Calorie and protein calculator
How much to eat for your goal, and how much of it should be protein. This is the same formula the GymSensei app uses to set your targets, safety limits included.
How the numbers are worked out
It starts with your resting burn from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the one most often recommended for healthy adults. That gets multiplied by how often you train: 1.375 for one or two days a week, 1.465 for three or four, and 1.55 for five or more. Those are a little lower than the usual activity factors on purpose. Most people who train three times a week still sit at a desk the rest of the day.
Then your goal adjusts it. To lose fat it takes off 20% or 500 calories, whichever is smaller. To build muscle it adds 10% or 300, and for strength 5% or 200. To stay fit you eat what you burn.
There are floors, too. It never goes below 1,500 calories for men, 1,200 for women, or your resting burn, whichever is highest. If you're under 18 it won't put you in a deficit at all.
In the app this is only the starting point. Once you've logged your food and weighed in for a couple of weeks, it works out your real burn from your weight trend and moves the target to match.
How much protein do you need?
1.6 g per kg of body weight if you're training to lose fat, build muscle or get stronger, and 1.2 g per kg to stay fit. 1.6 g is about where a 2018 review of 49 trials found the extra muscle from more protein levels off.
If you're carrying extra weight, protein doesn't keep climbing with every kilo. The calculator caps the weight it uses at a BMI of 27 for your height, so someone 175 cm and 110 kg gets 132 g a day, not 176 g. Fat is set at a quarter of your calories, and carbs fill the rest.
To see what that looks like on a plate, the calorie chart lists the protein in a portion of 109 foods, from roti and dal to paneer and eggs.
Common questions
How many calories should I eat to lose fat?
Take a 25-year-old man, 175 cm and 75 kg, who trains three days a week. He burns about 2,525 calories a day, so his fat-loss target is about 2,025. That gap of 500 calories a day works out to roughly 0.45 kg of fat a week, slow enough to keep your strength.
How much protein do I need to build muscle?
About 1.6 g per kg of body weight a day, so 120 g if you weigh 75 kg. Spread over three or four meals, that's 30 to 40 g each. If you're only training to stay fit, 1.2 g per kg is enough.
Why is my number lower than other calculators?
Most calculators multiply your resting burn by 1.55 for three to five workouts a week. GymSensei uses 1.465 for three or four, because an hour in the gym burns less than people expect and the rest of the day, often spent sitting, counts for more. If your weight doesn't move the way it should, the app corrects the number from your own data after a couple of weeks.
Updated . General fitness and nutrition guidance, not medical advice.
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