BeforeIBite shows daily targets for calories, protein, carbs, and fat (your macros), plus ceilings for sodium, sugar, fiber, saturated fat, cholesterol, and purine (the micronutrients we track). Your macros are computed from your profile — height, weight, age, sex, activity, and goal — and the micronutrient targets come from published public-health guidance, sometimes adjusted for sex or calorie intake.
You can override any target from Settings → Nutrition goals. The numbers below describe the defaults the app starts with.
BeforeIBite is a food tracker. It is not medical advice. The guidelines quoted are public-health recommendations published by the cited organizations and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by them. If you are tracking a nutrient because of a health condition — for example high cholesterol or gout — talk to a clinician about the target that fits your situation, then enter it manually in the app.
Calories
Target: your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) adjusted for your goal, with a 1,200 kcal floor.
We estimate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) — the energy your body burns at rest — with the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, one of the most widely used and validated BMR predictors for adults (Mifflin et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1990):
- Male:
10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5 - Female:
10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age − 161
We then multiply BMR by an activity multiplier to get your TDEE:
| Activity | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Sitting most of the day | 1.2 |
| Short walks and errands | 1.375 |
| Regular walking or chores | 1.55 |
| Standing or walking often | 1.725 |
| Active work most days | 1.9 |
Finally, we adjust TDEE for your goal:
- Maintain: target = TDEE.
- Lose: TDEE minus a deficit sized to your target weight and chosen pace, capped at 1% of body weight per week (0.5% per week for ages 65+) to help protect lean mass.
- Gain / Muscle builder: TDEE plus a surplus sized to your target weight and pace.
- Endurance athlete: TDEE, raised if needed so protein and carbohydrate floors are met.
We never drop the daily calorie target below 1,200 kcal — anything lower should be supervised by a clinician.
Protein
Target: 1.6–2.0 g per kg of body weight, depending on goal.
We size protein by body weight, not by share of calories. This reflects the International Society of Sports Nutrition's protein position stand (Jäger et al., Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017) and the joint Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics / Dietitians of Canada / American College of Sports Medicine position on Nutrition and Athletic Performance (Thomas, Erdman & Burke, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2016), which find that active adults benefit from intakes well above the general RDA of 0.8 g/kg.
| Goal | Protein |
|---|---|
| Maintain | 1.6 g/kg |
| Lose | 1.8 g/kg |
| Gain | 1.8 g/kg |
| Muscle builder | 1.8–2.0 g/kg (more lifting days/week → higher) |
| Endurance athlete | 1.6 g/kg |
For adults aged 65 or older, we apply a floor of 1.2 g/kg even on lower-protein plans. This matches the PROT-AGE Study Group's evidence-based recommendation (Bauer et al., Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2013) that older adults need more protein than the standard RDA to maintain muscle and prevent sarcopenia.
Fat
Target: 25% of your daily calories — 20% for endurance athletes.
We set fat as a share of total calories, then convert to grams at 9 kcal per gram. 25% sits squarely inside the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR) for fat published in the National Academies of Sciences' Dietary Reference Intakes for Macronutrients:
Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR) for fat: 20 to 35 percent of energy for adults.
Other public-health bodies on total fat:
Total fat should not exceed 30% of total energy intake to avoid unhealthy weight gain. — World Health Organization
Endurance athletes use the lower end (20%) to leave more room for carbohydrate, in line with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics / Dietitians of Canada / ACSM Nutrition and Athletic Performance position stand.
This is separate from the saturated fat ceiling — see below.
Carbs
Target: the remaining calories after protein and fat, with a per-kg minimum for endurance athletes.
Carbs are sized last, taking whatever calories are left over once protein and fat are set:
carbs (g) = (calorie target − protein × 4 − fat × 9) ÷ 4
This lets your calorie and protein targets drive the plan, with carbs flexing to fit. For most users, carbs land inside the AMDR of 45–65% of calories published in the same National Academies' DRI for Macronutrients.
For endurance athletes, we apply a minimum based on training volume, following the carbohydrate guidance in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics / Dietitians of Canada / ACSM Nutrition and Athletic Performance position stand:
| Endurance load | Carbs |
|---|---|
| Light (under 5 sessions/week, long session under 1h) | 5 g/kg |
| Moderate (5–6 sessions/week or long session 1–2h) | 6 g/kg |
| Heavy (7 sessions/week or long session over 2h) | 8 g/kg |
If the minimum is higher than what's left after protein and fat, we raise the calorie target so carbs aren't squeezed.
Sodium
Target: under 2,000 mg per day.
Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB) — verified 16 May 2026:
Limit salt intake to less than 5 g (1 teaspoon) per day, equivalent to less than 2,000 mg of sodium.
Other public-health bodies on sodium:
The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day, with an ideal limit of 1,500 mg per day for most adults. — American Heart Association
WHO recommends a reduction to less than 2,000 mg/day sodium (5 g/day salt) in adults. — World Health Organization
Sugar
Target: under 25 g per day for women, under 36 g per day for men.
American Heart Association (AHA) — verified 16 May 2026:
Most adult women should consume no more than 100 calories per day (about 6 tsp / 25 g) of sugar; most men no more than 150 calories per day (about 9 tsp / 36 g).
Other public-health bodies on sugar:
WHO recommends free sugars intake be reduced to less than 10% of total energy intake, with a further reduction below 5% suggested for additional health benefits. — World Health Organization
Fiber
Target: 25 g per day for women, 38 g per day for men, or more.
