Daily Energy Target
{{ formatNumber(target_kcal, 0) }} kcal
{{ goalProfileSummary }}
BMR {{ formatNumber(bmr, 0) }} Maintenance {{ formatNumber(tdee_tef, 0) }} {{ goalProfileLabel }} {{ paceCategory }} BMI {{ bmi }} · {{ bmiCategory }} Formula drift {{ formatNumber(formulaDriftKcal, 0) }} kcal
{{ macroSummaryLine }}
Whole years accepted from 0 to 120; example: 30.
yr
Options: Male or Female for the weight-and-height BMR equations.
Enter standing height with the matching unit: 175 cm or 69 in.
Enter current body weight with the matching unit: 70 kg or 154 lb.
Sedentary 1.2 through extra active 1.9; choose the closest routine week.
Start with Mifflin-St Jeor when body fat is unknown.
Use 1-69.9% for lean-mass math; leave blank to use fallback.
%
Choose maintenance, fat loss, gain, or a custom percent.
Accepted range: -60% to +60%; -15 means a 15% deficit.
%
Slider range: 0% to 15%; 10% is a common rough planning check.
{{ tef_percent }}%
Balanced, higher protein, higher carb, lower carb, or custom.
Enter grams per kg, then choose Body weight or Lean body mass.
g/kg
Accepted range: 10% to 80%; example: 30.
%
Metric Value Copy
{{ row.label }} {{ row.value }}
Bench type Profile Target Daily delta Weekly change Pace Notes Copy
Goal profile
{{ row.label }}
{{ row.adjustDisplay }}
 {{ row.targetDisplay }} {{ row.deltaDisplay }} {{ row.weeklyDisplay }} {{ row.pace }} Current {{ row.note }}
Formula comparison {{ row.label }} {{ row.targetDisplay }} {{ row.deltaDisplay }} BMR {{ row.bmrDisplay }} Maintenance {{ row.maintainDisplay }} Selected {{ row.note }}
Macronutrient Grams Calories Percent Copy
{{ row.name }} {{ row.gramsDisplay }} {{ row.caloriesDisplay }} {{ row.percentDisplay }}
Daily total {{ macroTotalGramsDisplay }} g {{ formatNumber(target_kcal, 0) }} kcal 100.0% 

                

            


        

    

                

                

                    

                        

                            Tags: Body Metrics, Nutrition
                        

                        

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Basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the energy the body needs just to keep essential functions going at rest. In everyday nutrition planning, that label usually stands in for a predicted resting-energy value rather than a laboratory basal-metabolism test, but the practical question is the same: how much energy does the body seem to need before normal activity is added.

    
Total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE, starts with that resting estimate and then adds movement, exercise, and the energy cost of digesting and processing food. That makes BMR and TDEE useful starting points for maintenance calories, fat-loss planning, and weight-gain planning. They are helpful because they turn body size and activity into numbers you can compare, not because they deliver a perfectly personal answer on day one.


    

    
Predictive equations can be very useful and still be wrong for one person. Two accepted equations can disagree by hundreds of calories, and real energy use changes with body composition, step count, training load, sleep, medication, illness, and how consistently food intake is tracked. The real goal is a starting number that is reasonable enough to test, not a supposedly perfect one.

    
Use the result as informational planning support, not diagnosis or treatment. If you are still growing, pregnant, breastfeeding, recovering from illness, or managing a medical condition or eating disorder history, calorie targets need professional context that a general estimate cannot provide on its own.

  






  

    
Technical Details:

    
Indirect calorimetry is the reference method for measuring resting energy expenditure, but day-to-day planning usually relies on predictive equations. Weight-and-height equations such as Mifflin-St Jeor and revised Harris-Benedict estimate resting needs from age, sex, height, and weight. Lean-mass equations estimate resting needs from fat-free mass, so they become more personal only when the body-fat estimate is believable.

    
Total expenditure is larger than resting expenditure because people move, train, and expend energy processing food. A simple planning chain links those pieces: predicted BMR, multiplied by an activity factor, optionally increased by a thermic effect of food percentage, then adjusted up or down for the selected goal. Weekly change is projected from the calorie gap with a fixed energy-balance shortcut, which is useful for rough pacing but less nuanced than dynamic body-weight models used in research settings.

