Calorie Calculator
Find the intake that holds your weight steady, and the targets above and below it for gaining or losing. Each target shows the weekly rate it actually produces — and, if you enter a goal weight, how long it would take to get there.
What it takes to hold your current weight. Every target below is this figure shifted up or down. Your Mifflin-St Jeor BMR is 1,649 kcal before activity.
Your daily targets
| Goal | Intake | Per week | To goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aggressive lossHard to sustain, and lean mass loss accelerates. | 1556 | -0.91 kg | |
| Weight lossThe usual recommendation for steady fat loss. | 2056 | -0.45 kg | |
| Mild lossSlower, but much easier to hold to. | 2306 | -0.23 kg | |
| MaintenanceEat at this to hold your current weight. | 2556 | — | |
| Mild gainA lean bulk, paired with resistance training. | 2806 | +0.23 kg | |
| Weight gainFaster gain, with more of it as fat. | 3056 | +0.45 kg |
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Calorie cycling (zigzag) schedules
Both schedules below average out to the same weekly total as your weight loss target — cycling moves intake around the week, it does not change how much there is. The point is adherence: putting the extra room on the days you find hardest to control tends to be easier to stick to than an identical figure every day. There is no strong evidence it beats a flat deficit metabolically.
Weekend refeed
Two higher days at the weekend, five steadier ones through the week.
| Mon | 1892 |
|---|---|
| Tue | 1892 |
| Wed | 1892 |
| Thu | 1892 |
| Fri | 1892 |
| Sat | 2467 |
| Sun | 2467 |
| Week | 14394 |
Alternating days
Three higher days spaced through the week, four lower ones between them.
| Mon | 2364 |
|---|---|
| Tue | 1825 |
| Wed | 2364 |
| Thu | 1825 |
| Fri | 2364 |
| Sat | 1825 |
| Sun | 1825 |
| Week | 14392 |
What exercise actually adds back
Thirty minutes of each activity, at your bodyweight. These are net figures: the resting energy you would have spent in that half hour anyway has been subtracted, because your maintenance number already contains it. Counting the gross figure and eating it back is the most common way a calorie target quietly stops working.
| Activity (30 min) | MET | Net burn |
|---|---|---|
| Walking, 3.0 mph (moderate) | 3.5 | 88 |
| Walking, 3.5 mph (brisk) | 4.3 | 116 |
| Walking, 4.0 mph (very brisk) | 5 | 140 |
| Hiking, general | 6 | 175 |
| Running, 5 mph (12 min/mile) | 8.3 | 256 |
| Running, 6 mph (10 min/mile) | 9.8 | 308 |
| Running, 7.5 mph (8 min/mile) | 11.5 | 368 |
| Cycling, leisure, under 10 mph | 4 | 105 |
| Cycling, 12–14 mph | 8 | 245 |
| Cycling, 14–16 mph | 10 | 315 |
| Swimming, freestyle laps | 8 | 245 |
| Rowing machine, moderate | 7 | 210 |
| Elliptical trainer, moderate | 5 | 140 |
| Weight training, vigorous | 6 | 175 |
| Yoga, hatha | 2.5 | 53 |
| Skipping rope | 10 | 315 |
| Basketball, game | 8 | 245 |
| Tennis, singles | 8 | 245 |
| Football (soccer), casual | 7 | 210 |
| Gardening, general | 3.8 | 98 |
MET values come from compendium tables built on group averages, so they ignore fitness, technique and terrain. Differences of 20 to 30% against other methods are normal. Use them to compare activities against each other, not as an energy budget to spend.
How the calorie target is built up
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR men 10·weight(kg) + 6.25·height(cm) − 5·age + 5 women 10·weight(kg) + 6.25·height(cm) − 5·age − 161 TDEE = BMR × activity factor 1.20 sedentary 1.375 light 1.55 moderate 1.725 very active 1.90 extra active Target = TDEE + daily adjustment Weekly change = adjustment × 7 / 7,700 kcal per kg of fat
Basal metabolic rate is the largest single component, usually 60 to 70% of the total. The thermic effect of food adds roughly another 10%, and everything you do on top — deliberate exercise and ordinary movement alike — makes up the rest. The activity multiplier bundles those last two together, which is why it is both the most convenient and the least precise part of the calculation.
Using the number honestly
Treat the output as a starting hypothesis, not a measurement. Eat at the estimate for two to three weeks, track weight as a weekly average rather than a daily reading, and adjust by 100 to 200 kcal based on what actually happened. That feedback loop beats any equation, because it is measuring you rather than a population.
Choosing a rate you can actually hold
The deepest deficit you can tolerate is rarely the one that works. Three things decide what a deficit costs you, and none of them appear in the arithmetic above.
Bigger deficits cost more muscle
Below roughly 75% of maintenance, a larger share of the weight lost comes from lean tissue rather than fat. Adequate protein and resistance training blunt this considerably, which is why a moderate deficit with both beats an aggressive one with neither — the scale moves faster in the second case, but not in the direction most people actually want.
