Calorie Calculator | Formula | Examples

Calculate the total number of calories you must consume in order to meet your weight goals, whether to maintain, lose or gain weight. Enter your height, age, weight, and weight goals.

Calorie Intake Formula

Understanding and calculating the number of calories you burn is the first step in any program for weight loss or gain, but it’s also important for normal individuals trying to maintain weight.

How is this calculated? To do that we need to visit the key component of this calculator, BMR.

BMR stands for basal metabolic rate. This is the total calories your body burns at rest based on your age, height, weight, and gender. In general, the calculation for BMR is extremely accurate and in studies is only shown to deviate up to 5% from true values. This is calculated with the following formula:

P = total Calories
h = height (cm)
a = age (years)
s = constant (+5 for men/ -161 for women)

Now that we have the calories you are burning at rest, we need to add in an activity factor. This is simply a factor that adds extra calories for how much you workout. This is the largest estimate in the calculator because “working out” can mean a brisk walk for some people and a hard run for others. This calculator takes the average of those two scenarios.

That last step is for us to add in a factor for your weight goals whether to maintain, lose, or gain weight. For losing in gaining weight this is -200 calories per day and + 200 calories per day respectively. This is the proper amount for losing and gaining 1-2 lbs per week as stated above.

Calories Burned Calculator

What’s unique about the calculator above is that it takes into account your activity level and adds that to your total daily calories. Some days you may work out less than others, but you can divide the calories you burned throughout the entire week.

Clear and simple, the best way to increase the total amount of calories you burned each day is by increasing your activity. Play around with the calculator above to see just how much this can affect you.

Weight Loss Calorie Calculator

Not only can this calculator determine the number of calories you need to eat in order to maintain weight, but it can also determine the calories you need to consume in order to lose weight.

For the average person, a deficit of 200-300 calories per day is optimal for healthy weight loss. This will lead to approximately 1-2 lbs of weight loss per week. This is what most doctors recommend for healthy individuals. If you are overweight you can certainly afford to eat less and you may be fine with 400-500 calories of deficit. Fair warning though, this will be extremely difficult to maintain long term and you will be hungry all of the time.

Losing Weight

You can use this calculator to determine a baseline for losing weight. When you try to lose weight it’s important to weigh yourself on the same day every week at roughly the same time. Your body weight can fluctuate upwards of 3-4 pounds per day, so it’s important to weigh yourself at the same time every week.

The most important phrase to remember when trying to lose weight is this:

Calories in, Calories out

That is, the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn. You can achieve this in two different ways. Eat less or exercise more. No diet or exercise regime will ever triumph over the phrase calories in, calories out. There is absolutely no way around this, and anyone that tells you otherwise is lying. There are certainly ways to make this process easier, but the only way to truly lose weight is by increasing the deficit between the calories your burn and the calories you ingest.

An additional aspect of losing weight that is important is your protein intake. Protein is essential in building and maintaining muscle. If you’re in a caloric deficit, your body will not only burn fat for fuel but also muscle. Having proper protein intake will mitigate muscle loss during this time. To calculate your proper protein intake, click here.

Weight Loss Supplements

Nothing will ever come between the equation Calories in=Calories out, but there are certain supplements that can help aid in weight loss.

1) Thermogenics

Thermogenics are compounds whose goal is to increase core body temperature and in turn, increase your BMR or the rate at which you burn calories at rest. These typically work by supplying an enzyme that when digested creates a reaction in the body to increase its heat either by an immune response or otherwise. While it’s accepted these supplements to produce a rise in BMR, the jury is still out on if this rise is even more than 1-2%.

2) Stimulants/Appetite Suppressant.

Stimulants and appetite suppressant supplements don’t directly affect the calories you burn (although stimulants produce an increase in heart rate and in turn a very small increase in BMR), but they aim to stop people from feeling hungry. This can greatly aid in battling hunger for someone trying to lose weight. With that said, abusing stimulants is extremely dangerous and can lead to cardiovascular problems.

3) Surgery

While not actually a supplement, there are many procedures that either directly remove fat and weight from the body, or that reduce your hunger throughout the day. These procedures are extremely expensive and can also come with serious health risks.