Institute of Medicine (IOM) — verified 16 May 2026:
Adequate Intake (AI) for total fiber: 25 g/day for adult women, 38 g/day for adult men.
Other public-health bodies on fiber:
Recommended dietary fibre intake: 20 g/day for women, 26 g/day for men. — Singapore Health Promotion Board
Adults should consume more than 25 g of naturally occurring dietary fibre per day. — World Health Organization
Saturated fat
Target: under 10% of your daily calories — about 22 g on a 2,000-calorie day.
This ceiling is separate from your total fat macro target above: total fat is sized as a share of your calories (25% standard), and saturated fat is the slice of that fat that should stay under 10% of calories.
Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB) — verified 16 May 2026:
Limit saturated fat to less than 10% of total energy intake.
Other public-health bodies on saturated fat:
WHO recommends total saturated fatty acid intake be reduced to less than 10% of total energy intake. — World Health Organization
Cholesterol
Default ceiling: under 300 mg per day.
Dietary cholesterol is the cholesterol that comes in from the food you eat (eggs, organ meats, dairy, meat, seafood). It is distinct from your blood cholesterol — what a clinician measures in a lipid panel — and the relationship between the two is not one-to-one. Tracking dietary cholesterol is one of several inputs into heart-health planning; if you have a specific blood-cholesterol concern, your clinician can give you a target that fits your situation, and you can enter that in Settings → Nutrition goals.
The 300 mg/day ceiling is the long-standing dietary guideline used by Singapore's Health Promotion Board (HPB) in its dietary guidelines for adults, and also matches the historical US Dietary Guidelines and AHA upper limit. Recent guidance has shifted away from a single hard number toward an emphasis on overall dietary pattern; we keep 300 mg/day as a familiar default and recommend overriding it manually if your clinician has given you a different target.
American Heart Association — overview of dietary cholesterol within the wider lipid-panel context:
Cholesterol — American Heart Association
The 2019 AHA Science Advisory on dietary cholesterol summarises the current evidence and the reason public-health bodies now emphasise dietary pattern over a single mg ceiling:
For Singapore, the HPB's dietary guidelines for adults describe the overall pattern (limiting saturated fat, sodium, and cholesterol-rich processed foods) that the 300 mg/day default is meant to support:
How to Eat Right to Feel Right — Singapore Health Promotion Board
Purine
Default ceiling: under 400 mg per day. We do not assume you have any condition.
Purine is a class of compounds found naturally in many foods (organ meats, anchovies, sardines, mackerel, beer, dried mushrooms, beans, lentils, asparagus, spinach). The body metabolizes purine into uric acid. There is no general-population RDA for purine — most people do not need to track it.
Clinical guidance on dietary purine usually splits into three rough bands. The numbers below come from peer-reviewed nutrition research (Tier 2) plus widely-used clinical dietetics references (Tiers 1 and 3) — they are reference ranges, not personal prescriptions:
| Band | Approximate intake | Who this typically describes |
|---|---|---|
| Typical / unrestricted | ~600–1,000 mg/day | A typical higher-meat Western diet |
| Low-purine diet | ~300–400 mg/day | The standard dietary target for people managing gout or hyperuricemia |
| Severe restriction | ~100–150 mg/day | Used short-term during active gout flares or specific clinical scenarios — must be supervised |
The peer-reviewed anchor for the low-purine band is Kaneko et al. 2024, which analysed four well-balanced dietary patterns (Japanese diet, US MyPlate, Mediterranean diet, DASH) and found they delivered 308.5 to 493.9 mg/day of purines — close to the Japanese Guideline for the Management of Hyperuricemia and Gout's recommendation of under 400 mg/day:
The US Department of Agriculture and NIH's Office of Dietary Supplements maintain the canonical purine-content database; its 2025 documentation cites the same 400 mg/day Japanese guideline as the working clinical ceiling:
USDA and ODS-NIH Database for the Purine Content of Foods, Release 2.0 (2025) — PDF
For the broader evidence base on dietary interventions in gout (including study-by-study purine targets in clinical trials), see this peer-reviewed systematic review:
For population-scale context on what people actually eat, this 17,755-adult Chinese cohort study found a population mean of 355 mg/day, with the lowest quintile at 169 mg/day and the highest at 541 mg/day — for comparison, "typical Western" estimates of 600–1,000 mg/day reflect higher-meat Western dietary patterns:
The Association between Dietary Purine Intake and Mortality — Yan et al., PMC (2022)
The two most authoritative clinical guidelines for gout management overall:
2020 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for the Management of Gout — PubMed
ACR Clinical Practice Guidelines: Gout
We set the default to 400 mg/day because that is the Japanese guideline-aligned soft ceiling and the figure cited in the USDA's purine reference database. People choose to track purine for very different reasons:
- You have, or have had, gout. The 300–400 mg/day low-purine band is a common starting point; during a flare your clinician may move you toward the 100–150 mg/day severe band, short-term.
- You have hyperuricemia (high uric acid) without gout, or kidney stones. A low-purine pattern is often suggested; the specific ceiling should come from your care team.
- Family history of gout or hyperuricemia, or general curiosity. There is no formal recommendation; the 400 mg/day default keeps you in the low-purine band as a reference.
- A specific medication or condition unrelated to gout. Always defer to your prescriber.
We do not assume you have gout or any other condition. Override the target in Settings → Nutrition goals with whatever number your clinician has given you.
Important: BeforeIBite is a tracker, not a medical advisor. The bands above are reference ranges, not personal prescriptions. If purine intake is something a clinician has asked you to monitor, please discuss the specific target with them.