Calorie calculator for weight loss

To lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Your daily burn – called maintenance calories or TDEE – depends on your body size, age, sex and how active you are. For most adults it's between 1,800 and 3,000 kcal.

A practical rule: eat about 15–25% below maintenance. For someone who maintains at 2,300 kcal, that means roughly 1,750–1,950 kcal per day. This usually leads to a loss of 0.5–1% of body weight per week – fast enough to stay motivated, slow enough to keep muscle and energy.

First we estimate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) – the energy your body uses at rest – with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which research has found to be among the most accurate predictive formulas for healthy adults:

• Men: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5
• Women: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age − 161

Then we multiply BMR by an activity factor from 1.2 (sitting most of the day) to 1.9 (physical job plus training). The result is your maintenance calories. Finally we apply your goal: a deficit for weight loss or a small surplus for muscle gain.

Every formula is an estimate. Use the number for 2–3 weeks, track your average weight, and adjust by 100–200 kcal if needed.

Bigger is not better. Very low-calorie diets increase hunger, reduce training performance and make you lose more muscle – and most people regain the weight. We recommend:

• 10% deficit – slow and very sustainable, good if you are already fairly lean.
• 20% deficit – the sweet spot for most people.
• Never below 1,200 kcal (women) or 1,500 kcal (men) without medical supervision.

Protein is the most important macronutrient when you're losing weight. It keeps you full and helps you keep muscle. Sports-nutrition research supports about 1.6–2.2 g of protein per kg of body weight per day for active people in a deficit. The calculator uses 1.8 g/kg – for higher body weights it uses a reference weight so the number stays realistic.

Fat is set at about 28% of calories (important for hormones), and carbs fill the rest – they fuel your training.

Almost everyone hits a plateau. Common reasons: portions creep up, weekends cancel out weekday deficits, daily steps drop, or water retention hides fat loss for a week or two. As you lose weight your maintenance calories also fall a little.

What to do: compare weekly averages, not single days. If the average hasn't changed for two weeks, add 2,000 steps per day or reduce by 100–150 kcal – not more.

A calorie target only helps if you know what to eat. That's why our personal meal plan turns your numbers into concrete meals with grams, a grocery list and swaps – and our workout plan makes sure the weight you lose is fat, not muscle.