How Many Calories Do You Need?
It takes approximately 3,500 calories below your calorie needs to lose a pound of body fat. It takes approximately 3,500 calories above your calorie needs to gain a pound.

There is a right number of calories for you. This number depends on your age, gender, weight, activity level, and whether you're trying to gain, maintain, or lose weight.

Find out how many calories you need each day to maintain your weight at your current physical activity level:

1. Using the BMI chart on this site, quickcalc.php determined what your BMI is to assess whether you are underweight, at a healthy weight, overweight, or obese.

2. Determine your physical activity level:

• Sedentary - a lifestyle that includes only the light physical activity associated with typical day to day life.
• Moderately Active - a lifestyle that includes physical activity equivalent to walking about 1.5 to 3 miles per day at 3 to 4 miles per hour, in addition to the light physical activity associated with typical day to day life.
• Active - a lifestyle that includes physical activity equivalent to walking more than 3 miles per day at 3 to 4 miles per hour, in addition to the light physical activity associated with typical day to day life.

3. Using the calorie chart below, determine your estimated calorie needs based on your age and current physical activity level.


If you need to lose weight, aim for slow, steady weight loss by decreasing calorie intake while maintaining an adequate intake of nutrients. A reduction of 500 or more calories each day from added sugar, fat, and alcohol is a good strategy. For example, drink water flavored with lemon or lime, seltzer water, or a diet soda instead of a sugar-sweetened beverage, or use a non-caloric sweetener instead of a sweetener with calories. Together these small changes can quickly add up to 500 calories!

Excess body fat leads to a higher risk for premature death, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), problems with cholesterol and triglycerides, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, lung problems, gout, arthritis, and certain kinds of cancers. (From Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005)

This is a good informative post! Thanks for information!

I was checking out how many calories I am allowed for the day. The chart says 2,400 calories. I then looked up how much a male at my same age and activity level is allowed... 800 more calories than me!!! That's not fair that males get to eat more!

I absolutely agree with you on that statement!!