Calorie Calculator

This quick Calorie Calculator estimates how many calories you need per day to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain your current body weight:

Simply input your height, weight, age, and gender to quickly calculate your daily calories burned and calories needed to maintain, or lose, or gain half a kg, or 1 full kilogram per week. For a more detailed result, include your current body fat percentage, waist measurement, and select a different calorie calculation formula.

PS: We have more calculators here!

How many calories should you eat per day?

How Many Calories per Day?

Curious to know how many calories you should be eating in a day? In Australia, the national government agency responsible for providing dietary guidelines is the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). The NHMRC provides recommendations for daily energy intake based on age, sex, and activity level. Here are the general guidelines for daily energy intake in Australia:

  1. Adults:
    • Sedentary or low activity level: 8,700 to 10,500 kilojoules (2,080 to 2,510 calories) per day for women and 10,500 to 12,600 kilojoules (2,510 to 3,010 calories) per day for men.
    • Active or moderate activity level: 10,500 to 12,600 kilojoules (2,510 to 3,010 calories) per day for women and 12,600 to 14,700 kilojoules (3,010 to 3,510 calories) per day for men.
  2. Children and Adolescents:
    • The recommended daily energy intake varies based on age, sex, and growth stage. The NHMRC provides specific guidelines for different age groups.

However, if you want to lose weight, you will probably need to eat less than this until you reach your ideal body weight. That’s where our calorie calculator helps, because it works out how many calories you need to burn per day in order to lose weight. It is also a maintenance calories calculator, because it calculates how many calories you need to stay at your current weight.

Weight Loss Calorie Calculator: Why use it?

You should use calcount’s calorie calculator to estimate your daily calorie needs as a helpful starting point in understanding your basic energy requirements. Here are some reasons why you’d do well to pay attention to the calculated results:

  1. General guidance: our calculator provides a convenient and accessible way to obtain an estimate of your daily calorie needs. It takes into account factors such as age, gender, weight, height, and activity level to provide you with a general guideline.
  2. Goal setting: If you have specific health or weight goals, calcount’s online calculator can provide a starting point for determining an appropriate calorie range. Whether you want to lose, maintain, or gain weight, knowing your estimated calorie needs can help you set realistic goals and develop a plan.
  3. Self-monitoring: Tracking your calorie intake is essential when you are trying to manage your weight or making dietary changes. Out calorie calculator can provide a baseline calorie target for you to track and adjust your intake accordingly.

The weight-loss formula used by this calculator has been proven in the lab and in the field by literally millions of people. It works.

Gain Weight Calories

Your Calorie Calculator result is the key to YOUR Balance

Your calorie result is unique to you. It serves as a starting point for self-awareness and self-reflection. Whether your goal is to maintain your current weight, shed a few pounds, or gain muscle mass, this result empowers you to make informed decisions about your dietary choices. By knowing your calorie range, you can develop a personalised plan that aligns with your specific needs and aspirations. Use calcount’s Calorie Deficit Calculator to configure specific targets. It is a more advanced tool which includes time to reach a weight loss goal and downloadable content.

calories in and out

Taking things a step further, you must record and monitor what you eat every day. It is easy to lose track over time unless you keep a daily record. You can do this with calcount Calorie Tracker. The app is made for Australia and includes goals for per day intake of macro nutrients like protein and fat. Keeping a record of your caloric intake is the best way to succeed with weight loss.

Calorie Calculator supports Weight Control

Your results are displayed as the number of daily calories you need to eat each day in order to change your weight, in kilograms. To keep things simple, daily calories for weight loss of 500 grams and 1 kilogram per week are shown. The tool also functions as your daily calorie intake calculator to show your maintenance calorie count. Additionally, the calculator shows food energy values for weight gain and the amount burned through Basal Metabolic Rate.

How to lose weight

To lose weight, you need to have a good idea of the number of calories you use for doing your normal activities on an average day. Our calculator shows what this value is for you, based on your numeric inputs and your selection of current activity level. It is the number of calories needed to maintain your current weight.

Calorie Deficit Calculator

Weight loss is achieved by consuming fewer calories than needed. However, the specific required number depends on a person’s rate of metabolism. For most people, counting on the average daily calorie intake is not very useful. Each person has an individual caloric requirement. Factors such as age and gender have a big impact on calorie burn rate.

Of the main factors, age is the one that will change over time, no matter what else happens to the person.

Different Lifestyles and Activities

Metabolism rates are determined by many factors including age, physical activity, exercise level, genetics, body size, and gender. Every person’s result depends on their unique characteristics.

Therefore, you need to input your specific details into the calculator. The calculator will then provide you with your daily calories to maintain, lose, or gain weight.

Calorie Counting your way to Weight Loss Success

With you calculated result, you now know how many calories you need to eat in order to lose weight. But, how do you actually succeed in sticking to the calculated daily calories for long enough to achieve meaningful weight loss?

Calorie Counting is Science
Science made the Calorie Calculator

Science shows the Way

Today, we are buffeted with many different sorts of weight loss advice and information, and it can get confusing. But after you consume all the information and advice there is out there, you are going to eat some food. A bowl of noodles, a plate of salad, a cup of tea. That food has calories, and the energy that the calories measure is going to affect your body weight in some way.

You will gain fat if you burn fewer calories than your calorie intake.

Energy intake is the purpose of food and the reason for fat. Calculating your calories is therefore the only practical and objectively measurable way of controlling how much fat your body builds. There are a thousand complications, as we discuss here, but you can take control through calorie calculation. Calorie calculations can even predict the amount of time you will need to lose a specific amount of weight.

