Calorie Calculator
Find out how many calories your body burns each day, and calculate exact targets for steady weight loss, maintenance, or muscle gain.
TDEE varies with activity — even a small increase in daily movement can shift your maintenance calories meaningfully.
What is a calorie deficit?
A calorie deficit means eating fewer calories than your body burns in a day (your maintenance level, or TDEE) — the gap forces your body to draw on stored fat for the difference, which is how weight loss happens. A calorie surplus is the reverse, eating more than you burn, which is needed for weight gain.
Worked Example — Male, 70 kg, 175 cm, 30 years, Moderate activity
Weight Loss & Gain Tiers
Every target below is derived from the same maintenance number — 1 kg of body fat is roughly 7,700 calories, spread across the week.
Mild Loss (−0.25 kg/week)
A small, easy-to-sustain deficit
Weight Loss (−0.5 kg/week)
The most commonly recommended pace
Extreme Loss (−1 kg/week)
Aggressive — harder to sustain, more muscle loss risk
Mild Gain (+0.25 kg/week)
Slow, lean-focused surplus
Weight Gain (+0.5 kg/week)
Faster surplus, more likely to include fat gain
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- This isn't a food-item calorie lookup. It estimates how many calories your body needs based on your stats and activity level — it doesn't look up calories for specific foods, restaurant menu items, or recipes.
- Very low targets aren't automatically better. A number well below your Extreme Loss tier usually isn't sustainable and can risk nutrient deficiency — the tiers shown are meant to be realistic ranges, not a floor to undercut.
- Activity level is where most people overestimate. "Moderate" assumes real structured exercise most days — a desk job with occasional weekend activity is closer to "Light" or "Sedentary," and picking too high inflates every number that follows.
References
- Mifflin-St Jeor equation (1990)
- Institute of Medicine — Dietary Reference Intakes
Last reviewed July 2026