Health and Wellness and Changes you can Addapt
Find your daily calorie needs with this daily calorie calculator. Learn about the factors that affect your calorie target.
A maintenance calorie calculator is a tool that estimates how many calories you need each day to maintain, lose, or gain weight. Its data is based on your age, block, height, weight, and activity level (1).
Knowing how many calories you need each day is a powerful first step toward your goals. This guide (and the calorie maintenance calculator below) can help you estimate your daily calorie needs based on your body, lifestyle, and fitness goals..
“At MyFitnessPal, we use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation to calculate caloric needs. It’s the most accurate formula in clinical nutrition and the one our registered dietitian trusts to give an accurate, personalized starting point.” – Brookell White MS, RD, Food Data Curator at MyFitnessPal
How to Use the MyFitnessPal Calorie Needs Calculator
All need to do is enter a few basic pieces of information about yourself, including:
Age: Needs can vary by age, especially as muscle mblock naturally declines over time.
Sex: Though it’s just one consideration, men and women tend to have different calorie needs.
Height and Weight: Your height and weight help determine your calorie needs.
Activity Level: Whether you’re sedentary or highly active, your activity level plays a big role in the calculation.
Fitness Goals: Whether you’re aiming to lose weight, build muscle, or maintain your current health, the calculator adjusts your recommendations accordingly.
How Calorie Needs Are Calculated
Knowing how many calories you need can help guide your food and activity choices to reach your goals. This is the whole idea behind the CICO diet, which stands for Calories In Calories Out.
The logic behind the CICO diet is that once you know your caloric needs, you can add, subtract, or meet them to gain, lose, or maintain weight.
Keep reading for a step-by-step guide to calculating your caloric needs using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. Plus, you’ll learn how to work with that number once you know it.
Step 1: Calculate Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
It all starts with the basal metabolic rate (BMR). That’s the number of calories your body burns just to stay alive. (1) Even if you stayed in bed all day, your body would still require energy (aka calories) to breathe, pump blood, produce cells and hormones, and so on.
One of the most reliable ways to calculate BMR is by using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which factors in your weight, height, age, and gender. (1, 5)
By plugging your own numbers into this formula, you can get a personalized estimate of how many calories your body burns at rest. I say “estimate” because while this is one of the most accurate ways to calculate your BMR, it’s not a perfect science. (More on this later.)
Let’s take an example and calculate this together. For instance, if you’re a 35-year-old woman who’s 5’4’’ and weighs 165 pounds, you’d first need to calculate your height and weight in centimeters and kilograms.
Height in centimeters = height in inches x 2.54 or 64 x 2.54 = 162.56
Weight in kilograms = weight in pounds ÷ 2.2 or 165 ÷ 2.2 = 75
Now, let’s plug these numbers into the BMR equation.
BMR = (10 × 75) + (6.25 × 162.56) – (5 × 35) – 161
BMR = 750 + 1016 – 175 – 161
BMR ≈ 1,430 calories/day
This means your body requires about 1,430 calories each day just to maintain essential functions. However, since you don’t spend all day lying down, you need to adjust your energy needs based on how active you are. (If you’d rather skip the math, you can easily calculate your BMR here.)
Step 2: Adjust BMR Based on Your Activity Level
Now that you know your BMR, you can factor in your activity level to get a more accurate picture of how many calories you really need each day. That’s your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). TDEE considers your daily movement and adjusts your caloric needs accordingly. (1) To estimate your TDEE, you can use the following activity level multipliers:
Sedentary (little to no exercise)
Use this activity level multiplier if you get minimal activity or movement throughout the day–say, because you drive to work and have a desk job. (1)
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1.2
Lightly active (exercise 1-3 days per week)
This is when you perform some activity–such as going for a walk–up to three days a week. (1)
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1.375
Moderately active (exercise 3-5 days per week)
Let’s say you walk a lot in your day-to-day life and exercise most days; you’d be considered moderately active. (1)
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1.55
Very active (exercise 6-7 days per week)
If you’re engaging in any purposeful exercise, like hopping on the elliptical, most days, or you have a physical job, you’d be considered very active (4).
