Calorie calculator
Every diet starts from one number: how many calories keep your weight stable. That's your maintenance level — your TDEE, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure — and once you know roughly where it sits, setting up fat loss, muscle gain or maintenance is simple. Eat below it to lose fat, a little above it to build muscle, around it to hold.
This calculator estimates your maintenance calories from your body stats and activity, then gives you a daily target for your chosen goal plus a protein target to match. Fill it in, then read the notes below on how to actually use the number — because the estimate is only a starting point.
A starting estimate, not a prescription. Individual metabolism varies by 10–20% — track your weight for 3–4 weeks and adjust. See the health note above.
How the estimate is calculated
The calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation — the current standard for estimating resting metabolism from your age, sex, height and weight — and multiplies it by an activity factor to reach your total daily burn. Your goal then applies a sensible adjustment: a moderate deficit of around 20% for fat loss, a small surplus of about 10% for muscle gain, or no change to maintain. The protein target comes from your bodyweight, in the evidence-based 1.6-2.2 g/kg range.
These are deliberately moderate defaults, because moderate plans are the ones people actually stick to. Aggressive deficits cost you muscle and adherence; huge surpluses just add fat. The numbers here are chosen to be sustainable for months, which is what actually produces results.
How to actually use your number
Treat the result as a hypothesis, not a fact. Every calorie formula is an estimate, and real individual metabolism varies by 10-20% around any prediction — so your true maintenance might be meaningfully higher or lower than the figure shown. The only way to know is to eat around your target for three to four weeks and watch what your bodyweight actually does, using a weekly average rather than reacting to daily swings.
Then adjust. Losing weight faster than about 1% of bodyweight a week, or feeling drained? Add some food. Not losing at all on a fat-loss target? Your real maintenance is lower than estimated — trim a little. Gaining fat quickly on a muscle-building target? Ease the surplus back. That set-measure-adjust loop, repeated over a few weeks, converges on numbers that genuinely fit you far more reliably than any calculator can predict up front.
Weigh yourself a few times a week and track the weekly average. A single day's weight swings by a kilo or more with water, salt and food — the trend over weeks is the only signal worth acting on.
Turning the number into a plan
Once you have a calorie target and a protein target, the rest is straightforward: hit your protein first (it protects muscle and keeps you full), keep dietary fat high enough for health, and fill the remaining calories with carbohydrates to fuel your training. Our diet guide walks through building meals around that framework, and the protein guide covers how to reach your protein target from ordinary food.
From there, the job is consistency and honest tracking. Logging your intake in a food app for even a couple of weeks reveals the gap between what you think you eat and what you actually eat — which is usually where diets quietly go wrong. DropSet isn't a food logger, but it syncs your daily calories and protein from Apple Health or Health Connect and shows them alongside your training, so you can check your real intake against the targets this calculator gave you without flipping between apps.
DropSet is free during beta — sync your calories and protein from your health app and see them next to your training, so you can tell whether your real intake matches the target you calculated here.
Common questions
How many calories should I eat a day?
It depends on your body, activity and goal. Enter your details above to estimate your maintenance calories (TDEE), then eat below it to lose fat, slightly above it to build muscle, or around it to maintain. Treat the number as a starting estimate and adjust based on your results over a few weeks.
What is TDEE?
Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the total calories you burn in a day, including everything from basic metabolism to exercise. It's your maintenance level: eat that many calories and your weight stays stable. Every diet goal is set relative to it.
How accurate is a calorie calculator?
It gives a good starting estimate, but real metabolism varies by 10-20% between individuals, so no calculator is exact for you. Use the figure as a hypothesis, track your weight trend for three to four weeks, and adjust up or down based on what actually happens.
Which formula does this use?
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation for resting metabolism, multiplied by a standard activity factor for your training level. Mifflin-St Jeor is the equation most reputable calculators use, as it estimates resting energy well for the general adult population.
How much protein should I eat with these calories?
The calculator suggests a range based on 1.6-2.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, leaning higher when you're in a deficit to protect muscle. Hit your protein target first, then fill the rest of your calories with carbs and fats.
Put it into practice
DropSet is free during beta — 50 proven programs, automatic progression, rest timers and PR tracking, all on your phone.