Whether your goal is to diet for weight loss, to bulk up and build muscle tissue, or if you are looking to maintain your current weight, one thing you have probably asked at some point is, “How many calories should I eat to lose weight?”
To get the answer the quick and easy way, without having to work through a weight loss formula, just head over to the Justice Fitness Weight Loss Calculator and enter your details into there. You’ll get a read out in seconds detailing how many calories it estimates you should start with and how many if you’re looking for a calorie deficit to help with losing weight and dropping body fat.
If you prefer to know the formula to work it out for yourself and you’re willing to spend a bit of time working out a few numbers then follow our manual approach to this. You will manually work out your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) using the Miffin-St Joer equation. You’ll need your age, weight, and height handy to help you calculate precisely how many calories your body requires for fundamental functions each day. And from there we can calculate how much of a deficit you will need for weight loss.
Here’s a simplified breakdown:
For males: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) + 5
For females: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) – 161
To get from your BMR to your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), which indicates the total calories that your body burns each day, you need to also factor in your activity level:
Sedentary: 1.2
Lightly Active: 1.375
Moderately Active: 1.550
Very Active: 1.725
Extra Active: 1.9
Now we just need to fine-tune this figure to ensure that it aligns with your goals.
For an effective weight loss program to help you burn body fat I would recommend you drop your calories by 20-25%. To use a round number as an example, let’s start with a TDEE for 2,000. If you were to put in place a calorie deficit of 25% you’d be aiming for a target of 1,500 calories.
If you are in the category of people aiming to gain weight then try to increase slightly above your maintenance, maybe by around 10%. So, in the example used, you would add 10% to your 2,000 daily calories which would be 2,200 calories per day.
Determining your ideal caloric intake hinges on a variety of factors including gender, age, and activity level. The calorie demands between a tall, very active male for example will be very different from a petite female who is not very active. Consider the following breakdown from the NHS as a guide:
For men:
Ages 19-30: Approximately 2,400-3,000 calories per day
Ages 31-50: Roughly 2,200-3,000 calories per day
Ages 51 and above: About 2,000-2,800 calories per day
For women:
Ages 19-30: Typically 1,800-2,400 calories per day
Ages 31-50: Typically 1,800-2,200 calories per day
Ages 51 and above: Typically 1,600-2,200 calories per day
These figures provide a framework for understanding the difference caloric requirements across different demographics. It's essential to tailor your intake to your specific needs to achieve optimal health and ensure that you are moving towards your goal in the correct way.
How to Use Your Results to Lose Weight
To lose weight you will need to be in a calorie deficit - which means to consume less calories than your body burns each day.
To do this, calculate your BMR using the equation in this blog post, or use our Ultimate Weight Loss Calculator.
Once you have this you’ll need to create a calorie deficit by consuming around 20% less than this number, or following the guideline calories given in the results of our weight loss calculator. These calories will usually come from fats or carbohydrates depending on your dietary preferences.
Which Workouts Will Help Me Lose Weight?
It’s advised to use exercise as a tool to aid with weight loss and fat loss in particular, rather than focusing on dropping calories alone. Now you don’t need to be in the gym twice a day, or even every single day, but working out during the week will speed up the process and mean that you can keep your calories higher than if you were to rely solely on lowering your calories to burn fat.
Use both strength training workouts and cardio through the week. Strength training to help build lean muscle which will improve your metabolism and cardio to keep your body fit and healthy. I’ve got a lot of workout ideas on my social media pages including TikTok and Instagram .
How to Gain Weight by Using a Calorie Calculator
Knowing how to count calories will help you not only lose weight, but also if you are at the point where you want to gain weight and build lean muscle.
Rather than just aiming for a random number of calories, like 3,300 calories per day, a better strategy to understand how many calories I should eat to gain muscle while minimising fat gain is to use the Justice Fitness Weight Loss Calculator to determine your TDEE and use that as a starting point in your muscle building journey.
Once you’ve got to that figure, increase your calories slightly above this by around 10% more calories than your daily expenditure. You can measure and track your results to see whether this number needs to increase or decrease as you progress.
How To Maintain Weight with a Calorie Calculator
Maintaining weight at times can be just as crucial as bulking up or getting leaner as you can use this number if trying to body recomp, or once you hit your goal weight and want to aim to stay there. Our calorie calculator will also serve as a maintenance calorie calculator and provide you with this so that you can track at this number and stick to consuming your TDEE.
Summary
As you can see it is important when setting a goal of weight loss, weight gain, or even weight maintenance that you have a rough estimate of your TDEE to know how many calories you are burning each day and how many you should be aiming to consume. Having that as a starting point will set you in the right direction, then it's up to you to adjust accordingly.
Our Weight Loss Calculator will help to be very accurate when starting out and give you a realistic guide. If you are using our online coaching platform The Fresh Start Fitness Plan you will have all of your nutritional and exercise information planned out for you meaning you will be on a fast track to success.