Daily calorie needs calculator
Estimate your resting energy with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then the calories it takes to maintain your current weight at an activity level you choose. An estimate, not a plan or a target.
Medically reviewed by Kevin Brandstetter, M.D.Updated September 22, 2026
Temi's tools are written for adults.
How active a typical week is for you.
Calories to maintain your weight
Fill in every field
The estimate appears here once sex, age, height, weight, and activity level are all entered.
A calculator, not a diagnosis.
This is an estimate from an equation fitted to groups of people, and any one person's needs can sit well above or below it. It says nothing about body composition, muscle, pregnancy, breastfeeding, illness, or health, and it is not a diet. This tool is for adults. A licensed clinician or a registered dietitian sets a plan with you.
Methodology
- How this is calculated
- Resting energy is 10 times weight in kilograms, plus 6.25 times height in centimeters, minus 5 times age in years, plus 5 for the male equation or minus 161 for the female one. That figure is multiplied by the activity level you choose, and both are shown to the nearest 10 calories. Pounds and feet and inches are converted first, using the exact definitions of the pound and the inch.
- Where the data comes from
- The resting energy figure comes from a published equation: Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, Scott BJ, Daugherty SA, Koh YO. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990;51(2):241-247. The activity multipliers are a widely used convention with no single original publication. They are often credited to Harris and Benedict, who published none. The published framework to compare them with is the physical activity levels in the Dietary Reference Intakes for energy, from the Institute of Medicine (2005) and, revised, the National Academies (2023), which draw the bands differently.
- Last updated
- September 22, 2026
- What this does not account for
- Body composition, muscle mass, pregnancy and breastfeeding, illness, medications, and how your own body spends energy. The equation was fitted to healthy adults, and an activity level is a rough label for a week that varies.
The activity levels
Each level multiplies resting energy by a fixed factor. The five factors below are a convention used across nutrition references rather than numbers from one study, so treat the step between two levels as approximate.
| Level | Multiplier | A typical week |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1.2 | Little or no exercise |
| Lightly active | 1.375 | Light exercise 1 to 3 days a week |
| Moderately active | 1.55 | Moderate exercise 3 to 5 days a week |
| Very active | 1.725 | Hard exercise 6 or 7 days a week |
| Extra active | 1.9 | Hard exercise daily, or a physical job |
What the number is
The result estimates the calories it takes to keep your weight where it is at the activity level you picked. It is a starting point for a conversation about eating, not an instruction. Resting energy is what your body spends at rest over a day; the activity multiplier scales it for movement.
Nothing here is stored
Your answers stay in your browser. They are not sent to Temi, not saved, not attached to you, and not recorded in any session replay, and closing the tab clears them. Temi knows only that someone opened this tool, the same thing it knows about every page.
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