How to do hand math to track your macros

Reviewed by: Brian St. Pierre, MS, RD

There are many ways to track your nutrient intake.

Choosing the (exact) method that works for you can seem overwhelming.

This is why we developed the manual method.

It simplifies nutrition tracking in a way that is accessible to anyone and supports any Your health and fitness goals.

Subdivision: manual method

Precision Nutrition’s Manual Dispensing Method provides a simple solution for tracking your macro instructions, allowing you to manage your food intake without weighing, measuring, or counting calories.

The method is simple: Use your hands to estimate portion sizes.

It’s not about taking meticulous measurements, it’s about using your hands as a reliable measure to measure portion sizes.

The manual technique is particularly effective because it is inherently consistent with your body proportions. Additionally, adult hand size remains constant, ensuring consistent distribution.

An overview is as follows:

• protein: The palm of your hand determines the size of the protein portion.
• vegetable: Your clenched fist determines the size of your vegetable portion.
• carbohydrate: The cup shape of your hands determines the size of your carb portion.
• fat: Your thumb determines the size of your fat patch.

Once you know what each portion looks like, you can work on a portion balance that meets your personalized daily recommendations.

How many hands to eat

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

• 1-2 palms of protein-rich food per meal
• 1-2 fistfuls of vegetables per meal
• Drink 1-2 cups of carbohydrates with each meal
• Eat 1-2 thumbs up of high-fat foods at each meal

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

Benefits of manual techniques

The hand method has several advantages when tracking macros:

1. Get accuracy with minimal effort: Our internal research shows that hand tracking is 95% more accurate than other tracking methods, but without the need for meticulous measurements. Check out these results to see for yourself how well hand tracking works.
2. Can be customized to suit your dietary preferences: You can apply this approach whether you follow a Mediterranean diet, a Paleo diet, a vegetarian diet, a ketogenic diet, or a completely plant-based diet.
3. Easy to manage macronutrient distribution: With the manual portioning method, you can fine-tune the distribution of macronutrients. Adjust the ratio of protein, carbs, and fat to precisely match your personal needs and goals.
4. Useful tools for estimating calorie intake: Each hand size is approximately equal to the amount of protein, carbohydrates, fat, and therefore calories. For example: 1 palm protein ~ 130-145 kcal; 1 fist of vegetables ~ 25 kcal; 1 cup of carbs ~ 110-120 kcal; and 1 thumb of fat ~ 90-100 kcal.

Assume a variety of food choices

Our portioning system assumes a mix of high-fat, medium-fat, and low-fat protein sources; a carbohydrate mix of fruits, starchy tubers, legumes, and whole grains; and fat-rich whole foods such as nuts, cheese, or avocado), a blend (such as pesto or nut butter) and pressed oil.

And, the hand portioning method can be adjusted to suit personal dietary preferences.

For example, if you follow a ketogenic diet, you can simply increase your fat intake to make up for the decrease in carbohydrates.

Example of Manual Portioning Method: Approximate Serving Sizes of Each Macronutrient

Here are some examples of how much to eat using our finger portioning method.

However, these are only approximations. Actual serving size depends on your personal hand size and body needs.

For men

A palm-sized amount of protein Equivalent to about 4 ounces of cooked meat/tofu, 1 cup of Greek yogurt or cheese, 1 spoon of protein powder, or 2 whole eggs.

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

Carbohydrate hand cup About ⅔ cup cooked grains or legumes, 1 medium fruit, or 1 medium tuber.

Thumb-sized fat part About 1 tablespoon oil, nuts, seeds, nut butter, avocado/guacamole, cheese and dark chocolate.

for women

A palm-sized amount of protein Equivalent to about 3 ounces of cooked meat/tofu, 1 cup of Greek yogurt or cheese, 1 spoon of protein powder, or 2 whole eggs.

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

Carbohydrate hand cup About ½ cup cooked grains or legumes, 1 medium fruit, or 1 medium tuber.

Thumb-sized fat part About 1 tablespoon oil, nuts, seeds, nut butter, avocado/guacamole, cheese and dark chocolate.

Approximate mathematics for macronutrient content

For number-oriented users, these are the approximate macros provided for each section, based on the examples above.

Approximate serving size macros for men:

• 1 Palm Protein ~ 24g protein, 2g carbs, 4.5g fat, 145 kcal
• 1 fistful of vegetables ~ 1.5g protein, 5g carbs, 0g fat, 25 kcal
• 1 cup carbs ~ 3g protein, 25g carbs, 1g fat, 120 calories
• 1 thumb fat ~ 2g protein, 2g carbs, 9g fat, 100 kcal

Macro of the approximate female part:

• 1 palm of protein ~ 22g protein, 2g carbs, 4g fat, 130 kcal
• 1 fistful of vegetables ~ 1.5g protein, 5g carbs, 0g fat, 25 kcal
• 1 cup carbs ~ 3g protein, 22g carbs, 1g fat, 110 calories
• 1 thumb fat ~ 2 grams protein, 2 grams carbohydrate, 8 grams fat, 90 calories

Please keep in mind that these are approximations.

All aspects of calorie and macronutrient calculations are based on an average of known error rates.

