Calorie calculator: a target for your goal weight
Start from your TDEE, add the weight you want to reach and when, and get the daily calories that plan needs, along with the weekly pace it implies and whether that pace is one people usually sustain.
Daily target
– kcal/day
How the target is worked out
The calculator spreads the weight change over the weeks you choose. It uses the common rule of thumb that a kilogram of body-weight change is worth about 7,700 kcal (around 3,500 kcal per pound), divides that by the number of days, and subtracts it from your TDEE for a loss or adds it for a gain.
That rule is an approximation. Early in a diet the scale drops faster than it predicts because stored carbohydrate and water go first, and later it drops more slowly because a lighter body burns less. Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health built a dynamic model to capture this; the practical answer is simpler: weigh yourself several times a week, compare two-week averages, and recalculate your TDEE after each 4 to 5 kg.
What pace is realistic?
The calculator flags the weekly change as a share of your body weight. Losing up to about 0.5–1% of body weight per week is the range most guidelines describe as sustainable; faster loss is possible for short periods, especially with more weight to lose, but it is harder to keep up and makes it harder to hold on to muscle. For gaining, around 0.25–0.5% per week limits how much of the gain is fat.
A floor applies whatever the plan: the target never goes under 1,200 kcal, or under your resting burn (BMR) if you have run the TDEE calculator on this device. Common guidance puts the minimum for unsupervised dieting at around 1,200 kcal for women and 1,500 kcal for men, so men in particular should treat the floor as a lower limit, not a goal. If your date needs less than that, the honest fix is a later date.
Turning the target into meals
A calorie number works better with a protein figure attached: protein keeps you fuller and protects muscle in a deficit. The macro calculator splits any target into protein, fat and carbohydrate, and a calorie tracking app keeps the daily total honest.