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1.725
Super active (hard exercise or physical job)
You’d be considered super active if you pushed yourself hard and workout often, say in spin clblock, or if you have an intensely physical job (4).
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1.9
Getting back to our example, if you exercise four times per week, your activity multiplier would be BMR × 1.55. Your BMR was 1,430 calories, so the equation looks like this (4).
TDEE = 1,430 × 1.55 = 2,216.50 calories/day
This means your maintenance calories are around 2,215 per day. Now, we’ll adjust this number of calories needed to maintain weight based on your goals.
Step 3: Set Your Goal: Weight Loss, Maintenance, or Gain
Here’s a quick-reference summary of how to adjust your maintenance calories based on your goal:
GoalAdjustmentExpected RateLose weightSubtract 250-500 calories from TDEE~0.5-1 lb lost per weekMaintain weightMatch your calorie intake to TDEEStable weightGain weight / muscleAdd 250-500 calories above TDEE~0.5-1 lb gained per week
For weight loss
The logic behind the CICO diet is that a pound is roughly equivalent to 3,500 calories (2). Therefore, to lose weight, you’d subtract 250 to 500 calories from your maintenance calorie target.
Using our example TDEE of 2,215, you can cut your intake by 500 calories, aiming for a daily intake of around 1,715 calories. This should lead to a gradual, sustainable weight loss of about 1 pound per week.
Remember that gradual changes are helpful because they don’t feel overwhelming. Also, keep in mind again that while using a calorie calculator for weight loss is helpful, it isn’t a precise science. You may lose more or less weight than predicted after calculating your personal caloric needs for weight loss (2).
For weight gain
If you’re trying to gain muscle or increase your weight, you’ll need to consume more calories than your TDEE. Your caloric needs for weight gain can increase by about 500 calories per day, bringing your total to around 2,715 calories.
A calorie calculator for weight gain will come in handy as you focus on adding bulk. MyFitnessPal can also make it easier to ensure you’re adding calories from nutritious sources.
For maintenance
A calorie maintenance calculator works by matching your calorie intake to your TDEE. For weight maintenance, aim to do exactly that.. In our example, the calories to maintain weight would mean consuming about 2,215 per day.
Whatever your goal, making small, gradual adjustments is the best way to ensure long-term success (5). Extreme caloric deficits or surpluses can be difficult to sustain and may negatively impact your health. A calorie counting app, like MyFitnessPal, can help you follow the CICO diet for weight gain, loss, or maintenance.
Macronutrient Balance: Optimizing Your Caloric Intake
The CICO diet and a maintenance calorie calculator can help you manage your caloric intake, but macronutrient balance helps you optimize your nutrition (6).
The three macronutrients are proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. The right balance helps you fuel your body properly for specific goals, whether that’s losing weight, building muscle, or weight maintenance. (You can determine a personal macro goal using this free macro calculator.)
Protein:
Protein is essential for maintaining muscle strength and mblock (7). Protein is also blockociated with increased satiety, helping you feel full for longer stretches after meals (8). Getting enough protein while you’re losing weight will help you preserve muscle mblock and improve satiety while you’re in a caloric deficit (7).
Fats:
Fats not only help you absorb nutrients, but they slow the rate at which food is digested and metabolized. That means, like protein, fat can help you feel fuller longer (9). A beneficial macronutrient balance includes about 30% of your daily caloric needs from heart-healthy fats, like those found in avocados, nuts, seeds, and extra virgin olive oil (6).
Carbohydrates:
Carbs are often maligned, particularly among those trying to lose weight. However, carbs are your body and brain’s main energy source, and your muscles need carbs to fuel physical activity (6). The net-net is that carbs are a vital part of your macronutrient balance. Typically, around 45% of your daily caloric needs should come from carbohydrates (6).