Calorie Calculator Target
Aim for a Specific Weight

Follow this simple guide to manage your body weight:

Decide upon a Goal

Goalposts. You need goalposts when you get serious about weight loss. Pick a weight target in kilograms (the more realistic the better). if a person is overweight, a calorie shortfall of 500 calories per day will cause weight loss of about half a kilogram of mostly fat per week. Also, bear in mind that many credible nutritionists advise against trying to consistently lose more than one kilogram per week.

Your Body is Always Changing

Finally, understand that your body is not a simple machine. You will not lose exactly 500g/week for every 500 calorie shortage! Actual caloric intake will always be an estimate in practice. Losing the lbs of old fat is not an exact science!

Calorie Planner
Failing to plan is planning to fail

Plan your System

Armed with a weight loss goal and a calorie target, how will you hit the mark every day? With so much complexity in modern life, it can be overwhelming to even think about controlling your kilojoules.

If you are at a loss about how to win at weight loss, we have three words for you: calcount Calorie Tracker. Calorie Tracker is our FREE tool for tracking your calories and recording progress towards your weight loss goal. It allows you to be precise and clinical about the foods and macros (protein, carbs, fats) you choose.

Daily Calories
One day at a time.

First, find out how many calories there are in the food you ate (or will eat), use our Food Search Box for this. Then, record the meal in your personal Food Diary (Meal Tracker) in the Calorie Tracker.

Keep Counting and Calculate Calories Daily

Now that you have a target, a plan, and a system, all you must do is the hard part. Live your life, eat food, and stay within your calorie target. If you go over your target, do not despair! Life happens. When the sun rises, just pick it up from where you left off. Meal by meal, day by day, week by week, you will lose weight if you stick to your Calorie Calculation.

When things like your weight, lifestyle, or age change, just recalculate and keep going. Many obstacles will arise, but never stop fighting the fat!

Started Running or Workouts? So Eat More!

People often make the mistake of combining a new workout regime with a restrictive diet. Restricting too many calories whilst at the same time drastically increasing your activity level will switch your body’s compensatory (hormonal) systems on with unpredictable results. You will feel unbearably hungry, your weight will yo-yo, and the miserable sensation will probably cause you to quit trying.

Instead, you should eat (a little) more when you start working out more, in order to stay within your maintenance calories. Get used to a more active lifestyle. Then, you can start cutting calories to lose fat whilst maintaining and building muscle mass.

The Calorie Calculator result for Gaining Weight

The calorie calculator also provides your required daily calories to gain weight (rather than lose it!). To gain weight, simply eat more than your Maintenance Calories. This can easily be achieved by eating foods with high energy density per gram of weight. Foods like mayo, cookies, milkshakes, and the like will make it easy to gain fat. Use our Food Search Box to discover high-calorie food options which can increase your calorie intake to levels beyond your Maintenance Calories.

The extra body mass will be mostly fat unless the higher caloric intake is accompanied by heavy exercise like gym workouts, in which case it will be mostly muscle. Care should be taken to eat foods high in protein if muscle growth is the desired result.

Weight-Loss-Formula

How does a Weight Loss Calculator work?

Through decades of scientific study using techniques such as indirect calorimetry, biologists have progressively devised formulas to calculate basal metabolic rate. Since it is impractical for the average person to undertake a calorimetry exam, we can simply apply one of these calorie calculation formulas to the metrics of the individual and get a viable estimate for that person.

Our Calories Calculator uses the widely accepted Mifflin St Jeor formula to determine weight loss, so you may be confident that the results are credible and actionable. It is the same formula that many doctors of medicine will use in a consultation about fitness, weight loss and exercise.

calcount Calorie Counter equation
Source: Frankenfield D, Roth-Yousey L, Compher C (2005). “Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy, nonobese and obese adults: A systematic review“. Journal of the American Dietetic Association105 (5): 775–789

The formula uses the information you input to get an accurate estimate of your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), and thereby work out how many calories you use per day. Numerous peer reviewed clinical studies, carried out at prestigious institutions like the Mayo Clinic, demonstrate the formula’s validity. RMR and basal metabolic rate are similar concepts, but we do not need to get into the precise nuanced differences here.

Stay Active

Use the Calories Calculator as you develop and change. More active lifestyles use more energy because fitness promotes the metabolism. Older people require less energy. Men need more calories than women, since they have larger muscle mass. Does it seem like you work out more in summer than in winter? Is exercise a big or small factor in your weight loss project?

Compare your results with different inputs. People change, it is therefore interesting to see how their calorie counts change with them. In many cases, that one extra weekly gym workout is what tips the scale for the result you want.

Tools and Tips for the whole Family

Use the Food Search Box to work out which foods and what size portions to eat and drink so that your personal calorie count is achieved. Then, monitor your weight loss, BMI, and physical measurements with Calorie Tracker.

Browse through our Posts for tips on calorie counting, how to keep the fat off, nutrition, and wellness. Our site goes beyond the nutrition label to help every person who wants the good health result that comes from counting calories.

More comfortable with kilojoules rather than calories? Just use our handy Cal to kJ converters to use daily kilojoules instead of calories. If you want to find your healthy weight, check out the calcount BMI Calculator.

Remember that, as your weight and muscle mass changes, your calorie requirements change along with it. For best results, recalculate your required calorie intake at regular intervals as you change your fitness and/or exercise level, lose, or gain weight.