Calorie Calculator

Calories are the single most useful number in nutrition. Whether you want to drop body fat, maintain your weight, or build lean muscle, your daily intake determines the direction the scale moves. Generic meal plans often fail because they ignore your age, sex, size, and activity level. A personalized calorie target removes the guesswork and gives you a trackable daily budget.

This Calorie Calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation — a widely validated formula for resting energy expenditure — and layers an activity multiplier on top to estimate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). It then adds or subtracts 500 calories for muscle gain or fat loss, and translates the final target into protein, carbohydrate, and fat grams you can act on.

The tool returns three key numbers. Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the energy you would burn at complete rest. Your TDEE adds the calories burned through movement, work, workouts, and digestion. The goal-specific target then applies a 500-calorie adjustment for losing fat or gaining muscle. Finally, a balanced 30/35/35 macro split turns the calorie target into grams of protein, carbs, and fat to guide meal planning.

Enter your gender, age, weight in kilograms, and height in centimeters. Select the activity level that matches an average week rather than your most ambitious one — this input has the biggest impact on TDEE. Choose your goal: lose weight, maintain, or gain muscle. The results cards show your BMR, TDEE, and target calories, while the macro card breaks the target into protein, carbs, and fat.

This calculator is useful whenever your energy needs change. Someone starting a fat-loss phase can set a safe deficit. A person moving from a desk job to a more active role can recalculate TDEE to avoid undereating. Strength trainees use the muscle-gain setting to ensure they eat enough for hypertrophy. Coaches and dieticians also use these estimates as a baseline before customizing client plans.

Alex is a 29-year-old man weighing 82 kg and standing 180 cm tall. He works from home, strength-trains three days a week, and walks his dog daily. His BMR using the male Mifflin-St Jeor equation is (10 × 82) + (6.25 × 180) - (5 × 29) + 5 = 1,822 calories.

With a moderately active lifestyle, his TDEE is 1,822 × 1.55 = 2,824 calories. Subtracting 500 calories for weight loss gives a daily target of 2,324 calories. At a 30/35/35 macro split, that equals roughly 174 g protein, 203 g carbohydrates, and 90 g fat. If his weight drops 0.25–0.5 kg per week, the target is well calibrated.

• Track for 2–3 weeks before adjusting. Formulas estimate averages, but your true metabolism is individual. Use the target consistently, then tweak by 100–200 calories based on weight trends.
• Prioritize protein. Aim for at least 1.6 g per kilogram of body weight when losing fat or building muscle to preserve lean mass and control hunger.
• Weigh yourself under consistent conditions. Daily weight fluctuates with water, sodium, and digestion. Use a weekly average instead of reacting to single-day changes.
• Recalculate after major changes. A 10 kg weight loss can reduce TDEE by 100–200 calories. Recalculate monthly or after lifestyle shifts.
• Pair calories with training. Resistance training during a deficit protects muscle; a structured surplus with progressive overload maximizes muscle gain.