FREE CALORIE CALCULATOR
Calorie Calculator: Calculate your daily calorie needs.
For fat loss, maintenance or muscle gain.
Calculate your daily calorie needs based on your body stats, activity level and goals.
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FOR YOUR BODY & GOALS
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Your Details
Your Results
Your personalised targets
Enter your details and select Calculate My Calories to estimate your BMR, maintenance calories and goal-specific calorie target.
Macronutrient Breakdown
Example macro starting point based on your selected calorie target . Protein is initially estimated at approximately 1.8 g/kg, fat at approximately 25% of calories, and carbohydrate provides the remaining energy. Individual preferences and needs may justify different distributions.
How Does the Calorie Calculator Work?
The calculator first estimates the amount of energy your body uses at rest, adjusts this estimate for your activity level, and then applies a calorie adjustment based on your selected goal. The result provides a practical starting estimate rather than a direct measurement of your metabolism.
Estimate Resting Energy
Your age, sex, height and body weight are entered into the Mifflin-St Jeor equation to estimate your resting energy expenditure.
Estimate Daily Expenditure
Your resting energy estimate is multiplied by an activity factor to estimate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, commonly referred to as TDEE.
Apply Your Goal
The calculator then applies your selected maintenance, fat-loss or muscle-gain setting to provide a practical starting calorie target.
Step 1 — Estimating Resting Energy Expenditure
The calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, published in 1990, to estimate resting energy expenditure. This represents approximately how much energy your body would require while at rest before normal daily activity and exercise are taken into account.
+ (6.25 × height in cm)
− (5 × age in years)
+ 5
+ (6.25 × height in cm)
− (5 × age in years)
− 161
BMR or Resting Energy Expenditure?
For simplicity, fitness calculators commonly describe this result as BMR. Technically, the original Mifflin-St Jeor study developed an equation for predicting resting energy expenditure (REE). The terms BMR and RMR are often used interchangeably in consumer calorie calculators, although they are not physiologically identical measurements.
Step 2 — Estimating Total Daily Energy Expenditure
Resting energy expenditure does not include the energy you use through daily movement, work, exercise and other activity. To estimate total daily energy expenditure, the calculator multiplies your resting energy estimate by the activity factor that best represents your typical week.
| Activity Level | Factor | Typical Activity |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1.20 | Little structured exercise and a predominantly sedentary lifestyle. |
| Lightly Active | 1.375 | Light exercise or sport approximately 1–3 days per week. |
| Moderately Active | 1.55 | Structured moderate exercise approximately 3–5 days per week. |
| Very Active | 1.725 | Hard exercise approximately 6–7 days per week and/or a relatively active lifestyle. |
| Extremely Active | 1.90 | Very high training volumes, demanding daily physical activity and/or a physically intensive job. |
Step 3 — Adjusting Calories for Your Goal
Once estimated maintenance calories have been calculated, the calculator applies your selected goal and pace. These goal adjustments are practical planning settings used by this calculator and are separate from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation itself.
Fat-Loss Targets
Muscle-Gain Targets
Why Your Real-World Results Still Matter
No calorie equation can measure your true daily energy expenditure from a few inputs alone. The result should therefore be treated as a starting estimate. Follow your calculated target consistently, monitor average body-weight trends and training performance for approximately 2–3 weeks, and adjust your calorie intake if your progress does not match your intended goal.
What Can Affect Your Actual Calorie Needs?
Differences in body composition, daily step count, non-exercise activity, occupation, training volume, exercise intensity, food intake, metabolic adaptation and individual physiology can all cause actual energy expenditure to differ from the calculator estimate.
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