Calorie calculator
Find out how many calories your body burns in a day (your TDEE) and how many to eat to lose fat, build muscle or stay where you are.
Eat per day
1,958 kcal
Maintenance (TDEE)
2,508 kcal
Resting (BMR)
1,618 kcal
Protein
154 g
Carbohydrate
214 g
Fat
54 g
How the calculator works
It first estimates your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the energy your body uses at rest, with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which is widely used and fairly accurate for most adults. If you enter your body fat percentage it switches to the Katch-McArdle equation, which uses lean mass.
Your BMR is then multiplied by an activity factor, from 1.2 for a desk job with little exercise to 1.9 for very hard training or a physical job. That gives your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), the calories you need to stay at the same weight.
Setting a goal
For fat loss the calculator removes about 3,850 calories a week from your TDEE, which is roughly half a kilo of fat a week. For muscle gain it adds a small surplus. Very low calorie targets are lifted to a safe minimum (1,500 kcal for men and 1,200 kcal for women), because eating less than that is hard to sustain and can leave you short of nutrients.
Treat the result as a starting point. Follow it for two to three weeks, watch your weight and how you feel, and adjust by 100 to 200 calories if nothing is changing.
Protein, carbs and fat
Protein is set from your body weight and goal (about 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg), fat at about 25% of calories, and carbohydrate fills the rest. Fibre is about 14 g for every 1,000 calories.
Questions and answers
- What is TDEE?
- TDEE is your total daily energy expenditure: the calories you burn in a day including your resting energy, daily movement and exercise.
- How accurate is a calorie calculator?
- It is an estimate, usually within about 10 percent for most adults. Real needs vary with muscle mass, genetics and daily movement, so use the number for two to three weeks and adjust from your results.
- How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
- A common approach is to eat about 300 to 500 calories below your TDEE, which leads to slow, steady loss that is easier to keep up. The calculator does this for you when you pick the fat loss goal.
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Results are estimates for healthy adults and general information, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before big changes to your diet, especially if you have a health condition, take medicines or are pregnant.