Daily Calorie Calculator
Find your daily calorie target for fat loss, maintenance, or muscle gain — with sane deficit caps and a worked example for both sexes.
Daily calories
Daily calorie target
2759kcal
Weekly weight change (est.)
0kg/week
What calorie target you actually need
Three numbers matter:
- Your TDEE — the calories you’d eat to stay exactly the same weight.
- Your goal — lose fat, maintain, or gain muscle.
- The offset — how far above or below TDEE you eat to drive that goal.
Get those three right and your weight moves predictably. Get any of them wrong and you spin your wheels for months.
How the calculator works
We start from Mifflin-St Jeor BMR, multiply by your activity factor to get TDEE, then offset for your goal:
BMR × activity_factor = TDEE
Cut (fat loss): TDEE × 0.80 (≈ 20% deficit)
Aggressive cut: TDEE × 0.75 (≈ 25% deficit)
Maintain: TDEE
Lean bulk: TDEE + 250 (slow, mostly-muscle gain)
Aggressive bulk: TDEE × 1.15 (≈ 15% surplus)We also enforce a calorie floor (1500 men / 1200 women) so the calculator can’t recommend an unsafe deficit. If you’re a small-bodied adult with a low TDEE, your safe deficit may be smaller in absolute terms than a larger person’s — the floor protects you.
A worked example
A 30-year-old man, 80 kg, 180 cm, lifts four days a week:
- BMR: 1780 kcal
- TDEE (×1.55): 2759 kcal
- Cut (20%): 2207 kcal/day → roughly 0.5 kg/week of fat loss
- Aggressive cut (25%): 2069 kcal/day
- Lean bulk: 3009 kcal/day → ~0.25 kg/week, mostly lean
- Aggressive bulk (+15%): 3173 kcal/day
A 28-year-old woman, 65 kg, 168 cm, lifts three days a week:
- BMR: 1399 kcal
- TDEE (×1.375): 1924 kcal
- Cut (20%): 1539 kcal/day
- Aggressive cut (25%): 1443 kcal/day → above the 1200 kcal floor
- Lean bulk: 2174 kcal/day
How fast should the scale move?
| Goal | Healthy weekly rate | What 80 kg lifter sees |
|---|---|---|
| Aggressive cut | 0.7–1.0% body weight | 0.55–0.80 kg/week |
| Standard cut | 0.5–0.7% body weight | 0.4–0.55 kg/week |
| Maintain | ±0.3 kg over 4 weeks | Stable |
| Lean bulk | 0.25–0.5% body weight per month | 0.2–0.4 kg/month |
| Aggressive bulk | 0.5–1.0% body weight per month | 0.4–0.8 kg/month |
Daily fluctuations of ±1.5 kg are normal — water, glycogen, and gut content swing more than fat does. Trust the 7-day rolling average, not the daily reading.
How to use this calculator
- Enter age, sex, weight, height, and activity level.
- Pick your goal: cut, maintain, lean bulk, or aggressive bulk.
- Read your daily calorie target.
- Eat that target ±50 kcal for at least 14 days before adjusting.
When to adjust
After 2–3 weeks at your target, look at the trend:
- Lost the expected amount → continue.
- Lost more than expected (faster than 1.0% body weight per week) → add 100–150 kcal. Faster isn’t better; it’s a recipe for muscle loss.
- Lost less than expected → drop 100–150 kcal, and re-check whether your activity level estimate is honest.
- Gained on a bulk faster than 1.0% body weight per month → drop 150 kcal. Excess gain is fat that has to be lost later.
Adjust once every 2 weeks at most. Daily tweaks are noise-chasing.
Calorie cycling: optional structure
Some people find it easier to eat a higher target on training days and a lower target on rest days. The math:
- Pick a weekly calorie average (e.g., 2200/day × 7 = 15,400/week).
- Distribute as you like — common pattern: 4 training days at 2400, 3 rest days at 1933, weekly average 2200.
Cycling is a tool for adherence, not a metabolic hack. Your body responds to weekly averages. Cycle if it helps; ignore it if it doesn’t.
What calories don’t tell you
The calorie target is a starting point, not the whole picture. Macros (especially protein) determine what kind of tissue you lose or gain. Sleep affects appetite, recovery, and adherence dramatically. Training stimulus — heavy, progressive resistance work — protects lean mass during deficits and drives lean gain during surpluses. The calorie number is necessary but not sufficient.
If your weight isn’t moving as expected over 4 weeks, look in this order:
- Are you actually eating what you logged? Track exactly for one week with a food scale.
- Is your activity factor honest? Most people overestimate by one tier.
- Are you sleeping less than 6 hours? Fix that before changing anything else.
- Then — and only then — adjust calories.
Frequently asked questions
How big a calorie deficit is sustainable?
For most lifters, a deficit of **15–25% below TDEE** (typically 400–700 kcal/day) is the sweet spot — fast enough to see results, slow enough to retain muscle and stay hungry rather than ravenous. Aggressive deficits (>30%) accelerate fat loss but cost performance and adherence within 3–4 weeks.
What is the minimum number of calories I should eat?
This calculator floors intake at **1500 kcal for men** and **1200 kcal for women**, even on a 25% deficit. Below those floors, you're risking nutrient deficiencies, hormonal disruption, and severe adherence problems. If your floor is binding (i.e., the deficit would push below it), accept slower fat loss.
How fast should I lose weight on a cut?
A safe rate is **0.5 to 1.0% of body weight per week**. For an 80 kg lifter, that's 0.4–0.8 kg/week. Faster than 1% per week and muscle loss accelerates. Slower than 0.5% per week and the diet feels like it's not working.
How fast should I gain weight on a bulk?
For a beginner, 0.5–1.0% body weight per month is realistic with most of it being lean mass. For intermediates, 0.25–0.5% body weight per month. For advanced lifters, 1–2 kg of true lean gain per year is closer to reality, and most aggressive bulks add fat that has to be cut later.
Why does my friend at the same weight need more (or fewer) calories than I do?
At identical body weights, two adults can differ by 300–600 kcal/day in true maintenance. The biggest drivers are non-exercise activity (NEAT — fidgeting, walking, posture), lean-mass percentage, and adaptive thermogenesis from prior diet history. The calculator gives you a population-average starting point; the scale gives you the actual answer.
Should I cycle calories across the week?
It's optional, not required. Some people prefer **higher-calorie weekend days** with lower weekday targets — same weekly average, more social flexibility. Performance-wise, putting more calories on training days and fewer on rest days is a rational structure if it doesn't add complexity you can't sustain.