- Calculators
- How many calories per day
How many calories per day
How many calories can you consume per day?
On average, women need about 2000 calories per day and men about 2500. Whether you need more or less than average depends, among other things, on how active you are. On this page, you can calculate approximately how many calories you may eat and drink each day.
Number of calories per day
Enter your sex, age, weight, height, and lifestyle to calculate the number of calories per day.
Calculating the number of calories per day yourself
You can also calculate the number of calories you need per day yourself. To do this, you need to take a number of factors into account.
The body needs a certain amount of energy to maintain all basic bodily functions. This includes circulating the blood, controlling the brain, and keeping the organs working. This is the resting metabolic rate. The basic calorie requirement is the number of calories you need to get through a day if you do not do anything active.
Basic calorie requirement (resting metabolic rate)
The basic calorie requirement or resting metabolic rate can be calculated using the following formulas. Men have a higher resting metabolic rate than women. The result is given in kilocalories (kcal).
| Calculation of the basic calorie requirement (resting metabolic rate) |
|---|
| Women: 447,593 + (9,247 x weight in kg) + (3,098 x height in cm) – (4,330 x age) |
| Men: 88,362 + (13,397 x weight in kg) + (4,799 x height in cm) – (5,677 x age) |
Additional calorie requirement
Of course, you do more during the day than simply lying still or sitting. The activities you undertake during the day also require energy. The degree to which someone is active each day is expressed in the so-called PAL value. PAL stands for ‘physical activity level’.
| Additional calorie requirement (lifestyle) | PAL value |
|---|---|
| People who sit or lie down all day. | 1,2 |
| Sedentary work without interruption and almost no movement during leisure time. | 1,4 - 1,5 |
| Sedentary work alternating with walking around and almost no movement during leisure time, or exercising 1-3 times per week. | 1,6 - 1,7 |
| Standing work or exercising 3-5 times per week (at least 1 hour of vigorous exercise). | 1,8 - 1,9 |
| A lot of physical exertion during leisure time or at work (exercising 6-7 times per week). | 2,0 - 2,4 |
Calculating total calorie requirements per day
Multiplying the basic calorie requirement by the PAL value gives an estimate of the number of calories you need in a day. You calculate the total calorie requirement by using the numbers above in the following calculation:
| Total calorie requirement |
|---|
| Total calorie requirement = basic calorie requirement x PAL value |
If you consume more than the calculated number of calories, you take in more energy than you need. The risk is that your weight will continue to increase. If you eat too little, you may become underweight and too thin. If you want to know how healthy your weight is, you can easily calculate your BMI here.