How Many Calories Should You Eat per Day to Lose Weight?

Below is a simple but highly accurate scientific calorie calculator, along with five evidence-based tips on how to sustainably reduce your calorie intake.

Enter your details in the calculator below to figure out how many calories you should be eating per day to either maintain or lose weight.

The calculator is based on the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation, a formula that numerous studies have shown to be an accurate way of estimating calorie needs.

Calorie calculator

Standard units (US)Metric units

Gender Female Male

Age

Weight

Height

Activity — Select from the dropdown — Sedentary lifestyle Slightly active Moderately active Active lifestyle Very active lifestyle

Maintain Weight:2362

Lose Weight:1890

Lose Weight Fast:1417

How many calories should you eat on average?

The average woman needs to eat about 2,000 calories per day to maintain her weight, and 1,500 calories per day to lose one pound of weight per week. Meanwhile, the average man needs 2,500 calories to maintain, and 2,000 to lose one pound of weight per week.

However, this depends on numerous factors. These include age, height, current weight, activity levels, metabolic health, and several others.  

What are calories?

A calorie is a unit that measures energy. Calories are usually used to measure the energy content of foods and beverages. To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns each day.

How to reduce calorie intake without starving yourself

Calories are simply a measure of energy.

It’s a known fact that to gain weight, more calories need to be entering your body than leaving it.

Conversely, you lose weight if more calories leave your body than enter it.

That said, cutting calories without taking the foods you eat into account is usually not a sustainable way to lose weight.

Though it works for some people, most end up hungry and eventually give up on their diet.

For this reason, it’s highly recommended to make a few other permanent changes to help you maintain a calorie deficit in the long term, without feeling starved.

Here are 5 evidence-based diet and lifestyle changes that have been shown to help people lose weight.

1. Eat more protein

When it comes to losing weight, protein is the king of nutrients.

Adding protein to your diet is the simplest, most effective, and most delicious way to lose weight with minimal effort.

Studies show that protein both increases your metabolic rate and helps curb your appetite.

Because protein requires energy to metabolize, a high protein diet can increase calories burned by 80–100 calories per day.

Protein is also by far the most filling nutrient. One study showed that people who ate 30% of calories from protein automatically ate 441 fewer calories per day.

In other words, you can easily increase calories out and reduce calories in just by adding protein to your diet.

Protein can also help fight cravings, which are a dieter's worst enemy.

In one study, consuming 25% of daily calories from protein reduced obsessive thoughts about food by 60% and cut the desire for late-night snacking by 50%.

If you want to lose weight sustainably and with minimal effort, consider making a permanent increase in your protein intake.

It will not only help you lose weight but also prevent ⁠— or at least significantly reduce ⁠— weight regain.

2. Avoid sugary soft drinks and fruit juices

Another relatively easy change you can make is to eliminate liquid sugar calories from your diet.

This includes sodas, fruit juices, chocolate milk, and other beverages with added sugar.

These products are among the most fattening aspects of the modern diet, as your brain doesn’t register liquid calories in the same way as it registers solid calories.

For this reason, drinking sugary soda doesn't make your brain automatically compensate by having you eat smaller amounts of other things instead.

Studies have shown that sugary drinks are strongly linked to an increased risk of obesity, with one study in children showing a 60% increased risk for each daily serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage.

Of course, the harmful effects of sugar go beyond weight gain. It can have disastrous effects on metabolic health and raise your risk of many diseases.

Though small amounts of natural sugars from foods like fruit are fine, large amounts from added sugar and sugary drinks can harm your health in a variety of ways.

There is no physiological need for these beverages, and the long-term benefits of avoiding them can be enormous.

Drink more water

One very simple trick to increase weight loss is to drink more water.

Doing so can increase the number of calories you burn for up to 90 minutes.

Drinking about 8 glasses (equal to 68 ounces or 2 liters) of water per day can make you burn about 96 more calories.

However, the timing of when you drink water maybe even more important, as having it before meals can help reduce hunger and make you automatically eat fewer calories.

In one 12-week study, drinking 17 ounces (0.5 liters) of water half an hour before meals made people lose 44% more weight.

When combined with a healthy diet, drinking more water (especially before meals) appears to be helpful if you need to lose weight.

Caffeinated beverages, such as coffee and green tea, are also excellent. Their caffeine content can somewhat boost metabolism, at least in the short term.

4. Exercise and lift weights

When you eat fewer calories, your body compensates by saving energy, making you burn less.

This is why long-term calorie restriction can significantly reduce metabolism.

Plus, it can lead to loss of muscle mass. Muscle is metabolically active, so this can reduce metabolism even further.

The only proven strategy to prevent this effect is to exert your muscles by lifting weights.

This has been repeatedly shown to prevent muscle loss and stop your metabolism from slowing during long-term calorie restriction.

Of course, if you’re trying to lose weight, you don't want to just lose fat, you also want to make sure that you take care of your muscles.

If you can't get to a gym, consider doing bodyweight exercises, such as push-ups, squats, and sit-ups, at home.

Doing some cardio, including walking, swimming, or jogging, can also be important — not necessarily for weight loss but for optimal health and general well-being.

What’s more, exercise has a variety of other benefits that go beyond weight loss, such as longevity, lower risk of disease, more energy, and feeling better every day.

5. Reduce your carb intake

Cutting carbs is a very effective way to lose weight, as it reduces appetite and makes you eat fewer calories automatically.

Studies have shown that eating a low carb diet until fullness can make you lose about two to three times more weight than a calorie-restricted, low-fat diet.

Not only that, but low carb diets also have many other benefits for health, especially for people with type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome.

But you don’t have to go low-carb. Simply ensure that you eat quality, fiber-rich carb sources, focusing on whole, single-ingredient foods.

If you stick to whole foods, the exact composition of your diet becomes less important.

The best online calorie counters

Many websites and apps can help you track your calorie intake.

It’s highly recommended to use a calorie counter for at least a few days to see how many calories, carbs, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals you’re truly eating.

Seeing the numbers like this can often be an eye-opener.  

The bottom line

How many calories you need per day depends on whether you want to maintain, lose, or gain weight, as well as various other factors, such as your gender, age, height, current weight, activity levels, and metabolic health.

Reducing calories does not have to mean starving yourself. A few simple diet and lifestyle changes, including exercising, properly hydrating, and increasing protein and reducing carb intake, can help you lose weight and feel satisfied.