Your daily calories
2,137to keep your weight
You burn about 2,137 calories a day. Your body uses 1,379 of them just resting.
A good starting split
Enter an age from 15 to 100, a height with 0 to 11 inches, and a real weight to see your number
Example shown: a 30 year old woman, 5 ft 5 in, 145 lb, active. For healthy adults; not for pregnancy, under 15s or medical diets.
How this calculator works
It does two steps, the same way dietitians usually estimate calorie needs.
- Resting metabolism (BMR) with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation:
Men: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5
Women: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age − 161 - TDEE = BMR × an activity factor from 1.2 (mostly sitting) to 1.9 (athlete).
A systematic review in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found Mifflin-St Jeor the most reliable of the common equations, predicting resting metabolism within 10% of the measured value for most healthy adults. That makes it the usual default in apps and clinics.
Your calories at every activity level
| Activity level | Factor | Maintenance calories |
|---|---|---|
 Mostly sitting | 1.2 | 1,654 kcal |
 A little active | 1.375 | 1,896 kcal |
 Active | 1.55 | 2,137 kcal |
 Very active | 1.725 | 2,378 kcal |
 Athlete | 1.9 | 2,619 kcal |
The table updates with your numbers.
Turning TDEE into a daily target
- Lose weight: eat about 250 to 500 calories under your TDEE. That is roughly 0.25 to 0.5 kg (0.5 to 1 lb) a week at first. Weight loss slows over time as your body gets smaller, so recheck every 5 kg (10 lb).
- Keep your weight: eat close to your TDEE.
- Gain muscle: eat about 250 calories over your TDEE and train with weights, so most of the gain is muscle.
The calculator never goes below 1,200 calories a day for women or 1,500 for men. Eating less than that makes it hard to get enough protein, vitamins and minerals, and should only happen with a doctor.
How the macro split is set
- Protein: 1.6 g per kg of body weight, within the 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg range the International Society of Sports Nutrition gives for active people. It helps keep muscle while losing fat.
- Fat: 25% of calories, inside the 20 to 35% range in the US Dietary Reference Intakes.
- Carbs: whatever calories are left, which fuels training.
These are starting points. Total calories matter most for weight; protein matters most for body composition.
Make the number work
A calorie target only helps if you know what you are eating. Logging every meal by hand is where most people quit. EXO counts calories from a photo of your plate, so hitting your target takes a few seconds a meal. It also reads your activity from Apple Health, so you can see if your real burn matches the estimate.
Sources
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1990;51(2):241-247. PubMed · doi:10.1093/ajcn/51.2.241
- Frankenfield D, Roth-Yousey L, Compher C. Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2005;105(5):775-789. PubMed · doi:10.1016/j.jada.2005.02.005
- Jäger R, Kerksick CM, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: protein and exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017;14:20. PubMed · doi:10.1186/s12970-017-0177-8
- Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. National Academies Press, 2005. National Academies Press
