Calorie Calculator: Find Your Daily Energy Needs

Whether your goal is to lose weight, build muscle, or simply maintain your current physique, the fundamental rule of human biology remains the same: energy in versus energy out. If you consume more calories than your body uses, you gain weight. If you consume fewer calories, you lose weight.

Our free online Calorie Calculator removes the guesswork from your diet. By utilizing the highly accurate Mifflin-St Jeor equation, this tool calculates exactly how many calories your body needs every day to function, allowing you to build a diet plan backed by science.

BMR vs. TDEE: What is the Difference?

To understand how many calories you need, you first need to understand two key metabolic concepts:

• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): This is the number of calories your body burns at complete rest just to keep you alive (pumping blood, breathing, maintaining body temperature). Even if you slept all day, you would burn your BMR.
• Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): This is your BMR plus all the calories you burn through physical movement throughout the day, including walking to your car, fidgeting, and intense workouts. TDEE is the number you need to focus on.

How to Use Your Results

Once you have calculated your TDEE (labeled "Maintain Weight" in the results), you can adjust your diet based on your specific goals:

• To Maintain Weight: Eat exactly your TDEE in calories every day.
• To Lose Weight: Create a caloric deficit. Subtract 500 calories from your TDEE to lose approximately 0.5kg (1 lb) per week. We have provided several deficit tiers in the results to help you choose a sustainable pace.
• To Gain Muscle: Create a caloric surplus. Add 250 to 500 calories to your TDEE to provide your body with the extra energy needed to synthesize new muscle tissue.