    
The formulas below show the exact relationships behind the displayed outputs. Height is in centimetres, weight and lean body mass are in kilograms, age is in years, and calorie outputs are daily values.


    

      
        
          
            BMRMSJ,male
            =
            10W+6.25H-5A+5
          
          
            BMRMSJ,female
            =
            10W+6.25H-5A-161
          
          
            BMRHB,male
            =
            88.362+13.397W+4.799H-5.677A
          
          
            BMRHB,female
            =
            447.593+9.247W+3.098H-4.330A
          
          
            BMRKatch
            =
            370+21.6LBM
          
          
            BMRCunningham
            =
            500+22LBM
          
          
            TDEEbase
            =
            BMR⁢AF
          
          
            Maintenance
            =
            TDEEbase⁢(1+TEF100)
          
          
            Target
            =
            Maintenance⁢(1+Goal100)
          
          
            Weekly changekg
            ≈
            (Target-Maintenance)⁢77700
          
        
      
    


    

      

        
        
          

            Symbol
            Meaning
            Unit
          

        
        
          

            A
            Age
            years
          

          

            H
            Height
            cm
          

          

            W
            Body weight
            kg
          

          

            LBM
            Lean body mass, derived from body-fat percentage when available
            kg
          

          

            AF
            Activity factor chosen from Sedentary to Extra Active
            multiplier
          

          

            TEF
            Thermic effect of food percentage
            %
          

          

            Goal
            Goal profile adjustment relative to maintenance
            %
          

        
      

    


    
A worked substitution shows how the numbers relate. For a 34-year-old man who is 178 cm tall and weighs 82 kg, the Mifflin-St Jeor equation gives a BMR of 1,767.5 kcal/day. With an activity factor of 1.55, Maintenance calories become 2,739.6 kcal/day. A 15% cut produces Target calories of 2,328.7 kcal/day. With the Balanced macro preset, that same target becomes about 147.6 g of protein, 77.6 g of fat, and 259.9 g of carbohydrate.

    
Two additional outputs help with context. Formula drift is the spread between the highest and lowest Target calories values in the formula comparison. BMI is shown as a screening measure based on weight and height, not as a direct body-fat measurement.


    

      

        
        
          

            Output field
            Boundary
            Displayed label
            How to read it
          

        
        
          

            BMI
            < 18.5
            Underweight
            Below the usual adult healthy-weight range.
          

          

            BMI
            18.5 to < 25
            Normal
            Within the usual adult healthy-weight range.
          

          

            BMI
            25 to < 30
            Overweight
            Above the healthy-weight range but below obesity.
          

          

            BMI
            >= 30
            Obesity
            Adult obesity screening range.
          

          

            Weekly pace (% body weight)
            < 0.1%/wk
            Near maintenance
            Very small projected weekly change.
          

          

            Weekly pace (% body weight)
            0.1% to < 0.35%/wk
            Gentle pace
            Small projected weekly change.
          

          

            Weekly pace (% body weight)
            0.35% to < 0.75%/wk
            Steady pace
            Moderate projected weekly change.
          

          

            Weekly pace (% body weight)
            0.75% to < 1.0%/wk
            Assertive pace
            Faster projected weekly change that needs closer monitoring.
          

          

            Weekly pace (% body weight)
            >= 1.0%/wk
            Aggressive pace
            A large projected weekly change that the warning system treats cautiously.
          

        
      

    

  






  

    
Everyday Use & Decision Guide:

    
For a first pass, enter current age, sex, height, and body weight, choose the activity level that matches a normal week, leave TEF estimate at 0%, and start with Mifflin-St Jeor plus either Maintain or Gentle fat loss. That gives a clean baseline in Plan Metrics before extra assumptions are added.

    
Open the advanced section only when the extra number is better than a guess. A believable body-fat estimate makes Katch-McArdle and Cunningham more useful and allows a custom protein target to follow Lean body mass. If body fat is uncertain, leaving it blank is often the better decision because the lean-mass formulas otherwise rely on an estimated lean-mass fallback.

