Free tool
Daily calorie calculator for weight loss
Enter your age, height, weight and activity. The calculator estimates how many calories you burn in a day and gives you a starting target 500 to 750 below that. Then you adjust from what the scale does.
It uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the one most coaches and dietitians reach for. It runs in your browser, and nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.
How the calculator works
First it estimates your basal metabolic rate, which is what your body would burn lying in bed all day. It converts your weight to kilograms (pounds divided by 2.2) and your height to centimeters (inches times 2.54).
Men: BMR = (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) minus (5 x age) plus 5
Women: BMR = (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) minus (5 x age) minus 161
Then it multiplies that by an activity factor to estimate what you burn in a full day:
- Desk job, little exercise: 1.2
- Light activity, one to three workouts a week: 1.375
- Moderate, three to five workouts a week: 1.55
- Hard training five or six days a week: 1.725
- Physical job plus daily training: 1.9
The calculator asks two questions to pick your factor. Your workouts per week choose the starting point: none is 1.2, one to three is 1.375, four to five is 1.55, and six or more is 1.725. Those factors already assume a mostly seated day, so a desk job or a lightly active day adds nothing. If you are on your feet all day or do physical labor, it moves you one step further down the list, up to 1.9.
Your starting target is that number minus 500 to 750. Going bigger than a 750 to 1,000 calorie deficit is where plans usually fall apart: appetite climbs, strength drops, and the plan gets abandoned.
What to do with your number
Eat close to it for two weeks
Stay within about 100 calories of your target for fourteen days before you change anything.
Watch the average, not one morning
Weigh yourself a few mornings a week under the same conditions and look at the average rather than any single day.
Adjust from what the scale does
If the average has not moved in three weeks and your logging has been honest, cut about 150 to 200 calories and repeat. If you are dropping faster than about one percent of your body weight a week and feel wrecked, add some back.
Put protein first
Calories decide whether you lose weight. Protein has a lot to say about whether what you lose is fat or muscle. Read how much protein to eat while losing weight.
Every equation here is an estimate built from population averages, and your real burn could sit a couple hundred calories above or below it. Treat the number as a starting point, not a verdict. For the full walkthrough with a worked example, read how to calculate your daily calories for weight loss.
If you are on medication that affects appetite or metabolism, have a thyroid condition, or have a history of disordered eating, calorie math is not the right first step. Talk to your physician or a registered dietitian first.
A number is a start. A coach makes it stick.
We set your target with you, check in every week, and adjust it from what actually happens.