How many calories do I need per day?

Your daily calorie needs depend on age, sex, height, weight, and activity level. This calculator estimates your maintenance calories and then adjusts them for fat loss, maintenance, or muscle gain goals.

TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure. It is the estimated number of calories you burn in a full day after combining your resting metabolism with activity and exercise.

What is the difference between BMR and TDEE?

BMR is the number of calories your body needs at rest to support basic functions like breathing and circulation. TDEE builds on BMR by adding movement, workouts, and general daily activity.

How many calories should I eat to lose weight?

A calorie deficit is typically used for weight loss, which means eating fewer calories than your TDEE. The right deficit depends on your size, activity, timeline, and how aggressively you want to diet while preserving performance.

Free TDEE Tool

TDEE & DailyCalorie Needs Calculator

Estimate your maintenance calories, fat-loss calories, lean-bulk target, and a practical protein-carb-fat split in seconds. Use the Mifflin-St Jeor formula with your real activity level to get a cleaner starting point than guesswork.

Mifflin-St Jeor BMR formula

Maintenance, cut, and gain targets

Visual macro chart for your goal

This tool gives you a strong starting estimate. Review your results after two to three weeks of real bodyweight and training data.

Inputs

Build Your Calorie Estimate

Pick your units, enter your stats, and choose the goal you care about right now. Results update as soon as the required fields are valid.

Gender

Height Unit

Weight Unit

Age

Height (cm)

Weight (kg)

Activity level

Pick the level that matches your full week, not your best day.

Goal

Cutting

Use the fat-loss target when scale weight and body fat are the priority.

Maintenance

Use maintenance when you want consistency, recomposition, or a reset phase.

Lean gain

Use the muscle-gain target when training hard and trying to add size slowly.

FitForge uses population-level formulas. Medical conditions, pregnancy, puberty, or elite training loads can shift your real calorie needs outside these estimates.

Calorie Deficit Basics

What is a calorie deficit?

A calorie deficit means you consistently eat fewer calories than your estimated TDEE. That gap can come from food, activity, or a mix of both. For many people, a 250 to 500 calorie daily deficit is the most practical starting range because it can support steady weight loss without crushing training performance.

The calculator gives you a starting target, but your weekly body weight trend tells you whether the target is working. Keep the number stable for two to three weeks, then adjust in small steps.

Read our full guide →

How To Use ItStart with maintenance before you overcorrect

If you have been guessing calories, maintenance is the cleanest reference point. From there, move into the cut or gain target based on what you want the next training block to achieve.

Macro RuleProtein stays steady while carbs flex with the goal

Protein protects recovery and muscle retention. The biggest swing is usually carbs: lower for fat loss, higher for performance and muscle-gain phases.

AdjustmentsUse weekly data, not one random weigh-in

Keep your starting numbers for two to three consistent weeks, then adjust if progress stalls.

Cutting too fast: add 100 to 150 calories.
Maintenance drifting up: remove 100 calories.
Bulking with no scale movement: add 100 to 150 calories.