If you are wondering how to get a baseline or a starting point to know how many calories you should be eating per day. There is a mathematical formula that takes into account your body size (height and weight), age, gender and activity level to give you a ballpark caloric need.
If you are wishing to lose weight, you would reduce this number by 10% and if you are wishing to gain weight, you would increase this number.
Below you will find a calorie calculator. Please note, that most of the time we over-estimate our activity level, so I suggest running the calculation twice. First, with “sedentary” selected and write down that number as your minimum calories. Next, reset the form and run it again with “moderate activity”, write down that number as your goal calorie ceiling. This will give you a range to stay within. On more active days you will eat towards the higher end of the range and on less active days, you can stay closer to the bottom of the range.
Of course, this calculator is a starting point, and not absolute. It does not take into account the amount of muscle you have, your hormone levels, thyroid activity, microbiome health or body composition. So use this a one of the many tools in your tool box!
