Calorie calculator for coaches
How much energy a client uses in a day, and the range a coach would set for losing fat, holding weight and gaining muscle. It runs in your browser and saves nothing.
Calculator
Maintenance
About 2,061 kcal a day to hold weight. 1,500 to 1,630 to lose fat, 2,270 to 2,470 to gain muscle.
The lower end is held at this client's resting rate. The faster rate of loss would go under it.
- Resting rate: 10 × 78 kg + 6.25 × 168 cm − 5 × 34 − 161 = 1,499 kcal
- Maintenance: 1,499 × 1.375 (lightly active) = 2,061 kcal
- Loss: 2,061 − 860 to 2,061 − 430, to the nearest 10, with the lower end held at the resting rate (1,500)
- Gain: 2,061 × 1.1 to 2,061 × 1.2, to the nearest 10
An estimate for a professional to start from, not medical advice. A coach or a dietitian sets a person's real target, and checks it against two weeks of weigh-ins.
How the numbers are worked out
The resting rate is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation: 10 × weight in kg + 6.25 × height in cm − 5 × age in years, plus 5 for a man or minus 161 for a woman. It is the energy a body uses at rest in a day.
Maintenance is the resting rate times an activity multiplier, from 1.2 for a desk job with no exercise to 1.9 for hard daily training and a physical job. The five multipliers are a convention most calculators share. They are not in Mifflin's paper, so treat the level as the least certain input.
For fat loss the page takes off what 0.5 % and 1 % of body weight a week come to, at 3,500 kcal a pound of fat (about 7,716 kcal a kg). It never gives a loss number under the resting rate: an end that would be is held there, at the resting rate rounded up to the next 10. For muscle gain it adds 10 % and 20 %. Each end is rounded to the nearest 10 kcal.
Sources
- A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals(opens in new tab)Mifflin and others, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1990)
- Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review(opens in new tab)Frankenfield and others, Journal of the American Dietetic Association (2005)
- Human energy requirements: report of a Joint FAO/WHO/UNU Expert Consultation(opens in new tab)FAO, WHO and UNU, chapter 5, Table 5.3 (2004)
- Evidence-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: nutrition and supplementation(opens in new tab)Helms and others, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (2014)
- Nutrition recommendations for bodybuilders in the off-season: a narrative review(opens in new tab)Iraki and others, Sports (2019)
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The calculator, answered.
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An estimate of how much energy a person uses in a day: the resting rate from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, times a multiplier for how active they are. That is maintenance. From it the page gives the range a coach would set for losing fat and for gaining muscle.
It is an estimate. In a systematic review of the equations most used in practice (Frankenfield and others, 2005), Mifflin-St Jeor predicted resting metabolic rate within 10 % of the measured value in more people than any other, and it still missed for some. The activity multiplier adds its own guess. Use the number as a start, and let two weeks of weigh-ins correct it.
Because the sources give a rate, not a number: 0.5 to 1 % of body weight a week (Helms and others, 2014), the range that keeps muscle. The page converts each end at 3,500 kcal a pound of fat. The steadier end is the top of the range. The page never shows a loss number under the resting rate: where the faster rate would go under it, the lower end is held there.
Iraki and others (2019) recommend a surplus of about 10 to 20 % over maintenance for gaining muscle with little fat. The page shows both ends.
No. It is a starting point for a coach or a dietitian, not a diagnosis or a prescription. Someone who is pregnant, under 18, or who has a medical condition or a history of disordered eating should ask their doctor or a registered dietitian first.
No. The calculator runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. Close the page and the numbers are gone.