🩺 Calorie Calculator: Daily Calories to Maintain Weight

How to use this calculator

1. Choose US or metric units — switch any time; your numbers stay put where they convert cleanly.
2. Enter sex (as used by the equation), age, height, and weight. Adults 18–100 only.
3. Pick the activity level that matches a normal week.
4. Optionally choose a lose or gain goal and a daily adjustment. The calculator will never show a goal below your BMR.
5. Press Calculate calories. Read maintenance calories first; treat any goal figure as a trial to adjust after a few weeks of real-world tracking.

Measuring tip: weigh yourself under similar conditions (same time of day, similar clothing, after the bathroom) on several mornings and use the average. A single day’s scale reading is noisy and will not change what your body actually needs.

How the numbers are calculated

Calculating calories here happens in two steps.

Step 1 — BMR. The working equation (Mifflin-St Jeor form, candidate constants pending primary-source verification):

BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(years) + constant

Constant = +5 for male, −161 for female, as used by this equation. Weight in pounds is converted with 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg; inches are converted with 1 in = 2.54 cm.

Step 2 — Maintenance. BMR is multiplied by an activity factor: 1.2, 1.375, 1.55, 1.725, or 1.9. Those five multipliers are a calculator convention shown openly above and editable under Advanced.

Optional step — Goal calories. Lose weight: maintenance − adjustment. Gain weight: maintenance + adjustment. If the result would fall below BMR, the calculator keeps the BMR figure and tells you so instead of showing an aggressive number.

A commonly repeated rule of thumb is that about 3,500 kcal equals one pound of body weight. That shortcut is an approximation with known limits — it is not treated as exact here, and no rate of weight change is promised.

Worked examples (hypothetical)

These examples use fixed test values so you can check the arithmetic. They are hypothetical people, not real users.

Example of the guard: profile B at sedentary maintenance is about 1,584 kcal/day. A 500 kcal/day cut would give about 1,084 — below her BMR of about 1,320 — so the calculator refuses to display that goal and shows the BMR floor message instead.

What each activity level does to your maintenance estimate

Choosing one level too high adds hundreds of calories to your daily target — the single most common reason a calorie intake calculator disagrees with real-world results.

What this calculator does and does not do

From resting burn to maintenance calories

Inside the estimate vs. outside it

If a factor that matters to you sits in the right-hand column, use this figure only as a rough floor for your own planning, and speak with a qualified clinician before making big changes.

Common mistakes when estimating calorie needs

• Overstating activity. Most people who train three times a week are “moderately active,” not “very active.”
• Using a goal deficit so large the result drops below resting burn. This calculator blocks that; other tools may not.
• Changing the plan every few days. Maintenance estimates need a few weeks of consistent intake and weigh-ins to check.
• Expecting one equation to be exact. Individual needs differ; treat the number as a center point you refine with real data.
• Treating a calculator as medical advice. It is not. Conditions, medications, and life stages change energy needs in ways this tool cannot see.

Frequently asked questions

Glossary

BMR (basal metabolic rate)

Energy used by your body at rest over 24 hours — breathing, circulation, cell work — before activity.

Maintenance calories

The estimated daily intake at which body weight stays roughly stable, i.e. BMR scaled by activity.

Activity multiplier

A factor (1.2 to 1.9 here) that scales BMR to an active day; a calculator convention, openly editable.

Calorie (kcal)

Food energy unit used on US labels; in this page “calorie” means kilocalorie (kcal).

Deficit / surplus

Eating below (deficit) or above (surplus) maintenance calories; shown here only as an optional labeled estimate.

Related calculators on Varnda

This page focuses on daily energy intake. Money-side planning tools on Varnda cover take-home pay and major loan payments:

• Paycheck Calculator — estimate your take-home pay
• Mortgage Calculator with taxes, insurance, and PMI
• Personal Loan Calculator — monthly payment, interest, and more

Limitations, exclusions, and assumptions

• Estimates only. Individual energy needs vary with body composition, hormones, medication, illness, and training history.
• The equation and the five activity multipliers are working conventions that were not verified against a primary source in this build (2026-10-18); they are editable under Advanced.
• Not valid for pregnancy, breastfeeding, anyone under 18, people with eating-disorder histories, or medical conditions — not medical advice.
• No meal plans, macro targets, supplements, or food logging.
• No claim of guaranteed weight change; the 3,500 kcal-per-pound rule of thumb is not presented as exact.
• Byline: Varnda Editorial Team. No external credentialed review was performed for this page.

Summary

This calorie calculator gives US adults a quick, transparent estimate of BMR and maintenance calories from sex, age, height, weight, and activity level, plus an optional lose-or-gain target that never drops below resting burn. Use it to choose a sensible starting point, track real-world results for a few weeks, and adjust — and check the official starting points above if you want to dig into the method yourself.

Back to the calculator

Rule version · Page last updated 2026-10-18 · Locale en-US · Market: United States