Calorie Calculator
Estimate daily calorie needs from age, sex, height, weight, and activity. See BMR, maintenance TDEE, and a lose- or gain-weight starting point — in your browser.
Estimates use Mifflin-St Jeor (or optional Katch-McArdle). Results are planning numbers, not medical advice or a guaranteed weight-change rate.
How many calories do you need per day?
There is no single daily calorie number. Need depends on age, sex, height, weight, and how active a usual week is. This calorie calculator estimates resting burn (BMR), multiplies by an activity factor to get maintenance calories (TDEE), then optionally subtracts or adds a starting deficit or surplus.
Treat the result as a starting point and watch your weight trend for two to four weeks. For protein, carbs, and fat grams, open the Macro Calculator.
What you can use this calorie calculator for
- Estimate how many calories you may need per day to maintain your current weight
- See BMR (resting) separately from TDEE (daily, including activity)
- Set a cautious lose-weight or gain-weight starting calorie target
- Compare how activity level changes the same person’s daily calories
How to use the calorie calculator
- Choose US or metric units.
- Enter age, sex, height, and weight.
- Tap the activity card that matches a normal week, not your hardest week.
- Choose lose weight, stay the same, or gain weight. The daily target updates as you type.
- Optional: enter body-fat % to switch BMR to Katch-McArdle.
How the calorie calculation works
Default BMR uses Mifflin-St Jeor (1990), a common adult estimate of calories used at rest. Daily needs (TDEE) are BMR times an activity factor. Goal calories add or subtract a fixed starting amount from TDEE.
| Men | BMR = 10 × weight + 6.25 × height − 5 × age + 5 |
|---|---|
| Women | BMR = 10 × weight + 6.25 × height − 5 × age − 161 |
| Daily calories | TDEE = BMR × activity factor (1.2 to 1.9) |
| Optional | Katch-McArdle BMR = 370 + 21.6 × lean mass (kg) |
Calorie calculator examples
30-year-old man, 175 cm, 75 kg, moderately active
BMR 1,699 kcal → TDEE 2,633 kcal/day to maintain. A −500 starting point is 2,133 kcal/day. These numbers match this page’s engine.
35-year-old woman, 165 cm, 68 kg, moderately active
BMR 1,375 kcal → TDEE 2,132 kcal/day to maintain. A −500 starting point is 1,632 kcal/day.
| Activity | kcal/day |
|---|---|
| Sedentary | 2,039 |
| Lightly active | 2,336 |
| Moderately active | 2,633 |
| Very active | 2,930 |
| Extra active | 3,228 |
Different ways people search for this
People looking for a calorie calculator, a daily calorie calculator, or “how many calories should I eat” want one number they can start from. Searches that name only BMI, body fat, protein, or macros belong on those dedicated EverydayTools pages. BMR and TDEE are explained here because they are how this calculator gets daily calories — there is no separate BMR or TDEE route on this site.
Common calorie-calculator mistakes
- Eating at BMR. BMR is rest only. Daily needs are TDEE.
- Picking “very active” after one hard gym week. Use a typical week.
- Leaving the unit on kg when you typed pounds, or inches in the feet box.
- Treating 2,633 kcal as exact. Equations are population estimates.
- Assuming a 500 kcal cut always loses one pound a week. That 3,500-kcal rule is a rough story, not a forecast.
Related calculators
- BMI Calculator for adult body-mass index from height and weight.
- Body Fat Calculator if you want a tape estimate before using Katch-McArdle.
- Macro Calculator to split this calorie target into protein, carbs, and fat.
- Ideal Weight Calculator for height-based formula ranges — not a calorie target.