Test hand math accuracy

In the example below, we’ll demonstrate that using the finger method is as accurate as carefully weighing, measuring, and recording all the food you eat, with an accuracy rate of 95 to 100 percent.

Example 1

Our first example is a female athlete who weighs 135 pounds and has a body fat percentage of 18%. She maintains a high activity level and attends training sessions twice a day. This is her daily consumption:

1. Before exercise at 6 a.m.: 16 ounces black coffee, 1 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt, 1 cup chopped pineapple, 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, 1 cup water.
2. 7:15-8:30 AM Exercise: Drink 16 ounces of water during training.
3. 9am post-workout shake: 12 ounces water, 2 tablespoons protein powder, 1 medium apple, 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, 2 cups spinach, 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds, 1 tablespoon almond butter.
4. Lunch at 12 noon: 3 ounces salmon, 1 cup steamed mixed vegetables, 1 medium sweet potato, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, 2 cups water.
5. Afternoon refreshment @ 4pm: 1 banana, 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter, 1 cup water.
6. Sports 5:30-6 p.m.: Drink 16 ounces of water during training.
7. 7pm post-workout dinner: 3 ounces chopped chicken breast, 2 cups cooked whole wheat pasta, 2 cups sautéed vegetables, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic and white wine, 2 cups water.

If you use the USDA Nutrient Database to calculate the calories and macronutrients consumed by this person, you will get:

• 2672 kcal
• 170g protein
• 264 g carbohydrates
• 104 grams fat

If you convert this person’s intake into palm size, you get:

• Protein = 5 palms (Greek yogurt, protein powder x 2, salmon, chicken)
• Vegetables = 5 fists (spinach x 2, mixed vegetables, stir-fried vegetables x 2)
• Carbohydrates = 10 cups (pineapple x 2, apple, oatmeal, sweet potato, banana, pasta x 4)
• Fat = 9 thumbs (walnuts x 2, flax seeds, almond butter, coconut oil, peanut butter x 2, olive oil x 2)

By multiplying these portions using the female hand approximation mathematical formula (see section above), the estimated intake is:

• 2672 kcal (exactly the same as calculated using the app and spreadsheet)
• 166 grams of protein (4 grams less than calculated using app and spreadsheet)
• 273 grams of carbohydrates (9 more than calculated using app and spreadsheet)
• 102 grams of fat (2 grams less than calculated using app and spreadsheet)

As you can see, the difference between manual tracking and using our hand part method is only a few grams.

Example 2

Our second example is a moderately active man who weighs 210 pounds and has a body fat percentage of 17%. This is his daily consumption:

1. Get up at 5:30 am: 12 ounces black coffee
2. Breakfast at 7am: 4 whole eggs, plus a big bunch of peppers, scallions, and mushrooms, cooked in a knob of butter and served on a whole wheat roll with about 1 ounce of cheese, 1 cup of black beans, and some pico de gallo, a large glass of water , 12 oz black coffee.
3. Super Shaky @ 10:30 AM: About 10 ounces of water, 2 tablespoons of chocolate protein powder, 2 cups of spinach, 2 cups of frozen cherries, about 1 tablespoon of cocoa nibs, about 1 tablespoon of chia seeds.
4. Lunch @ 2pm: 4 ounces turkey breast, ~⅔ cup quinoa, 1 fist mixed vegetables, 1 apple, 2 thumbs toasted almonds, 1-2 large cups water.
5. 1-2 cups green tea @3-4pm.
6. Dinner @ 6pm: 8 ounces beef tenderloin (lean), 2 cups roasted sweet potatoes with onions, 2 cups roasted rainbow carrots, 2 tablespoons roasted olive oil, 1 cup wine, 1-2 large cups water.

If you use the USDA Nutrient Database to calculate the calories and macronutrients consumed by this person, you will get:

• 3130 kcal
• 212 grams of protein
• 283 g carbohydrates
• 111 grams fat

If you convert this person’s intake into hand parts, you get:

• Protein = 7 palms (eggs x 2, protein powder x 2, turkey, sirloin x 2)
• Vegetables = 6 fists (scallions/peppers/mushrooms/picots, spinach x 2, mixed greens, rainbow carrots x 2)
• Carbohydrates = 9 servings (burritos, beans, cherries x 3, quinoa, apples, potatoes x 2)
• Fat = 8 thumbs (cream, guacamole, cocoa nibs, chia seeds, almonds x 2, olive oil x 2)
• Alcohol content = 1 (wine)

When you multiply these servings using male hand approximation math, the estimated intake is:

• 3183 kcal (53 kcal more than using app and spreadsheet calculations)
• 220 grams of protein (8 more grams than calculated using app and spreadsheet)
• 285 grams of carbohydrates (2 grams more than calculated using app and spreadsheet)
• 113 grams of fat (2 grams more than calculated using app and spreadsheet)

Again, the manual dispensing method is nearly as accurate as the manual weighing and tracking part, and much simpler.

We can help you achieve your goals

Our ultimate macro calculator can help you figure out the ideal macronutrient ratios for your specific nutrition and fitness goals. From there, our hands-on approach can guide you on the path to success.