CalcVitalsCalorie Calculator — Daily Targets by Goal
Your daily calorie target starts from maintenance (your TDEE) and moves by the size of the change you want: losing half a kilogram a week needs a deficit of about 550 kcal a day. At a maintenance level of 2,556 kcal, that is a target of about 2,006 kcal a day.
How it works
Every calorie target is a maintenance figure plus or minus an adjustment, so this page starts by working out your maintenance level — your TDEE — from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and your activity. The adjustments then follow from one durable fact: a kilogram of body fat stores roughly 7,700 kcal, so changing weight by half a kilogram a week means an average daily gap of about 550 kcal between what you eat and what you burn.
The rates offered are deliberately unglamorous. A quarter to half a kilogram a week is where adherence, hunger, training performance and muscle retention all stay manageable; a kilogram a week is achievable for larger bodies with more to lose, but it is the speed at which diets most often collapse, and it pushes smaller people below the intake floors (about 1,200 kcal for women, 1,500 for men) under which unsupervised dieting is not advised.
Whichever target you choose, treat the first three weeks as calibration. If your average weight is moving at roughly the intended rate, the target was right — whatever any calculator, this one included, predicted. If it is not moving, adjust the target by 100–200 kcal rather than declaring your metabolism broken; the estimate was the approximation, never you.
The method
Maintenance = Mifflin-St Jeor BMR × activity factor. Loss/gain targets shift maintenance by (rate kg/week × 7,700 kcal/kg) ÷ 7 days. Floors of 1,200 (women) / 1,500 (men) kcal/day are flagged, following common clinical guidance for unsupervised diets.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
Start 550 kcal below your maintenance for roughly half a kilogram a week, or 275 below for a gentler pace. Give it three weeks of honest tracking before adjusting — the first week's change is mostly water and tells you little.
Why 7,700 kcal per kilogram?
That is the measured energy content of a kilogram of human adipose tissue (fat plus its supporting water and protein). It is the same rule as the older 3,500 kcal per pound, in metric dress.
Do these targets work for gaining muscle?
The gain targets give the surplus; the muscle part comes from training and protein. A 275 kcal surplus with progressive resistance training and roughly 1.6 g of protein per kilogram of body weight is the well-supported combination.