A daily calorie calculator estimates how many calories you should eat per day to lose, maintain, or gain weight. It combines your BMR with an activity multiplier to get TDEE, then adjusts up or down based on your goal. Also breaks the result into a balanced macro split.
What is Calorie?
Calories in versus calories out is the only equation that determines weight change. Eat more than you burn, you gain. Eat less, you lose. The complication is that 'calories out' is not just exercise — most of it (60-75%) is your BMR, plus 10% for digesting food (thermic effect of food, TEF), plus exercise and non-exercise movement.
TDEE — Total Daily Energy Expenditure — is the headline number for everyday calorie planning. The calculator computes it by multiplying BMR by an activity factor: 1.2 (desk job, no exercise), 1.375 (light exercise), 1.55 (moderate), 1.725 (very active), 1.9 (athlete or physical job).
From TDEE, the calculator adjusts based on your goal. Standard adjustments: 500 kcal/day deficit for ~0.5 kg/week loss; 1,000 kcal/day deficit for ~1 kg/week loss (aggressive — only for higher starting weights); reverse for gain. The calculator caps these to avoid recommending unsafe levels.
BMR → TDEE → goal target
- BMR
- Basal metabolic rate—from Mifflin-St Jeor formula
- Activity factor
- Lifestyle multiplier—1.2 to 1.9 based on exercise level
- Goal adjustment
- Calorie shift—−1100 to +1100 kcal/day depending on weight goal
How to use this calculator
Enter your details, pick activity level, pick a goal. The calculator outputs the daily calorie target plus a macro split.
Enter age, height, weight, gender
Same as BMR — these compute your baseline metabolism.
Pick activity level
Be honest. Sedentary = office job + no gym. Moderate = exercise 3-5 days/week. Very active = daily intense workouts or physical job.
Pick a goal
Maintain, lose 0.5 kg/week (slow + sustainable), lose 1 kg/week (aggressive), gain 0.5 kg/week (lean bulk), gain 1 kg/week (fast bulk — usually too fat-heavy for most).
Read the daily calorie target
The headline number is your suggested daily intake. Below that you see your TDEE (maintenance), BMR, and a 40/30/30 macro split.
Calorie target use cases
Weight loss
Set goal to lose 0.5 kg/week. Aim for a 20-25% deficit below TDEE. Sustainable weight loss is 0.5-1% of body weight per week.
Maintenance
Reached your target weight? Set goal to maintain — eat at TDEE level to stay there.
Lean bulk for muscle gain
Need a 200-300 kcal/day surplus, plus high protein (1.6-2.2 g/kg body weight) and resistance training.
Athletic performance
Endurance athletes need elevated calories on training days. Adjust activity factor up or down by day.
Recovery from undereating
If you have been chronically under-eating, target maintenance for 4-6 weeks before any further deficit. Reverse dieting.
Common mistakes to avoid
Overestimating activity level
Most people overrate themselves by one level. If you go to the gym 3 days/week and otherwise sit, you are 'lightly active', not 'moderately'.
Eating back exercise calories twice
If your activity factor already includes the gym, do not add extra calories for that gym session. Either factor it in or eat back, not both.
Picking too aggressive a deficit
Aggressive cuts (>25% deficit) cause early plateaus and binge cycles. Slow and steady wins.
Glossary
- Calorie (kcal)
- Unit of energy. Food labels everywhere use kcal even when written as 'calories'.
- TDEE
- Total Daily Energy Expenditure — your maintenance calorie level.
- Caloric deficit
- Eating fewer calories than you burn. Required for weight loss.
- Caloric surplus
- Eating more than you burn. Required for muscle/weight gain.
- Macros (macronutrients)
- Protein (4 kcal/g), carbs (4 kcal/g), fat (9 kcal/g). Composition of your calories.
- TEF (Thermic Effect of Food)
- Calories burned digesting food. ~10% of intake. Higher for protein than carbs/fat.