Calorie needs calculator
A rough daily calorie estimate. Basal metabolic rate from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then an activity multiplier. A guide for fuelling, not a meal plan.
Use your current age, height and weight. The activity level starts at training 3 to 5 days a week. Change it if that is not a normal week. The equation uses male or female as it was published.
How the estimate is made
Basal metabolic rate
Mifflin-St Jeor estimates the calories you use at rest, from age, height, weight and sex. It was built for adults. It does not know how much of your weight is muscle.
Activity multiplier
That resting figure is then multiplied for a normal day. Training 3 to 5 days a week uses 1.55. Two hard sessions a day uses 1.9, and even that can be low in a heavy endurance week.
A guide, not a meal plan
The number does not know the session you did today, or whether you are trying to lose or gain weight. Start here, then adjust from how you perform, how you feel, and how your weight moves. Fuelling is covered in coaching.
Use a normal week, not a race week or a week off. Heat and a sudden change in training will move the real need by more than this equation will.
The calculators are a starting point. Coaching is where the number turns into how you eat around training.
More from the library: Event run pace · VO2max · Critical power · Critical swim speed · Run coaching · Training articles