The floor is not arbitrary
Below about 1500 kcal a day for men and 1200 for women, meeting micronutrient requirements from food alone becomes genuinely difficult, independent of how much body fat someone is carrying. This calculator raises any target that would fall under its own hard floor and tells you it has done so, rather than printing a number that looks like a plan.
The estimate drifts as you go
A smaller body burns less, and adaptive thermogenesis lowers expenditure by more than the size change alone predicts. The target you calculate today is right for today's weight. Recalculate every few kilograms; a plan that assumes one fixed number for six months will stall.
What this calculator cannot tell you
Every figure here rests on two population estimates stacked on top of each other: a BMR equation accurate to about 10% for most people, multiplied by an activity factor that is cruder still. The output is a starting point with a band around it, not a measurement of you. It cannot account for thyroid disorders, medication, pregnancy, or a history of disordered eating, and it says nothing about what the calories should consist of.
It also cannot see adherence, which is the variable that actually decides outcomes. A moderate target you keep to for six months will beat an aggressive one you abandon in three weeks, and no equation on this page can distinguish between them in advance.
Medical disclaimer. This calculator is for general information and education only. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a substitute for professional care. The targets are an estimate, not a prescription. Do not use them to plan intake for a child, during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or alongside an eating disorder or a diagnosed metabolic condition.Speak to a doctor or a registered dietitian before making significant dietary changes.Last reviewed .
Frequently asked questions
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
Take your maintenance figure and subtract. A deficit of 500 kcal a day produces roughly half a kilogram, or a pound, of loss a week, because a kilogram of body fat stores about 7,700 kcal. Deficits beyond about 25% of maintenance increase lean mass loss and get harder to hold to, and sustained intake below 1500 kcal for men or 1200 for women is not advised without medical supervision.
Why does a 500 kcal deficit mean half a kilo a week?
Because a kilogram of body fat stores roughly 7,700 kcal, so 500 a day is 3,500 a week — just under half a kilo. The arithmetic is right; the assumption behind it is not quite. The rule treats your metabolic rate as fixed, when it actually falls as you lose weight, so real-world loss decelerates and the prediction drifts optimistic over months. Expect the first few weeks to track the estimate and later ones to lag it.
Which BMR equation does this use, and why?
Mifflin-St Jeor, published in 1990. It replaced the 1919 Harris-Benedict equation as the default because it was fitted on a more representative modern population and predicts measured resting energy more accurately — typically within 10% for about 80% of people, against a wider error for Harris-Benedict, which tends to over-predict. Your BMR is then multiplied by an activity factor to give the maintenance figure everything else is built from.
What activity level should I select?
Sedentary for a desk job with little deliberate exercise; lightly active for one to three sessions a week; moderately active for three to five; very active for hard training six or seven days a week; extra active for a physical job or two hard sessions a day. When two levels both sound like you, take the lower one — over-reporting activity is the most common reason a calorie target fails to produce the expected change.
How accurate is the activity multiplier?
It is the weakest link in the whole estimate, weaker than the BMR equation it multiplies. Most people overestimate their activity, and non-exercise activity thermogenesis — fidgeting, standing, walking about — varies by hundreds of calories a day between people of similar size. Expect the total to be within 10 to 15%, and correct it against real weight change over two to three weeks rather than trusting the first figure.
Is there a floor I should not go below?
Common clinical guidance is not to sustain intake below about 1500 kcal a day for men or 1200 for women without medical supervision, because meeting micronutrient requirements becomes difficult and lean mass loss accelerates. This calculator flags any target that falls below the figure for your sex rather than presenting it as a plan. Very low calorie diets do exist as a supervised intervention, and they are monitored for good reason.
Why do I need fewer calories after losing weight?
Two reasons. A smaller body costs less to maintain and to move, so basal rate falls with mass. On top of that, adaptive thermogenesis reduces expenditure by more than the size change alone predicts, and spontaneous movement tends to decline during a deficit. Recalculating at your new weight every few kilograms, rather than holding the original target, is what keeps progress going.
Does it matter what the calories are made of?
For weight change, total intake is what dominates. For what you lose, composition matters a great deal: adequate protein and resistance training are what keep a deficit taking fat rather than muscle. A common target is 1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight a day when cutting, which is higher per kilo than at maintenance precisely because the deficit puts lean mass at risk.
How long will it take me to reach my goal weight?
Enter a goal weight and the table shows the weeks each target would take at the rate it produces. Treat it as a floor on the timeline rather than a schedule: the estimate assumes you hold the deficit exactly and that your metabolic rate stays put, and neither is quite true. Adherence over months, not the size of the deficit, is what decides the outcome.
Is my data saved or uploaded anywhere?
No. Every calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored, or logged, and the page keeps working offline once loaded. If you share the page URL after calculating, the figures you entered are in the link — clear the query string first if you would rather not pass them on.