If your health and wellness goals include losing, gaining, or maintaining your weight, it’s helpful to learn how to calculate your calorie needs. Knowing how many calories you need can help guide your food and activity choices to reach your goals. That’s the whole idea behind the CICO diet, which stands for Calories In Calories Out.
The logic behind the CICO diet is that once you know your calorie needs, you can add, subtract, or meet them to gain, lose, or maintain weight.
Keep reading for a step-by-step guide to calculating your calorie needs using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. Additionally, you will learn how to use this number once you know it.
Step 1: Calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
It all starts with basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is the number of calories your body burns just to stay alive. (1) Even if you stayed in bed all day, your body would still need energy (i.e. calories) to breathe, pump blood, produce cells and hormones, etc.
One of the most reliable ways to calculate BMR is to use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which takes into account your weight, height, age and gender. (1, 5)
By plugging your own numbers into this formula, you can get a personalized estimate of how many calories your body burns at rest. I say “estimate” because while it’s one of the most accurate ways to calculate your BMR, it’s not a perfect science. (We’ll talk more about this later.)
Let’s take an example and calculate this together. For example, if you are a 35-year-old woman, 5’4” and weighing 165 pounds, you must first calculate your height and weight in centimeters and kilograms.
- Height in centimeters = height in inches x 2.54 or 64 x 2.54 = 162.56
- Weight in kilograms = weight in pounds ÷ 2.2 or 165 ÷ 2.2 = 75
Now let’s plug these numbers into the BMR equation.
- BMR = (10 × 75) + (6.25 × 162.56) – (5 × 35) – 161
- BMR = 750 + 1016 – 175 – 161
- BMR ≈ 1,430 calories/day
This means your body needs around 1,430 calories each day just to maintain its essential functions. However, because you don’t spend all day lying down, you need to adjust your energy needs based on your activity level. (If you prefer to skip the calculations, you can easily calculate your BMR here.)
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Step 2: Adjust the BMR based on your activity level
Now that you know your BMR, you can take your activity level into account to get a clearer idea of how many calories you actually need each day. This is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). TDEE takes your daily movements into account and adjusts your calorie needs accordingly. (1) To estimate your TDEE, you can use the following activity level multipliers:
Sedentary (little or no exercise)
Use this activity level multiplier if you get little activity or movement throughout the day, such as because you drive to work and have a desk job. (1)
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1.2
Lightly active (exercise 1-3 days per week)
This is when you perform an activity, like taking a walk, up to three days a week. (1)
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1,375
Moderately active (exercise 3-5 days per week)
Let’s say you walk a lot in your daily life and exercise most of the time; you would be considered moderately active. (1)
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1.55
Very active (exercise 6-7 days per week)
If you do a focused exercise, like jumping on an elliptical machine, most of the time, or have a physical job, you would be considered very active. (1)
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1,725
Super active (intense exercise or physical work)
You would be considered super active if you try hard when you work out – for example in spinning class – or if you have an extremely physical job. (1)
Activity multiplier: BMR × 1.9
To return to our example, if you exercise four times per week, your activity multiplier would be BMR × 1.55. Your BMR was 1,430 calories, so the equation looks like this.(1)
TDEE = 1,430 × 1.55 = 2,216.50 calories/day
This means that to maintain your current weight, you would need around 2,215 calories per day. Now we will adjust this number based on your goals.
Step 3: Define your goal: weight loss, maintenance or gain
This is where you will learn how to calculate your calorie needs based on your personal goal.
To lose weight:
The logic behind the CICO diet is that one pound is roughly equal to 3,500 calories. (6) Therefore, to lose weight, you subtract 250 to 500 calories from your TDEE.
Using our TDEE example of 2,215, you can reduce your intake by 500 calories, aiming for a daily intake of around 1,715 calories. This should lead to gradual, lasting weight loss of approximately 1 pound per week.
Remember, incremental changes are helpful because they don’t feel overwhelming. So keep in mind that while counting calories is a useful tool for weight loss, it’s not a precise science. You may lose more or less weight than expected after calculating your personal calorie needs for weight loss.
