Calorie calculator
Enter your details to estimate how many calories your body uses in a day. The maths runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
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What your result means
BMR (basal metabolic rate) is an estimate of the calories your body uses at complete rest, to keep you breathing and your organs working.
Maintenance calories (also called TDEE, total daily energy expenditure) is your BMR multiplied by an activity factor. Eating about this much should keep your weight roughly steady.
Both numbers are estimates for an average person with your stats. Real needs can differ by a few hundred calories. Treat the result as a starting point, then watch your weight over a few weeks and adjust.
How it's calculated
Formula
- BMR for men = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5
- BMR for women = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age − 161
- Maintenance = BMR × activity factor, rounded to whole calories
- Activity factors: sedentary 1.2, light 1.375, moderate 1.55, active 1.725, very active 1.9
The BMR equation is Mifflin-St Jeor (1990). A later review of prediction equations found it the most reliable of those compared for healthy adults. The activity factors are commonly used multipliers, not exact measurements.
Imperial values are converted to kilograms and centimetres before the calculation.
Sources
Learn more in the Academy
Frequently asked questions
BMR is what your body uses at rest. Maintenance calories add the energy you use moving, exercising and digesting food, so it is always higher than BMR.
It is an estimate. Two people with the same numbers can burn noticeably different amounts of energy. Use the result as a starting point and adjust it based on how your weight changes over several weeks.
Count your normal week, including your job and daily walking as well as workouts. If you sit between two levels, pick the lower one. Most people overestimate how active they are.
Eating around your maintenance calories keeps weight steady. To lose or gain weight, use the weight goal calculator, then split the target with the macro calculator.
Calculators give estimates for healthy adults and are not medical advice. Talk to a qualified professional before changing your training or nutrition, especially if you have a health condition.
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