Calorie Calculator for Women
Enter your age, height, weight and how active you are. The calculator estimates how many calories your body uses in a day (your maintenance calories, also called TDEE) and how many it uses at rest (your BMR).
Free, no sign-up. What you enter stays in your browser: it is not saved or sent to HerFound. Reviewed .
Units
Light exercise or walking 1 to 3 days a week.
Enter your age, height and weight to see your estimated maintenance calories.
This is general information, not medical advice. It cannot take your own health history into account. For anything that worries you, speak to a doctor, midwife or pharmacist.
How it works
The calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation for women: BMR = 10 × weight in kg + 6.25 × height in cm − 5 × age in years − 161. BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the energy your body uses at rest in a day.
BMR is then multiplied by a standard activity factor to estimate total daily energy expenditure (TDEE): 1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for lightly active, 1.55 for moderately active, 1.725 for very active and 1.9 for extra active.
For example, a 30-year-old woman who is 165 cm and 65 kg has a BMR of 650 + 1,031 − 150 − 161 = about 1,370 calories. If she is moderately active, 1,370 × 1.55 = about 2,124 calories a day.
The result is a maintenance estimate: roughly the calories that would keep your weight the same. The calculator does not set targets for eating less or more.
What it cannot tell you
- It is an estimate. For an individual it can be off by 10% or more, because bodies differ in muscle, hormones and health conditions, and the activity levels are broad groups.
- It is not for pregnancy or breastfeeding, when energy needs are higher. It is for adults aged 18 to 80.
- If you have, or have had, an eating disorder or a difficult relationship with food, you may prefer not to count calories. You can talk to a GP or doctor, or contact an eating-disorder charity such as Beat in the UK.
- It cannot tell you what or how much you should eat. A doctor or registered dietitian can give advice that fits your health.
Apps that do this for you
A calculator answers once. These apps keep track over time. Compare all women's fitness apps.
ALO Wellness Club
A yoga and fitness class app: on-demand yoga, Pilates, strength and meditation, formerly Alo Moves
Bodylura
A women's workout app: guided programmes, meal plans and a food tracker from trainer Anna Victoria
Every Mother
A core and pelvic floor exercise app: programmes for pregnancy, postpartum and later life stages.
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Common questions
The calories a woman needs a day depend on her age, height, weight and activity, so there is no single number. The NHS uses about 2,000 calories a day as a general average for women. This calculator gives a personal estimate from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.
TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure. It is an estimate of all the calories your body uses in a day, including rest, daily movement and exercise. It is worked out by multiplying your BMR by an activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9.
BMR is the energy your body uses at rest, to breathe, keep warm and run your organs. TDEE is BMR plus the energy you use moving, working and exercising. TDEE is always higher than BMR, usually by 20% to 90%.
BMR for women is commonly calculated with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation: 10 × weight in kg + 6.25 × height in cm − 5 × age − 161. It was published in 1990 from measurements of 498 healthy adults. Reviews since then have found it to be one of the more accurate equations of its kind.
A calorie calculator gives a rough estimate, not a measurement. The BMR equation is within about 10% of measured values for most healthy adults but can be further off for some people, and choosing an activity level adds more uncertainty. Treat the result as a starting point, not an exact figure.
Sources
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1990
- Frankenfield D, et al. Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate: a systematic review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2005
- NHS: Eating disorders overview and where to get help