which is how the method produces slow recomposition rather than fast weight change.
Working out your own numbers
Start with maintenance calories. If you do not know yours, estimate it first — our TDEE calculator gives you a reasonable figure from your weight, height, age and activity level. Then follow these five steps.
First, set training day calories at maintenance plus 15 percent, and rest day calories at maintenance minus 15 percent. Second, fix protein at about 2.2 g per kg of body weight and keep that number identical on both days. Third, on training days set fat fairly low, around 0.5 to 0.8 g per kg, because carbs will fill the gap. Fourth, fill the remaining calories with carbohydrate. Fifth, on rest days reverse it: raise fat to roughly 1.0 to 1.3 g per kg and let carbohydrate take whatever is left, which is usually a much smaller number.
The arithmetic uses the standard energy values: protein and carbohydrate each supply 4 calories per gram, fat supplies 9.
A fully worked example
Take a man weighing 80 kg (176 lb) with an estimated maintenance of 2,600 calories, lifting four days a week.
Training day — 2,990 calories (2,600 plus 15 percent). Protein at 2.2 g per kg is 176 g, which is 704 calories. Fat at 0.6 g per kg is 48 g, which is 432 calories. That accounts for 1,136 calories, leaving 1,854 for carbohydrate — divide by 4 and you get 464 g of carbs. So the training day is roughly 176 g protein, 464 g carbs, 48 g fat.
Rest day — 2,210 calories (2,600 minus 15 percent). Protein stays at 176 g, still 704 calories. Fat rises to 1.2 g per kg, so 96 g, which is 864 calories. Together that is 1,568 calories, leaving 642 for carbohydrate, or about 160 g. So the rest day is roughly 176 g protein, 160 g carbs, 96 g fat.
Notice what happened: protein did not move at all, carbohydrate fell by about two thirds, and fat doubled. That contrast is the whole method in one comparison.
| Macro | Training day | Rest day |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 2,990 | 2,210 |
| Protein | 176 g | 176 g |
| Carbohydrate | 464 g | 160 g |
| Fat | 48 g | 96 g |
Where the 16:8 fasting fits in
Leangains uses an 8-hour eating window, commonly from midday to 8pm, with the training session placed late in the fasted period or early in the feeding window. The daily macros above are eaten inside that window, usually across two or three larger meals, with the biggest meal following training. The fasting itself does not change the macro totals — it changes when you eat them, not how much.
If training in a fasted state leaves you flat, most people move the session later so it sits after the first meal. The method tolerates that adjustment perfectly well.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to eat exactly these numbers every day?
No. Treat them as targets. Landing within about 10 g of your protein and calorie goals is close enough for steady progress, and consistency across a whole week matters far more than precision on any single day.
What if I train more than four days a week?
The more training days you have, the smaller each swing needs to be. With five or six sessions a week, narrow the surplus and deficit to around 10 percent, otherwise the week ends up in a meaningful surplus and you gain fat rather than recomposing.
Does Leangains work for losing weight rather than recomposition?
Yes, but you shift the whole structure down. Keep the training and rest day contrast, and set the weekly average below maintenance rather than at it — for example a 5 percent surplus on training days and a 25 percent deficit on rest days. Protein stays high throughout.
Work out your own split
Rather than doing the arithmetic twice by hand, run it through our macro calculator. Enter your training day calories and choose the muscle-building split for that day, then enter your rest day calories and choose the high-protein split — the two results together give you your Leangains numbers in grams. If you need your starting calorie figure, work it out with the TDEE calculator first, and check your BMR if you want to understand where that number comes from.
Disclaimer: this article is for general information only and is not medical or dietary advice. Intermittent fasting and calorie cycling do not suit everyone, particularly anyone who is pregnant, diabetic, or has a history of disordered eating. Speak to a qualified healthcare professional before making significant changes to how you eat.