    
Target Bench is the fastest reality check. Compare the goal rows first to see how much each preset changes Target calories and Estimated weekly change, then compare the formula rows. If Formula drift is large, the best next move is usually to keep one formula and one activity factor fixed for a couple of weeks and adjust from body-weight trend instead of switching assumptions every few days.


    
    
      
  • If the warning banner flags very low calories, recheck units and activity before making the deficit larger.
    • 
      
  • If Pace classification lands on Aggressive pace, slow down and decide whether appetite, recovery, and training quality can realistically support it.
    • 
      
  • If Carbohydrate falls below 50 g/day, make sure the lower-carb result is intentional rather than the side effect of a very low calorie target or a heavy custom fat setting.
    • 
      
  • Read Macro Targets only after Maintenance calories and Target calories already look believable.
    • 
    


    
Once the tables make sense, the three chart tabs give a quick visual read on where calories are going, and the JSON tab is useful if you want to keep a copy of the current plan inputs and outputs.

  






  

    
Step-by-Step Guide:

    
A clean first run takes less than a minute if you read the tables in the right order.

    
    
      
  1. Enter Age, Sex, Height, and Weight. If the numbers suddenly look wrong after a unit switch, fix the unit choice before trusting any output.
    2. 
      
  2. Choose the Activity level that matches an ordinary week, not your best training week, then pick a Formula. If body fat is unknown, start with Mifflin-St Jeor or revised Harris-Benedict.
    3. 
      
  3. Select a Goal profile. Use the built-in rows first, and use Custom adjustment only when you already know the preset percentages are too small or too large.
    4. 
      
  4. Open Advanced for Body fat, TEF estimate, and Macro preset. If you choose Custom macros, check that the final Carbohydrate value does not collapse to zero unless that is deliberate.
    5. 
      
  5. Read Plan Metrics and Target Bench before anything else. Focus on Maintenance calories, Daily delta vs maintenance, Estimated weekly change, Pace classification, and Formula drift.
    6. 
      
  6. If the warning banner appears, treat that as a stop-and-check cue. The usual fixes are correcting units, lowering the activity factor, choosing a milder goal, or switching away from a lean-mass formula when body fat is blank.
    7. 
      
  7. Use Macro Targets, the chart tabs, and the JSON export only after the calorie target itself looks realistic for your week.
    8. 
    

  






  

    
Interpreting Results:

    
Maintenance calories is the estimated intake that would hold body weight steady under the current formula, activity factor, and TEF setting. Target calories is simply that maintenance estimate moved up or down by the selected goal. The result matters most when it stays consistent enough to test, not when it looks impressively precise.

    
    
      
  • If Formula drift is below about 100 kcal/day, equation choice is not dominating the plan. If it reaches 250 kcal/day or more, treat the selected target as a starting hypothesis that needs feedback from the scale and daily routine.
    • 
      
  • Estimated weekly change and Pace classification are relative to current body weight. The same calorie gap carries a different weekly pace for a lighter person than for a heavier person.
    • 
      
  • BMI adds weight-for-height context only. It does not tell you body-fat percentage, muscle mass, or where fat is carried.
    • 
      
  • A rounded display can sit on a boundary. If BMI shows 25.0 but the category is still Normal, the raw value is just under 25 and only the one-decimal display has rounded up.
    • 
    

    
Do not overread a single pass. Use a 7-day average body-weight trend, hunger, training performance, and recovery to decide whether the starting calorie target needs to move.

  






  

    
Worked Examples:


    
A steady cut with standard inputs

    
A 34-year-old man who is 178 cm tall and weighs 82 kg chooses Moderately Active (1.55), Mifflin-St Jeor, and Steady fat loss. The page returns BMR 1,768 kcal/day, Maintenance calories 2,740 kcal, and Target calories 2,329 kcal. Estimated weekly change is -0.37 kg/wk, which lands in Steady pace, and BMI is 25.9 (Overweight).

    
The Balanced macro preset turns that target into about 148 g of protein, 78 g of fat, and 260 g of carbohydrate. That is a reasonable first cut, but Formula drift is still about 231 kcal/day across the formula rows, so the next step is to test the plan against a two-week body-weight trend instead of assuming the first target is exact.


