🍽️ Calorie Calculator

Estimate daily calorie needs to maintain, lose, or gain weight.

About this tool

Estimates total daily calorie needs by combining your BMR (calculated with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation) with an activity level multiplier, then shows adjusted figures for maintaining weight, losing roughly a pound a week, or gaining roughly a pound a week.

The 500-calorie daily deficit or surplus used here reflects the commonly cited rule of thumb that roughly 3,500 calories equal about one pound of body weight, though individual results vary.

Worked example

A moderately active 30-year-old male, 70 kg, 175 cm tall has an estimated maintenance calorie level of about 2,594 calories/day, with roughly 2,094 to lose about a pound a week or 3,094 to gain about a pound a week.

How to use it

Choose your units and enter sex, age, weight, and height.
Select your typical activity level.
Press Calculate calorie needs to see maintenance, deficit, and surplus figures.

Tips

Pick the activity level that reflects your typical week honestly — overestimating activity is a common reason calorie targets don't match real-world results.
The 500-calorie adjustment for roughly 1 lb/week change is a widely used estimate, but actual weight change varies by individual and isn't perfectly linear over time.
Consider the Macro Calculator next to break a target calorie number down into protein, carbs, and fat.

FAQ

How accurate is this estimate?

It's a well-established formula-based estimate, generally reasonable for most people, but individual metabolism, muscle mass, and other factors mean actual needs can differ — treat it as a starting point to adjust from based on real results.

Why 500 calories for about a pound a week?

One pound of body fat is often estimated at roughly 3,500 calories, and 500 calories × 7 days ≈ 3,500 — though this is a simplification and real-world weight change isn't perfectly linear.

Should I eat below the "lose weight" number to lose faster?

Very low calorie intakes carry health risks and aren't something this tool is designed to guide — talk to a healthcare provider before pursuing an aggressive calorie deficit.

From the blog: getting the most out of this tool

This calculator deliberately shows three numbers instead of one, because "how many calories should I eat" almost always really means "how many calories for my specific goal," and showing maintenance alongside the deficit and surplus figures makes the trade-off visible at a glance.

It builds directly on the same Mifflin-St Jeor BMR formula as our standalone BMR Calculator — if you just want the resting number without the activity layer on top, that page is the faster stop.