Looking for an Eric Helms calorie calculator?
If you follow Eric Helms and 3D Muscle Journey (3DMJ), start your calorie planning with maintenance: the daily intake that broadly keeps your weight stable. This is also called total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). A deficit aims for weight loss, while a surplus aims for weight gain; neither requires treating a calculator's first result as an exact measurement.
Eric Helms is the chief science officer and a coach at 3D Muscle Journey, which provides natural bodybuilding and powerlifting coaching. For his team's own services and educational resources, start with the official 3DMJ site. This is an independent guide, not an official 3DMJ calculator; MacroCodex is not affiliated with or endorsed by Eric Helms or 3D Muscle Journey.
Our claim: See measurable weight gain or weight loss results within 2–3 weeks of using MacroCodex. Many users start seeing results as early as the first week.
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Calculate a daily calorie target for free
- Open MacroCodex and enter your details to get an initial maintenance-calorie estimate.
- Choose whether you want to maintain, lose, or gain weight. The app turns your maintenance estimate into a daily calorie target for that goal.
- Record your calorie intake and body weight consistently. MacroCodex updates its maintenance estimate and targets as it learns from your trend.
Weight gain is not the same thing as muscle gain. When evaluating a muscle-gain phase, consider your training performance and longer-term measurements alongside scale weight. Faster weight gain does not guarantee faster muscle growth, and an app's calorie target does not replace individualized contest-prep coaching.
MacroCodex is free and has no ads or subscription. It asks you to enter daily calorie totals; if you want a food diary, you can use a separate logger such as CalorieCodex. Use a trend across weeks instead of adjusting your target after one weigh-in.
Want the details behind the estimate? See how adaptive TDEE works. If you are weighing up maintenance, fat loss, and muscle gain, read our recomposition calculator guide.