    
A boundary result that rounds to 25.0

    
A 29-year-old woman who is 165 cm tall and weighs 68 kg chooses Lightly Active (1.375), Cunningham, enters Body fat at 26%, sets TEF estimate to 10%, and uses the Higher protein macro preset. The page shows Lean body mass 50.32 kg, Maintenance calories 2,431 kcal, Target calories 2,431 kcal, and Pace classification Near maintenance.

    
BMI displays as 25.0 while the category still reads Normal because the raw BMI is 24.977 and only the visible value is rounded to one decimal place. Macro Targets come out near 150 g of protein, 68 g of fat, and 306 g of carbohydrate. This is a good example of why category boundaries should be read from the underlying threshold, not only from the rounded display.


    
When a lean-mass formula needs better input

    
A 31-year-old woman who is 165 cm tall and weighs 68 kg selects Cunningham, Lightly Active (1.375), and Gentle fat loss but leaves Body fat blank. The page can still calculate Target calories at 2,100 kcal and Estimated weekly change at -0.21 kg/wk, yet Target Bench shows Formula drift of about 373 kcal/day and the warning system notes that the lean-mass equation is using estimated lean mass.

    
Entering a body-fat estimate of 26% changes the selected Target calories to about 1,989 kcal and reduces Formula drift to about 262 kcal/day. The problem here is not a crash or blank table. The clue is a wide comparison spread. The corrective path is to add a believable body-fat estimate or switch back to a weight-and-height equation.

  






  

    
FAQ:


    

      Which formula should I start with if I do not know body fat?
      
Start with Mifflin-St Jeor. It is a practical default, it only needs age, sex, height, and weight, and Target Bench can compare it directly with the other equations. If body fat is blank, Katch-McArdle and Cunningham still work, but they use estimated lean mass rather than a measured value.

    


    

      Why can BMI show 25.0 while the category still says Normal?
      
The displayed BMI is rounded to one decimal place, but the category uses the underlying unrounded value. A raw BMI of 24.977 becomes a visible 25.0, yet it still sits below the 25.0 cutoff for the Overweight category.

    


    

      Does Estimated weekly change tell me exactly what the scale will do?
      
No. It is a simple projection based on the calorie gap and a fixed energy-to-weight shortcut. Real body weight also moves with water balance, glycogen, digestion, menstrual cycle, training fatigue, and metabolic adaptation. Use the projection as a planning pace, then verify it with a 7-day average trend.

    


    

      What should I do if Target calories falls below 1,200 kcal/day for women or 1,500 kcal/day for men?
      
Treat that as a stop-and-check signal. Recheck height and weight units, lower the activity factor if it was optimistic, and compare the current goal with Maintain or Gentle fat loss. Very low targets can be produced by stacked assumptions even when each setting looks reasonable on its own.

    


    

      Should I always turn on TEF estimate?
      
No. Leave TEF estimate at 0% if you want maintenance based only on predicted resting needs and activity. Turn it on when you want digestion and nutrient-processing energy included, but keep the same setting when comparing formulas or goal profiles so the comparison stays fair.

    


    

      Why did Carbohydrate drop very low or all the way to zero?
      
Protein and fat are allocated first. If a low calorie target is paired with a high custom protein anchor or a large fat share, there may be little room left for carbohydrate. The fix is to raise calories, lower protein or fat settings, or switch to a different macro preset and recheck Macro Targets.

    

  






  

    
Glossary:

    

      
BMR

      
Basal metabolic rate. In practical nutrition planning, this usually means a predicted resting-energy value.


      
TDEE

      
Total daily energy expenditure, the broader daily energy estimate after activity and any TEF adjustment are added.


      
TEF

      
Thermic effect of food, the energy spent digesting, absorbing, and processing nutrients after eating.


      
Lean body mass

      
Body weight minus fat mass, used by the lean-mass equations and optional protein basis.


      
Formula drift

      
The spread between the highest and lowest Target calories values when the same inputs are run through all four BMR equations.


      
Pace classification

      
The page's label for projected weekly change as a percentage of current body weight.

    

  






  

    
References: