Calorie calculator
Calorie & TDEE Calculator
Find out how many calories you burn and how many to eat to hit your goal. Enter your stats below and get your BMR, TDEE, a daily calorie target, and a complete macro breakdown — instantly, with no signup.
This calculator provides general estimates for educational use only and is not medical or dietary advice. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before making significant changes to your nutrition, especially if you have a health condition.
How to use your numbers
Three numbers come out of this calculator, and each answers a different question. Your BMR is what you would burn lying in bed all day — the energy cost of simply being alive. Your TDEE is that figure scaled up for how active you are; it's your true maintenance level, the intake at which your weight holds steady. The big daily target is your TDEE nudged toward your goal: eat below it to lose fat, at it to maintain, above it to gain.
We calculate BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, published in 1990 and still the most reliable predictive formula for healthy adults. For men it is 10 × kg + 6.25 × cm − 5 × age + 5; for women the final constant is −161 instead of +5. We then multiply by an activity factor — 1.2 for sedentary, up to 1.9 for someone with a physical job or two-a-day training — to reach TDEE.
The goal adjustment is deliberately moderate. A 20% deficit is aggressive enough to lose roughly half a kilogram of fat per week for most people, but gentle enough to preserve muscle and training performance. A 10–15% surplus on a lean bulk adds size while keeping fat gain slow. We also floor the target just above your BMR so the calculator never recommends a dangerously low intake.
The macro split is the part most calculators skip. Protein is set from your bodyweight, not a flat percentage, because protein needs scale with mass, not energy. Fat sits at about 27.5% of calories — enough for hormones and satiety — with a floor so it never drops too low. Carbohydrates take whatever calories remain; they fuel training, so on high-volume days they're the lever you raise. Hit your protein and calories every day and the rest is detail.
Finally, remember that every formula is an estimate. The honest workflow is to use this number as a hypothesis, eat to it consistently for two to three weeks while logging your food and weighing in, and then adjust. If the scale isn't moving the way you predicted, change your intake by 100–200 calories and reassess. That feedback loop — not the calculator — is what actually gets you to your goal, and it's exactly what the Grind Track app is built to run.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- How many calories should I eat a day?
- It depends on your size, age, sex, activity and goal. This calculator estimates your maintenance calories (TDEE) and then adjusts: about a 20% deficit to lose fat, no change to maintain, or a 10–15% surplus for a lean bulk. Enter your details above to see your personal number.
- What is the difference between BMR and TDEE?
- BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the energy your body burns at complete rest just to stay alive. TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is BMR multiplied by an activity factor — it includes movement, exercise and digestion, so it's the number your weight actually responds to.
- Which formula does this calculator use?
- Mifflin-St Jeor, the predictive BMR equation most consistently shown to be accurate for healthy adults. It uses your weight in kilograms, height in centimetres, age and sex, then applies a standard activity multiplier (1.2 to 1.9) to reach your TDEE.
- How accurate is a calorie calculator?
- Predictive equations land within roughly 10% for most people, but your true expenditure varies with muscle mass, NEAT, sleep and metabolism. Treat the number as a starting point: track your intake and weight for two to three weeks and adjust by 100–200 calories based on what actually happens.
- How are the macros calculated?
- Protein is anchored to your bodyweight (around 1.8 g/kg, rising to 2.2 g/kg on a cut to protect muscle), fat is set to roughly 25–30% of calories, and carbohydrates fill the remainder. That mirrors how coaches actually program a day of eating.
Grind Track
Track this in the app
A calorie target is a guess until you measure against it. Grind Track logs every meal and macro, learns your real expenditure from your weight trend, and keeps your number current. Free to start on iPhone.