Health & Fitness
Calorie Calculator - Daily Calorie Needs
Calculate daily calorie needs for maintenance, weight loss, or gain.
Formulas and edge cases are reviewed against authoritative references before publication. For methodology, editorial standards, or corrections, use the links below.
Frequently asked questions
What is maintenance calories?
It is the estimated number of calories to maintain your current weight.
How does activity level affect calories?
Higher activity increases calorie needs to maintain weight.
Is a 500 calorie deficit safe?
It is a common starting point, but individual needs vary.
Related tools
About this tool
Inputs
- Weight
- Height
- Age
- Sex
- Activity level
Results
- Maintenance calories
- Weight loss target
- Weight gain target
You do not need a spreadsheet to calculate daily calorie needs for maintenance, weight loss, or gain. This Calorie Calculator gives you the answer in seconds. Body composition, metabolism, and vital signs interact in complex ways that a single number cannot capture. Enter weight, height, age, sex and activity level. The tool processes your data and returns maintenance calories, weight loss target and weight gain target.
Whether you need to calculate daily calorie needs for maintenance, weight loss, or gain for a quick check or a thorough analysis, this tool adapts to both. It is the estimated number of calories to maintain your current weight. Basal metabolic rate estimates use equations like Harris-Benedict or Mifflin-St Jeor, which factor in age, sex, height, and weight. Consider multiple indicators together rather than focusing on a single number. Health metrics give you a snapshot of where you stand, but they are not a diagnosis. Try adjusting one input at a time to see how it affects the outcome — this is the fastest way to build intuition about the relationship between the variables.