For weight gain:
If you’re trying to gain muscle or increase your weight, you’ll need to consume more calories than your TDEE. Your calorie needs for weight gain can increase by about 500 calories per day, bringing your total to about 2,715 calories.
A calorie counting tool will come in handy when you focus on adding calories to gain weight. MyFitnessPal can also help you more easily ensure you’re adding calories from nutrient sources.
For maintenance:
To maintain your weight, try to match your calorie intake to your TDEE. In our example, this would mean consuming approximately 2,215 calories per day.
Whatever your goal, making small, incremental adjustments is the best way to ensure long-term success. Extreme calorie deficits or surpluses can be difficult to maintain and can negatively impact your health. A calorie counting app, like MyFitnessPal, can help you follow the CICO diet to gain, lose, or maintain weight.
About the experts:
Samantha Cassetty, MS, RDis a nationally recognized food and nutrition expert, media personality, nutrition consultant and author. Cassetty is a former nutrition director for Good Housekeeping and co-author of the book Sweet shock.
Daisy Mercer, RD, is a food data curator at MyFitnessPal. She received her bachelor’s degree in food science and dietetics from Colorado State University and completed her dietetic internship with the VA San Diego Health System.
Macronutrient Balance: Optimizing Your Caloric Intake
The CICO diet can help you manage your calorie intake, but macronutrient balance helps you optimize your nutrition.
The three macronutrients are proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The right balance helps you properly fuel your body to achieve specific goals, whether it’s losing weight, building muscle, or maintaining weight. (You can determine a personal macro goal using this free macro calculator.)
Protein:
Protein is essential for maintaining strength and muscle mass. (7) Protein is also associated with increased satiety, helping you feel full longer after meals. (1) Consuming enough protein while you’re losing weight will help preserve muscle mass and improve satiety when you’re in a calorie deficit. (6)
Fats:
Fats not only help you absorb nutrients, but also slow down the rate at which food is digested and metabolized. This means that, just like protein, fats can help you feel full longer. (8) A beneficial macronutrient balance includes about 30% of your daily calorie needs coming from heart-healthy fats, such as those found in avocados, nuts, seeds, and extra virgin olive oil . (3)
Carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates are often maligned, especially among those trying to lose weight. However, carbohydrates are the main source of energy for your body and brain, and your muscles need carbohydrates to fuel physical activity. (9) The net-net is that carbohydrates are an essential part of your macronutrient balance. As a general rule of thumb, 40% of your daily calorie needs should come from carbohydrates.(3)
Of course, these are general guidelines and some people prefer to balance their macronutrient intake differently.
Calorie counting is not an exact science: other factors to consider
Although counting calories can be a useful tool for managing your weight, other elements influence your body’s ability to lose or gain weight.
That’s why it’s important to be gentle with yourself when embarking on a weight management journey. While tracking calories is helpful, the process still involves some trial and error.
Metabolism:
You don’t have as much control over your metabolism as you think. Everyone’s metabolism is unique, and age, genetics, and gender influence your metabolic rate.(7) Of course, your activity level (how active or inactive you are) is a factor in your metabolic rate. that you can control. (More on this below.)
Hormones:
Hormones, especially those related to thyroid function, can affect weight gain or loss. Hormones related to menopause can also influence your ability to lose weight. Talk to your doctor if you think hormonal imbalances are making it more difficult to manage your weight. (7)
If you’ve lost weight in the past, appetite-regulating hormones may make it harder to maintain that weight loss because these hormones make you hungrier. (10)
Exercise and muscle mass:
Besides improving your health and burning some calories, exercise, especially strength training, helps you build more muscle tissue. (5) Muscle burns slightly more calories than fat, even at rest. (5) So the more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism and calorie needs.
The bottom line: understand and adjust your caloric needs
To optimize your health and achieve your goals, start by calculating your calorie needs using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, adjusting for your personal activity level. Then you can start counting calories to lose, maintain or gain weight. (MyFitnessPal can make this so much easier!)
While this is a good start, it’s also helpful to consider your macronutrient balance, as some calories are more filling and nutritious than others.
Remember that this process is highly individual and other factors such as genes, hormones and muscle mass also play a role. With gradual, lasting changes and a balanced approach to calories and macronutrients, you can make progress toward your personal goals.
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