Find out how many calories your body uses in a day, then see what to eat to lose, maintain or gain weight, with macros, a calorie-cycling schedule and a timeline to your goal.
Fill in your details and tap Calculate. You’ll see your maintenance calories, targets for every goal, macros and more.
Tap a goal to build your plan below.
–Calories a day
Want your own mix, protein by body weight or a per-meal split? Try the macro calculator.
The same weekly total, spread two different ways. Pick the one that fits your week.
Add a goal weight to see about how long it could take at your chosen pace.
Copy a link to come back to later, share it, or print it.
Josh turns numbers like these into a training and habit plan built around your body, your schedule and your goals.
Book with JoshGood to know: These are estimates for general wellness, not medical advice. They’re made for healthy adults: if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, have a medical condition or follow a diet your doctor prescribed, talk to your doctor or a licensed dietitian first.
Calories are the energy in food and drink. Your body spends them all day long: breathing, thinking, walking, training.
BMR (basal metabolic rate) is what you’d burn resting all day, just to keep your body running. For most people it’s the biggest part of the total.
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) adds everything else: daily movement, workouts and even digesting food. Eat close to your TDEE and your weight tends to hold steady. That’s your maintenance number.
Our default. It uses your sex, age, height and weight, and research finds it’s the closest estimate for most adults today.
Roza and Shizgal’s update of a formula first published in 1919. It often comes out a little higher.
Built on lean body mass instead of sex and age. If you know your body-fat percentage and carry more muscle than most, it can be the best fit.
Every formula describes an average person. Two people with the same stats can differ by a few hundred calories because of muscle, genetics, sleep, stress, hormones, medications and how much you move outside workouts.
Use your number as a starting point. Follow it for two to three weeks, watch your weekly average weight (not single days), then adjust by about 100 to 200 calories a day if things aren’t moving the way you want.
Most people do best losing about 0.5 to 1 percent of their body weight a week, often 0.5 to 2 pounds. Faster isn’t better: very low intakes make it hard to keep your muscle, your energy and your good habits.
We flag any target under 1,200 calories a day for women or 1,500 for men, the usual floor unless a doctor is supervising. Building muscle is slower: about 0.25 to 0.5 pound a week keeps most of the gain lean.
Progress also slows as you go, because a lighter body needs a little less. The timeline above already includes that.
Calorie cycling means eating a bit more on some days and a bit less on others while keeping the same weekly total. It isn’t magic; your week’s total still drives your results.
What it can do is make a plan easier to live with: more food for weekend dinners or hard training days, a little less on quiet days. If eating the same amount every day works for you, that’s great too.
Numbers help, but they’re only part of the story. Josh coaches mindset first (he says it’s about 60 percent of the work), then consistency, with lots of variety so training stays fun.
He lost 62 pounds himself in his early 50s, so he knows the hard part isn’t the math. It’s showing up on busy days and getting back on track after a slip. With your numbers in hand, he builds a training and habit plan around your body and your schedule, then checks in each week through your private client app.
For a personal eating plan or a medical diet, Josh will point you to your doctor or a licensed dietitian.
Formulas: Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST et al., 1990; Roza AM & Shizgal HM, 1984 (revised Harris-Benedict); Katch-McArdle lean-mass equation. About 7,700 calories per kilogram (3,500 per pound) is used for weight change.
It’s a solid starting estimate. For most adults the Mifflin-St Jeor formula lands within about 10 percent of measured needs. Track your weight for two to three weeks and adjust by 100 to 200 calories a day if needed.
Pick the one that matches a normal week, not your best week. If you’re between two levels, choose the lower one. It’s easier to add a little food later than to undo an overestimate.
Not separately. Your activity level already includes your workouts, so adding a fitness tracker’s exercise calories on top usually counts them twice.
Going lower makes it hard to get enough protein, vitamins and minerals, and can cost you muscle and energy. Those floors are common guidance for adults losing weight without a doctor’s supervision, so we flag anything below them and use the floor in your plan.
Eating more on some days and less on others while keeping the same weekly total. It doesn’t change the math, but many people find it easier to stick with, for example a little more on weekends or training days.
Body recomposition: eating a little below maintenance (about 10 percent) while strength training and getting plenty of protein, so you lose fat and build muscle at the same time. The scale moves slowly, but your shape and strength change.
Please don’t rely on it. These estimates are for healthy adults. If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, have a medical condition or follow a diet your doctor prescribed, talk to your doctor or a licensed dietitian first.
Yes. Josh Nair is a personal trainer and transformation coach in the Palm Beach area and online. He builds training and habit plans around your life and checks in each week through your private client app. Book a session to get started.
Numbers are a great start. Josh turns them into a plan you can keep, with training and habits built around your life, in the Palm Beach area or online.
