🥗 Daily Calorie Calculator
Estimate your daily caloric intake needs for weight maintenance, loss, or muscle gain.
How many calories you need, and what a deficit really looks like
Your daily calorie need is your total daily energy expenditure, which is basal metabolic rate multiplied by an activity factor. To maintain weight you eat that amount. To lose, you eat less; to gain, more. Everything beyond that is detail about how to do it without being miserable.
Setting the target
| Goal | Adjustment | Expected rate of change |
|---|---|---|
| Aggressive loss | −25% | About 0.8–1.0% of body weight a week |
| Standard loss | −20% | About 0.5–0.7% a week |
| Gentle loss | −10 to −15% | About 0.25–0.5% a week |
| Maintenance | 0% | Stable within normal fluctuation |
| Lean gain | +10% | About 0.25–0.5% a week |
Percentages work better than a fixed number because a 500-calorie deficit is 20% for someone burning 2,500 and 33% for someone burning 1,500. The second is far harder to sustain and costs more muscle.
The 3,500-calorie rule and why it overpromises
The old rule says a pound of fat is 3,500 calories, so a 500-calorie daily deficit loses a pound a week. It is a reasonable approximation for the first few weeks and then drifts, because as you lose weight you need fewer calories, so the same intake becomes a smaller deficit. Predicted loss over a year using the simple rule can be nearly double what actually happens.
Expect weight loss to decelerate even with perfect adherence. Recalculating your target every 4 to 5 kg lost keeps the deficit where you intended it.
Protein, and why it gets its own paragraph
In a deficit, protein does three useful things at once: it preserves lean mass, it is the most satiating macronutrient per calorie, and it costs 20% to 30% of its own energy just to digest. Common guidance for someone losing weight is 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight, or per kilogram of target weight if you are carrying a lot of fat. For an 80 kg person that is roughly 130 to 175 g a day.
Why the scale moves when your fat does not
Daily weight swings of one to two kilograms are normal and have nothing to do with fat. Each gram of stored carbohydrate holds about three grams of water, so a high-carb day raises weight overnight. Sodium, hormonal cycles, travel and the simple fact of undigested food all shift the number. Weigh at the same time each morning and judge by the weekly average, not by any single reading.
What the activity multiplier really covers
Most people overestimate their activity level. Three gym sessions a week alongside a desk job and a car commute is lightly active, not very active. If your measured weight change over three weeks does not match the prediction, the activity multiplier is the input most likely to be wrong, not the formula.
A worked example
A 29-year-old woman, 170 cm, 78 kg, moderately active. BMR = 780 + 1,062 − 145 − 161 = 1,536. TDEE = 1,536 × 1.55 = 2,381. A 20% deficit gives 1,905 calories a day, predicting roughly 0.5 kg a week. Protein at 1.8 g/kg is 140 g. After losing 5 kg her TDEE falls to about 2,284, so the target drops to 1,827 to keep the same deficit.
This page explains published formulas and population-level ranges. It is general information, not medical advice, and it cannot account for your individual health. Talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian before changing how you eat, train or treat a condition.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
Usually 15% to 25% below your TDEE. For most adults that lands between 1,500 and 2,200 calories a day. Going below about 1,200 for women or 1,500 for men makes adequate nutrition difficult and is normally only done under supervision.
Why have I stopped losing weight?
Three common reasons, in order of likelihood: your TDEE has fallen with your weight so the deficit has shrunk; intake has drifted upward without being logged; or you are retaining water, which can mask several weeks of fat loss. Recalculate, log honestly for a week, and judge by the weekly average.
Do calories from different foods count the same?
For energy balance, broadly yes, but not for everything else. Protein costs more to digest and is more satiating, fibre reduces the calories actually absorbed, and whole foods take longer to eat. Two 500-calorie meals can leave you feeling completely differently three hours later.
Is it better to eat less or exercise more?
Diet moves the number more reliably. It is far easier to not eat 500 calories than to burn them, which is close to an hour of running for most people. Exercise matters for health, for preserving muscle and for maintaining the loss, but as a deficit tool alone it is slow going.
How accurate are calorie labels?
Regulations in most countries permit up to 20% error on packaged food labels. Restaurant estimates are often worse. This is one of several reasons why adjusting based on your actual weight trend beats trusting the arithmetic exactly.
Should I eat back the calories I burn exercising?
Partially at most. Trackers and machines routinely overestimate, sometimes by 30%. A common compromise is to eat back about half of the reported burn, then adjust based on what the scale does over a few weeks.
What about building muscle while losing fat?
It happens most readily in beginners, in people returning after a break, and in those with higher body fat. It requires resistance training, high protein and a modest rather than aggressive deficit. For a trained lifter at low body fat, it is slow to the point of impractical.