Caloric Needs Calculator

Eat 300–500 kcal below your TDEE for sustainable fat loss of 0.3–0.5 kg/week. For faster loss, a 500–750 kcal deficit produces 0.5–0.75 kg/week. Never go below 1,200 kcal/day (women) or 1,500 kcal/day (men) without medical supervision. Protein should remain at 2–2.5 g/kg while in deficit to preserve muscle mass.

TDEE formulas have an accuracy of approximately ±10–15% for individuals. This means a calculated TDEE of 2,500 kcal could be anywhere from 2,125–2,875 kcal in reality. Use the calculator result as a starting point, track your weight weekly, and adjust ±100–150 kcal after 2 weeks if not seeing expected progress. Your actual maintenance number becomes apparent from your real-world weight trend over 3–4 weeks.

Yes. BMR decreases approximately 1–2% per decade primarily due to muscle mass loss (sarcopenia). A 50-year-old man has approximately 5–10% lower BMR than at age 30, all else being equal. This is why maintaining muscle mass through resistance training is critical — muscle is metabolically expensive tissue. Active people who retain muscle mass see much smaller TDEE declines with age than sedentary individuals.

To build muscle, eat 150–350 kcal above TDEE (lean bulk) or 300–500 kcal above TDEE (moderate bulk). The optimal surplus for lean bulking is approximately 200–250 kcal/day for intermediate lifters — enough to support muscle growth without excessive fat gain. Beginners can build muscle at or near maintenance calories because the training stimulus alone is sufficient for significant muscle adaptation.

For most people, consistent calorie tracking for 4–6 weeks provides invaluable data on portion sizes and macro distribution that informs permanent dietary habits — even without ongoing tracking. Long-term daily tracking can cause anxiety and disordered eating in some individuals. Weekly calorie averaging (hitting your weekly total even if individual days vary) is a more flexible and sustainable approach. Track what is useful, not what is obsessive.