This calorie calculator estimates the daily calorie intake by Mifflin-St Jeor equation based on age, height and others you can use it in your weight plan. Discover more on how to deal with your weight loss or gain goals below the form.
How does this calorie calculator work?
This is a health tool that will provide you an insight on how many calories you should have daily in order to maintain, gain or lose weight, especially if you are interested to make yourself a healty weight loss/weight gain plan with one or two lbs per week or 0.5 or 1 kg per week.
The calorie calculator is based on Mifflin-St Jeor equation and has 2 tabs for the 2 measurements systems: English with height in feet and/or inches and weight in lbs, and Metric with height in centimeters and weight in kilograms. You will need to choose which one of them you prefer and then input your data along with your age, gender and level of activity. You will see in the table below how our level of activity affects the number of calories our bodies need.
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation used for the estimation of the BMR figure is explained here:
- For male: BMR=10 * [Weight in kg] + 6.25 * [Height in cm] - 5 * [Age in years] + 5
- For female: BMR=10 * [Weight in kg] + 6.25 * [Height in cm] - 5 * [Age in years] - 161
How is your activity level affecting calories?
The BMR value estimated by the above formulas is further on multiplied by an approximate factor/coefficient for each activity level from the list presented below. Please note that the coefficients are subjective and they do not assure 100% accuracy. This basically means that two people with similar data but with different lifestyles will have different intake needs.
| Activity level | Coefficient |
| Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) | - |
| No or little exercise/sedentary | 1.2000 |
| Easy exercise (2-3 times/week) | 1.3751 |
| Moderate exercise (4 times/week) | 1.41870 |
| Active exercise (5 times/week) | 1.46251 |
| Very active exercise (5 times intense/week) | 1.5500 |
| Day by day exercise | 1.6376 |
| Day by day intense exercise/twice daily | 1.7252 |
| Daily exercise and physical activity/job | 1.9100 |
What is the daily calorie intake?
The average of the daily calorie intake for men is around 2,500 calories/day to maintain his weight, while for women is around 2,000 calories/day. The daily calorie need might vary depending on age, height, weight and levels of physical activity. The level of the daily calorie intake depends as well on the plans of the men or women in terms of gaining or losing weight. Somebody that wants to gain weight should reach a daily calorie level over the optimal level, while somebody that wants to lose weight should reach a daily calorie intake below the optimal.
What to do to lose weight?
For the weight loss estimation the calculator subtracts from the BMR value obtained by Mifflin-St Jeor equation which is multiplied by corresponding coefficient either 500 calories/day for somebody who wants to lose 1 lb (0.5 kg equivalent) per week, or 1000 calories/day for somebody who wants to lose 2 lbs ( 1kg equivalent) per week.
So you need to follow either the value in the result or make scenarios based on the different levels of activities, do the multiplying and then subtract the number of calories according to your loss plan. You are advised to keep in this range because this accounts for a healthy dieting calories diminish that will not affect your health.
What if you want to gain some pounds?
For the weight gain estimation the form adds to the BMR value obtained by Mifflin St Jeor equation which is multiplied by corresponding coefficient either 500 calories/day for somebody who wants to gain 1 lb ( 0.5 kg equivalent) per week, or 1000 calories/day for somebody who wants to gain 2 lbs ( 1 kg equivalent) per week.
Example calculation
The following table contains a case for each measurement system and their estimated results.
| Tab | Data entered | Result |
| English |
Age: 26 years Gender: Female Weight: 143lbs Height: 5ft 6in Activity level: Sedentary |
- To maintain your weight you will need aprox. 1,686.5 calories/day, or 7.1 kJ/day; - To lose 0.5 lb per week, you will need aprox. 1,635.7 calories/day, or 6.8 kJ/day; - To lose 1 lb per week, you will need aprox. 1,186.5 calories/day, or 5.0 kJ/day; - To lose 2 lb per week, you will need aprox. 686.5 calories/day, or 2.9 kJ/day; - To gain 0.5 lb per week, you will need aprox. 2,135.7 calories/day, or 8.9 kJ/day; - To gain 1 lb per week, you will need aprox. 2,186.5 calories/day, or 9.1 kJ/day; - To gain 2 lb per week, you will need aprox. 2,686.5 calories/day, or 11.2 kJ/day. |
| Metric |
Age: 32 Gender: Male Weight: 97kg Height: 179cm Activity level: Easy exercise |
- To maintain your weight you will need aprox. 2,659.1 calories/day, or 11.1 kJ/day; - To lose 250 g per week, you will need aprox. 2,409.1 calories/day, or 10.1 kJ/day; - To lose 0.5 kg per week, you will need aprox. 2,159.1 calories/day, or 9.0 kJ/day; - To lose 1 kg per week, you will need aprox. 1,659.1 calories/day, or 6.9 kJ/day; - To gain 250 g per week, you will need aprox. 2,909.1 calories/day, or 12.2 kJ/day; - To gain 0.5 kg per week, you will need aprox. 3,159.1 calories/day, or 13.2 kJ/day; - To gain 1 kg per week, you will need aprox. 3,659.1 calories/day, or 15.3 kJ/day. |
Reference
Mifflin, MD; St Jeor, ST; Hill, LA; Scott, BJ; Daugherty, SA; Koh, YO (1990) A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. The American journal of clinical nutrition 51 (2): 241–7.
22 Jan, 2015