Calorie Calculator: Setting a Daily Target for Your Goal
A calorie calculator estimates how much energy you burn each day and converts that into a target for losing fat, maintaining weight or gaining muscle. It starts from your resting metabolic rate, scales it by activity, then applies a deficit or surplus sized to your goal.
Deficits and surpluses that work
- Fat loss: 15-25% below maintenance, roughly 0.5-1% of body weight per week.
- Maintenance: eat at your estimated expenditure and monitor for two weeks.
- Lean gain: 5-15% above maintenance, paired with progressive resistance training.
Calorie quality still matters
The total controls weight direction, but composition controls how you feel and what you lose. Aim for 1.6-2.2 g of protein per kg of body weight when dieting to protect muscle, keep fat above about 0.6 g per kg for hormone health, and fill the remainder with carbohydrate and fibre to fuel training and satiety.
Why progress stalls
As you lose weight, a smaller body burns fewer calories, so the same intake eventually becomes maintenance. Non-exercise movement also tends to drop during a diet. Recalculate every 4-6 kg of change, and remember that logging accuracy drifts — most people under-report intake by 20% or more when portions are eyeballed rather than weighed.
Key takeaways — Calorie Calculator
- Target = maintenance calories adjusted by a deficit or surplus for your goal.
- Protein intake protects lean mass while dieting.
- Recalculate as body weight changes, and judge by multi-week trends.