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Nutrition target

Calorie Calculator

Estimate daily calories for fat loss, maintenance, or muscle gain from your body stats, activity level, and goal.

Gender based BMRActivity multiplierGoal adjustment

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The formula stays the same while the page now guides the flow more clearly.

Gender
cm
Goal
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How to use your calorie result

Maintenance vs target

Maintenance keeps weight stable. The target adds the selected goal adjustment.

Track the average

Daily intake can vary. Weekly consistency is usually more useful.

Method

Formula, result meaning, and common mistakes

This free calorie calculator estimates BMR with Mifflin-St Jeor, multiplies it by activity level, then adjusts the result for fat loss, maintenance, or muscle gain. It helps answer how many calories should I eat to lose weight with a personalized target.

What the result means

The target is an estimated daily calorie starting point. Use tracking and weekly progress to refine it.

Common mistakes

Avoid overestimating activity, cutting calories too aggressively, or changing the target after only one high or low day.

Understand deeper

How a calorie calculator turns stats into a daily target

Calculating your calories for weight loss starts with estimating your BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiplying by an activity factor to find maintenance. From there, reducing intake by 300–500 calories creates a manageable deficit for fat loss.

The output is still a starting point rather than a guarantee, because real energy expenditure changes with movement, sleep, hormones, and food tracking accuracy. Even so, the Mifflin equation remains one of the most widely used methods in practice, supported by Mifflin et al. (1990). Use your result for two to four weeks, compare it with body-weight trends, and then fine-tune your intake instead of reacting to a single high or low day.

The formula

BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) - 5 × age + 5 for men, or - 161 for women; maintenance calories = BMR × activity factor.

Worked example

A 30-year-old male at 80 kg and 180 cm has a BMR of about 1,780 kcal. At a 1.55 activity factor, maintenance is about 2,759 kcal, and a 500 kcal deficit gives about 2,259 kcal per day for fat loss.

Scientific basis

Mifflin MD et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990;51(2):241-247. This paper introduced the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, a standard method for estimating resting energy needs.

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FAQ

Common questions