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Work out how many calories you need in a day
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Daily calorie needs: Mifflin-St Jeor
These are example figures. Change them to yours.
To stay at this weight
1,857kcal a day
- Mild deficit
- 1,357kcal
- 500 kcal below maintenance
- Mild surplus
- 2,157kcal
- 300 kcal above maintenance
Resting rate 1,351 kcal × 1.375 for lightly active.
A starting split at maintenance
- Protein
- 102g
- 1.6 g per kg
- Fat
- 52g
- 25% of energy
- Carbs
- 246g
- The remainder
Mifflin-St Jeor estimates energy use for healthy adults. It does not allow for pregnancy, breastfeeding, thyroid disorders or any condition that changes metabolic rate, and it is an estimate: your own weight over three weeks is the real test.
In short
NNWA's daily calorie needs calculator estimates how much energy you use in a day. It applies the Mifflin-St Jeor equation to your age, sex, height and weight, multiplies the result by an activity factor, and returns a maintenance figure with a mild deficit, a mild surplus and a suggested protein, fat and carbohydrate split.
Enter your age, sex, height and weight, choose the activity level that matches an ordinary week, and the calculator estimates your daily energy needs. It uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation to work out your resting energy, scales it by activity, and returns three figures: the kilocalories (kcal) that hold your weight steady, a mild deficit for gradual loss, and a mild surplus for gradual gain, together with a suggested protein, fat and carbohydrate split.
Calorie targets travel badly when food culture is ignored. A typical Indian plate leans on cereals (rice, roti, poha), so reaching a protein target takes deliberate choices: dal, curd, eggs, paneer, fish. The Dietary Guidelines for Indians from the Indian Council of Medical Research's National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) make a similar point: balance the plate rather than simply shrinking it. The number this page gives you is a frame; what you put inside it decides whether it works.
01How the calculator works
The calculator runs on the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, one of the most widely used estimates of resting energy in healthy adults. It takes your age, sex, height and weight in kilograms; height goes in as feet and inches or as centimetres, and is converted to centimetres for the equation. From those it works out a resting rate: 10 × weight + 6.25 × height − 5 × age, plus 5 for men or minus 161 for women. That resting figure is then multiplied by an activity factor: 1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for lightly active, 1.55 for moderately active, 1.725 for very active and 1.9 for athletes.
The result is your maintenance intake, the kilocalories (kcal) at which your weight should hold roughly steady. Around it the calculator shows two more figures: a mild deficit of 500 kcal below maintenance for gradual weight loss, and a mild surplus of 300 kcal above it for gradual gain. For an Indian yardstick it also prints ICMR-NIN's 2020 reference figure for your sex: 2,110 kcal a day for a sedentary 65 kg man or 1,660 kcal for a sedentary 55 kg woman, rising to 2,710 and 2,130 kcal with moderate work.
02The suggested macro split, on an Indian plate
At maintenance, the calculator also suggests how those kilocalories might divide: protein at 1.6 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, fat at 25 per cent of total energy, and carbohydrate as the remainder. The protein figure sits deliberately above the bare minimum, because more generous intakes help preserve muscle and keep meals satisfying, and because cereal-led Indian eating rarely reaches it by accident. Dal, curd, paneer, eggs, chicken and fish have to be invited to the plate on purpose.
If you want to tune these proportions for a particular goal, the protein calculator and the macro calculator let you set each one in more detail.
03Choosing your activity level honestly
The activity factor moves your result more than any other input, and most people choose one level too high. Be strict. Sedentary means a desk job or mostly sitting, with no regular exercise. Lightly active is housework, teaching or shop work, or exercise on one to three days a week. Moderately active means being on your feet most of the day, or exercising on three to five days a week. Very active is hard exercise on six or seven days a week, or farm or construction work, and athlete is training twice a day or heavy manual labour all day.
If you are torn between two levels, pick the lower one and watch the scale for a few weeks; the trend will correct your guess. The TDEE calculator, total daily energy expenditure, shows your figure at all five levels side by side, and the BMR calculator isolates the resting figure, your basal metabolic rate, on its own.
04What this calculator cannot tell you
Every figure on this page is an estimate, not a measurement. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation was built from group averages, and individuals scatter around any average: two people with identical inputs can burn noticeably different amounts. The equation also assumes a healthy adult. It is not designed for pregnancy, lactation, thyroid disease or other metabolic conditions, and it should not be used to plan intake in any of those situations.
