# Calorie calculator

Source: https://nume.co.in/tools/calorie-calculator/ · Checked on 12 November 2026

Enter your age, sex, height, weight and what a normal day is like. You get the daily energy Nume plans for your goal, worked out the same way the app works it out.

## What the numbers mean

**Maintenance** is the energy that keeps your weight steady on a normal day. For each goal, Nume plans a range around a centre:

| Goal | Centre | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Lose body fat | 15% under maintenance | 10% to 20% under |
| Lose body fat, first two weeks | 10% under | 5% to 15% under |
| Maintain | Maintenance | 5% either side |
| Build muscle | 5% over | Maintenance to 10% over |

No cut is more than 750 kcal under maintenance. A new fat-loss goal starts with the smaller cut for two weeks. Someone who has trained steadily for three months or more starts at the full cut.

No planned day goes under 1,210 kcal. A fat-loss range stops at 1,500 kcal for men and 1,210 kcal for women. If a 15% cut would go under that, or your BMI is under 18.5, Nume plans your day around maintenance instead.

The calculator counts a normal day. In Nume, the exercise you do most weeks adds to it.

## How it is worked out

1. **Start from the US National Academies' 2023 equation** for estimated energy requirement, for your sex and activity category, with age in years, height in cm and weight in kg.
2. **Match your normal day to a category.** Mostly seated is inactive. Some walking is low active. Physical work is active. On your feet most of the day sits one fifth of the way from low active to active: low active + 0.2 × (active − low active).
3. **Take 90% of that.** Nume takes 10% off the estimate. India's national nutrition institute, ICMR-NIN, found the international equations run 10 to 12% high for adults in India and applies the same correction.
4. **Round to the nearest 10 kcal.** That is maintenance.
5. **Apply the goal** from the table above to the unrounded figure, and round each edge to the nearest 10 kcal.

The adult equations, from age 19, for the three categories a normal day uses:

| Category | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Inactive | 753.07 − 10.83 × age + 6.50 × height + 14.10 × weight | 584.90 − 7.01 × age + 5.72 × height + 11.71 × weight |
| Low active | 581.47 − 10.83 × age + 8.30 × height + 14.94 × weight | 575.77 − 7.01 × age + 6.60 × height + 12.14 × weight |
| Active | 1,004.82 − 10.83 × age + 6.52 × height + 15.91 × weight | 710.25 − 7.01 × age + 6.54 × height + 12.34 × weight |

At 18, the equations for ages 14 to 18 apply, with 20 kcal added for growth:

| Category | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Inactive | −447.51 + 3.68 × age + 13.01 × height + 13.15 × weight + 20 | 55.59 − 22.25 × age + 8.43 × height + 17.07 × weight + 20 |
| Low active | 19.12 + 3.68 × age + 8.62 × height + 20.28 × weight + 20 | −297.54 − 22.25 × age + 12.77 × height + 14.73 × weight + 20 |
| Active | −388.19 + 3.68 × age + 12.66 × height + 20.46 × weight + 20 | −189.55 − 22.25 × age + 11.74 × height + 18.34 × weight + 20 |

An example: a woman of 30, 165 cm and 62 kg, mostly seated. The inactive equation gives 584.90 − 210.30 + 943.80 + 726.02 = 2,044.42 kcal. 90% of that is 1,839.98, so maintenance is 1,840 kcal. To lose body fat, the centre is 1,839.98 − 276.00 = 1,563.98, planned as 1,560 kcal in a range of 1,470 to 1,660 kcal.

**In Nume:** your daily energy is worked out from your age, sex, height, weight, how active a normal day is, your training and your goal, and it follows your latest weigh-in. Planned meals show a range, such as 750 to 810 kcal. Nume won't plan very low-calorie days.

## Ask an assistant

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and other assistants can run this calculator from a link and read the answer as text. Ask one to open this link with your own numbers:

`https://nume.co.in/tools/calorie-calculator/answer?age=45&sex=male&height_cm=178&weight_kg=92&day=walking&goal=lose_fat`

`day` is `seated`, `walking`, `on_feet` or `physical`, and `goal` is `lose_fat`, `maintain` or `build_muscle`. [The link on its own](/tools/calorie-calculator/answer) lists every input.

Apps that take an MCP server, such as Claude and Cursor, can add all four calculators at once: [see Tools](/tools/#use-them-in-chatgpt-claude-and-other-assistants).

## Sources

- [National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy (2023), summary](https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/26818/chapter/2)
- [Health Canada: Equations to estimate energy requirement](https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/healthy-eating/dietary-reference-intakes/tables/equations-estimate-energy-requirement.html)
- [ICMR-NIN: A brief note on nutrient requirements for Indians (2020)](https://www.nin.res.in/rdabook/brief_note.pdf)