Of course, these are general guidelines, and some people prefer to balance their macronutrient intake differently.
Calorie Counting Isn’t an Exact Science: Other Factors to Consider
While calorie counting and using a calorie maintenance calculator can be a helpful tool for managing your weight, there are other things that influence your body’s ability to lose or gain weight.
That’s why it’s important to be gentle with yourself as you embark on a weight management journey. While calorie tracking is helpful, there’s still some trial and error to the process.
Metabolism:
You don’t have as much control over your metabolism as you think. Everyone’s metabolism is unique, and age, genetics, and gender influence your metabolic rate. (7) Of course, your activity levels, how active or inactive you are, is a factor of your metabolic rate that you can control. (More on this below.)
Hormones:
Hormones, particularly those related to thyroid function, can affect weight gain or loss. Hormones related to menopause may also influence your ability to lose weight. Talk to your doctor if you suspect hormonal imbalances are making it harder for you to manage your weight (7).
If you’ve lost weight in the past, appetite-regulating hormones may make it more difficult to maintain this weight loss because these hormones may affect hunger (10).
Exercise and muscle mblock:
In addition to improving your health and burning some calories, exercise (particularly strength training) helps you build more muscle tissue (8). Muscle burns slightly more calories than fat, even at rest (8). So, the more muscle mblock you have, the higher your metabolism and caloric needs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Calorie Calculator
What are my maintenance calories?
Your maintenance calories are equal to your TDEE, which is the total number of calories your body burns per day at your current activity level. Use the maintenance calorie calculator above to find your personal number.
How many calories do I need per day?
Most adults need between 1,800 and 3,000 calories per day to maintain their weight, depending on age, block, and activity level (4). Your exact number is calculated using your BMR multiplied by your activity multiplier.
How do I calculate maintenance calories?
Calculate your BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiply by your activity level multiplier to get your TDEE. That result is your maintenance calories. The calorie intake calculator above does this automatically.
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
Subtract 250-500 calories from your TDEE. This creates a sustainable deficit for gradual weight loss of roughly 0.5-1 pound per week (2). See our calorie deficit meal plan for a practical example, or learn how to use MyFitnessPal for weight loss.
How many calories should I eat to gain weight?
Add 250-500 calories above your TDEE (2). For muscle-focused gaining, pair your calorie surplus with adequate protein — use our protein calculator to find your target. You can also learn more about body recomposition if your goal is to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously.
Are maintenance calories the same as TDEE?
Yes. Maintenance calories and TDEE refer to the same number: the calories needed to maintain weight at your current activity level. This calorie maintenance calculator calculates both in a single step.
How often should I recalculate my calorie needs?
Recalculate whenever your weight, activity level, or goal changes. A good estimate may be every 4-8 weeks or after losing or gaining 10+ pounds (10).
Is 1,200 calories per day enough?
For most people, no. Experts recommend a minimum of 1,200 calories per day for women and 1,500 for men without medical supervision. Going below these floors can negatively impact metabolism and muscle mblock.
If your calculated goal feels very low, consult a registered dietitian. For a practical sense of what eating at a moderate target looks like day-to-day, see what an 1,800-calorie day looks like.
The Bottom Line: Understanding and Adjusting Your Caloric Needs
To optimize your health and reach your goals, start by calculating your caloric needs using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, adjusting for your personal activity level. Then you can start using your maintenance calorie counter results for measuring weight loss, maintenance, or gain. (MyFitnessPal can make this so much easier!)
While this is a good start, it’s also helpful to consider your macronutrient balance since some calories are more filling and nutritious than others.
Remember, this process is highly individual, and other factors like genes, hormones, and muscle mblock also play a role. Once you know your maintenance calories, gradual, sustainable changes supported by a balanced approach to macronutrients, will help you make progress toward your personal goals.
Originally published November 7, 2024; Updated August 4, 2026
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