One threshold deserves stating plainly: a sustained intake below 1,200 kcal a day should only be followed under qualified supervision. Treat your result as a starting point to test against the scale over a few weeks, not as a prescription.
05From a number to a plan
A calorie target is the easiest part of a diet plan; the work is everything after it. A trained practitioner turns the number into meals a household will actually cook, adjusts it as weight and activity change, and recognises when a client needs a doctor rather than a diet chart.
That craft is teachable. NNWA's Diploma in Nutrition builds the foundation, from energy balance through meal planning, and the focused weight management course works specifically with deficits, plateaus and habit change. Both are skill-enhancement certificate programmes: they prepare you to guide healthy people well, not to practise clinical medical nutrition therapy, and they do not confer Registered Dietitian status.
The figures on this page are screening estimates for generally healthy adults, not a diagnosis or a prescription. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, live with a thyroid or other metabolic condition, are under eighteen, or are considering a sustained intake below 1,200 kcal a day, speak to a doctor or a qualified professional before changing how you eat.
What people ask about the calorie calculator
Expand any question to read the answer in full.
How accurate is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation?
It is among the better general-purpose equations for healthy adults, which is why this calculator uses it, but it still estimates from averages. Your true expenditure may sit above or below the figure. The practical test is time: eat near your maintenance number for three to four weeks and let the trend on the scale tell you which way to adjust.
What is the difference between maintenance calories, BMR and TDEE?
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the energy your body uses at complete rest. Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) multiplies that resting figure by an activity factor, and your maintenance calories are simply your TDEE, the intake at which weight holds steady. This calculator shows the maintenance figure; the deficit and surplus are counted down and up from it.
Why is the deficit set at 500 kcal and the surplus at 300 kcal?
Both are deliberately mild. A 500 kcal deficit is small enough to leave room for proper meals and steady protein, which makes it easier to hold for months rather than days. The 300 kcal surplus supports gradual gain (useful when the aim is building muscle) without inviting the rapid fat gain that larger surpluses tend to bring.
Is it safe to eat less than the deficit figure to lose weight faster?
Usually not on your own. Very low intakes make it hard to cover protein, iron, calcium and other essentials, and the calculator flags any sustained intake below 1,200 kcal a day as something to attempt only under qualified supervision. A milder deficit held consistently almost always outlasts an aggressive one that collapses after a fortnight.
Can I use this calculator during pregnancy or with a thyroid condition?
No. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation was developed for healthy, non-pregnant adults. Pregnancy, lactation, thyroid disease and other metabolic conditions change energy needs in ways the formula cannot capture, so any figure it produces would mislead more than it helps. In those situations, ask a doctor or a qualified professional to set your intake.
How do I meet the protein suggestion on an Indian diet?
By planning it rather than hoping for it. Cereal-led meals (rice, roti, upma) carry some protein but rarely enough, so each meal needs an anchor: dal or rajma, curd or paneer, eggs, chicken or fish, with soya and sprouts doing quiet work for vegetarians. Spreading protein across the day is easier than loading it all into dinner.
Work out the next number
Each one runs on the same Indian standards, and what you have already typed carries over.
BMI calculator
Body mass index on the Asian-Indian cut-offs used in Indian clinical practice.
BMR calculator
Your resting energy expenditure: the number every plan starts from.
TDEE calculator
Total daily energy expenditure from your resting rate and activity level.
Ideal weight calculator
A healthy weight range for your height on the Asian-Indian scale.
Protein calculator
Daily protein range by goal, with everyday Indian sources.
Waist-to-hip ratio calculator
Central-fat screening against WHO thresholds and Indian waist action levels.
Macro calculator
Protein, fat and carbohydrate grams for any calorie target.
Body fat calculator
Body fat percentage from a tape measure, with sex-specific categories.
Water intake calculator
A daily fluid range from weight, exercise and the heat you work in.
Pregnancy weight gain calculator
Recommended gain across the pregnancy, from pre-pregnancy BMI.
Diabetes risk score
The MDRF risk score, built for Indian bodies rather than adapted to them.
Indian food calorie counter
Add up a plate by the roti, bowl and glass, from sourced figures for more than 160 dishes.
Turn the arithmetic into a skill
A figure is the first five minutes of a consultation. These programmes teach what a practitioner does with it.
A figure is not a diet plan
Turning a screening number into a chart someone will actually follow (for their condition, their kitchen and their budget) is the skill the Diploma teaches.