Calorie Calculator
Calorie Calculator
Calculate daily calorie needs for your goals
Quick Tips
- Track your intake for a week before trusting the number — most people underestimate what they eat by 20-40%.
- A moderate 500 calorie/day deficit or surplus is more sustainable than aggressive changes.
- Recalculate every 10-15 lbs of weight change, since your calorie needs shift as your body does.
- Protein intake matters as much as total calories for preserving muscle during weight loss.
Daily Calorie Target
2,267
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
1,649
Total Daily Energy (TDEE)
2,267
Last updated: August 10, 2026
Calories: The Simple Math of Weight Change
3,500 calories = 1 pound of body weight. Eat 500 calories less daily = lose 1 lb/week. Eat 500 more = gain 1 lb/week. A 30-year-old woman, 5'5", 150 lbs, sedentary needs ~1,800 calories to maintain weight. Drop to 1,300 = lose 1 lb/week. Increase to 2,300 = gain 1 lb/week.
Your body burns calories three ways: BMR (60-75% - just staying alive), activity (15-30% - movement), and digestion (10% - processing food). Most people overestimate activity and underestimate food intake by 20-40%. That's why tracking matters more than guessing.
Quick Calorie Formulas
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
Men: 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) - 5 × age + 5
Women: 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) - 5 × age - 161
Activity Multipliers
- Sedentary: BMR × 1.2
- Light exercise (1-3 days/wk): BMR × 1.375
- Moderate (3-5 days/wk): BMR × 1.55
- Very active (6-7 days/wk): BMR × 1.725
- Athlete (2x/day): BMR × 1.9
Calorie Targets by Goal
| Goal | Calorie Adjustment | Rate of Change |
|---|---|---|
| Aggressive Weight Loss | -1,000 cal/day | 2 lbs/week (not sustainable long-term) |
| Healthy Weight Loss | -500 cal/day | 1 lb/week (sustainable) |
| Maintenance | 0 cal | No change |
| Lean Muscle Gain | +250 cal/day | 0.5 lb/week (minimal fat gain) |
| Faster Weight Gain | +500 cal/day | 1 lb/week (muscle + fat) |
Warning: Don't go below 1,200 calories (women) or 1,500 calories (men) without medical supervision. Too low = muscle loss, nutrient deficiency, metabolic slowdown.
Macro Distribution
Protein
4 cal/g
Target: 0.7-1g per lb body weight
Muscle building, satiety, metabolism
Carbs
4 cal/g
Target: 45-65% of calories
Energy, brain function, performance
Fat
9 cal/g
Target: 20-35% of calories
Hormones, nutrient absorption
Common Calorie Mistakes
What People Get Wrong
- Overestimating exercise calories burned by 50-100%
- Underestimating food intake by 20-40%
- Not counting "small" bites, drinks, condiments
- Choosing "very active" when actually moderate
- Expecting linear progress (weight fluctuates daily)
How to Be Accurate
- Use food scale, not measuring cups
- Track everything for 1-2 weeks, be honest
- Count cooking oils (120 cal/tablespoon)
- Weigh yourself same time daily, track weekly average
- Adjust every 2-3 weeks based on results
Quick Reference: Food Calories
High-Calorie Foods (watch portions)
- Oil/butter: 120 cal/tbsp
- Nuts: 160-200 cal/oz
- Peanut butter: 190 cal/2 tbsp
- Cheese: 110 cal/oz
- Avocado: 240 cal whole
Low-Calorie, High-Volume
- Vegetables: 20-50 cal/cup
- Berries: 60-85 cal/cup
- Egg whites: 17 cal each
- Chicken breast: 165 cal/4 oz
- Greek yogurt (0%): 100 cal/cup
How we calculate this
- Method
- Mifflin-St Jeor BMR × activity multiplier
- Formula
-
TDEE = BMR × activity factor (1.2 sedentary → 1.9 very active); a deficit or surplus is then applied to TDEE - Source
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1990, combined with the conventional physical activity level multipliers used by the FAO/WHO/UNU expert consultation on energy requirements.
- Limitations
- Activity multipliers are broad bands, not measurements. Real expenditure commonly differs from the estimate by several hundred calories a day.
- Last reviewed
Found a discrepancy? Tell us and we will check it — corrections are published on this page. Report an issue
Frequently Asked Questions
Eat roughly 500 calories less than your maintenance level (TDEE) to lose about 1 pound per week — that's the standard, sustainable deficit. A 1,000-calorie deficit for 2 lbs/week is possible but harder to stick with long-term and increases the risk of muscle loss.
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the energy your body burns at complete rest just to stay alive — breathing, circulation, cell repair. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is your BMR plus the calories you burn from daily activity and exercise, and it's the number you should compare your intake against.
If your activity level setting already reflects your typical exercise routine, no — it's already factored into your TDEE. Only add back calories for exercise that's unusually intense or infrequent and not already captured by your selected activity level.
The most common causes are underestimating food intake (people typically underestimate by 20-40%), overestimating exercise calories burned, not accounting for sauces/oils/drinks, and normal water-weight fluctuation masking real fat loss. Track intake with a food scale for 1-2 weeks and compare your weekly average weight, not daily readings.
A common target is 0.7-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, which supports muscle retention during weight loss and muscle growth during a surplus. This calculator's macro breakdown allocates roughly 25% of your daily calories to protein as a starting point.
Calorie balance drives weight change either way, but food quality still matters for health, satiety, and how you feel. Highly processed, low-protein diets tend to leave people hungrier and are harder to sustain than diets built around whole foods, even at the same calorie total.
No — tracking for a few weeks is usually enough to calibrate your sense of portion sizes and identify where your actual intake sits relative to your target. Many people transition to periodic tracking (a few days every month or two) once they've internalized their targets.
Yes, modestly — BMR tends to decline a few percent per decade after your 20s, mostly due to gradual muscle loss rather than age itself. Strength training to preserve muscle mass is the most effective way to counteract this.
No — weight change is driven by your average intake over weeks, not any single day. A one-day surplus is a small fraction of the weekly deficit needed for fat loss and won't meaningfully offset consistent progress.
Wearable calorie-burn estimates are frequently off by 20-30% or more, especially for strength training and high-intensity activity. Use this calculator's activity-level multiplier as your primary estimate and treat tracker numbers as a rough directional guide rather than an exact figure.
This calculator enforces a floor of 1,500 calories/day for men and 1,200 calories/day for women, even if your selected deficit would otherwise push you lower. Going below these minimums without medical supervision raises the risk of nutrient deficiency, muscle loss, and metabolic slowdown.
It's based on the standard BMI "normal" range of 18.5-24.9 applied to your height, giving a lower and upper bound for a weight considered healthy for someone your height — the same reference range used by the BMI calculator.
Yes — toggle between Metric (kg, cm) and Imperial (lb, ft/in) at the top of the calculator, and all figures convert automatically.
Daily Calorie Target
2,267