Calorie calculator: BMR, TDEE and your daily calorie target
Maintenance calories, the deficit for weight loss and a macro split — every step of the calculation, not just the final number.
BMR, TDEE and maintenance calories, in order
BMR is what you would burn lying still all day — the cost of staying alive. This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the one the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends. The BMR calculator compares it with two other equations.
TDEE is BMR multiplied by an activity factor: everything you burn in a normal day, exercise included. It is also your maintenance calories. The TDEE calculator shows it at every activity level and explains how to choose yours.
Target intake is TDEE plus or minus the adjustment for your goal. A 500-calorie daily deficit is the conventional starting point for losing roughly a pound a week, and the calculator will not go below 1,200 calories for women or 1,500 for men.
How accurate is a calorie calculator
Mifflin-St Jeor predicts measured resting expenditure within 10 percent for about 70 to 80 percent of people. The equation was derived in adults, so it is least reliable at the extremes of size and age.
The activity multiplier is the larger source of error, because most people overestimate their activity. Treat the result as a starting point and correct it from your own weight over two or three weeks; the TDEE calculator shows how.
Using the target for weight loss
Eat at the target, track your weight as a weekly average rather than day to day, and adjust from what happens. To see how long a goal will take at different rates, and why weight loss slows as you get lighter, use the calorie deficit calculator.
About the macro split
The split shown is one reasonable default: protein at 1.6 g per kilogram (about 0.7 g per pound), fat at 25 percent of calories, and carbohydrate taking the rest. The macro calculator offers balanced, high-protein, low-carb and keto splits, and the protein calculator gives the full protein range by goal.
This is a calculator, not medical advice. The equations behind it describe populations and can be wrong about any individual. If you are under 18, pregnant or breastfeeding, managing a health condition, taking medication, or recovering from an eating disorder, the number to act on is the one your doctor or a registered dietitian gives you.
Other calculators
- BMI calculator Work out your body mass index, see the healthy weight range for your height, and read what BMI cannot tell you.
- TDEE calculator What you burn in a day at every activity level, side by side, and how to check the estimate against your own scale.
- Calorie deficit calculator Daily calories for the rate you choose, and two goal dates: one if you adjust as you go, one if weight loss slows because you don't.
- BMR calculator Your basal metabolic rate from Mifflin-St Jeor, Harris-Benedict and Katch-McArdle, compared, so you can see how much they disagree.
- Protein calculator Your daily protein intake in grams, set by what you are actually asking your body to do.
- Macro calculator Your daily macros in grams for weight loss, maintenance or gain, in four diet styles, split across your meals.
- Ideal weight calculator Four ideal body weight formulas side by side, plus the healthy weight range that is the more defensible target.
- Body fat calculator Estimate your body fat percentage with the US Navy tape method — three measurements, and an honest account of the error bars.
- Water intake calculator Your daily water intake from body weight, exercise and climate — and why thirst tracks the requirement better than this number does.