Calorie needs calculator

How many calories does your body burn each day? Fill in a few fields below, the result shows up straight away. Nothing is saved, the calculation happens right in your browser.

How this calculation works

The calculator works in two steps.

1. Your resting metabolism, the energy your body burns without moving, just breathing, keeping its temperature, keeping your heart beating. It’s estimated using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, published in 1990 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, one of the most widely used today.
2. Your activity level, which multiplies that resting metabolism. The more you move, the higher the multiplier, from 1.2 for a very sedentary lifestyle to 1.725 for very intense activity.

The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is written like this, in kcal per day.

• Men, 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5
• Women, 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age − 161

And for losing weight?

To lose weight, you need to eat a bit less than you burn, consistently. In the app, Kiloach suggests by default a target equal to your estimated burn minus 500 kcal, rounded. You can change it anytime, and set a different one for weekends.

Too big a deficit rarely holds up and leads to giving up fast. If you have a medical condition, are on medication, pregnant, or your relationship with food is complicated, talk to your GP or a dietitian first.

The limits of any formula

An equation gives you an average. Two people of the same age, height and weight can burn different amounts, depending on muscle mass, genetics or health. The best judge is still your weight curve over several weeks, which is exactly what Kiloach tracks for you.