How Many Calories Should I Eat Per Day?

The "2,000 calories a day" guidance you see on nutrition labels? It's an average — and it might be hundreds of calories off from what you actually need. Getting this right is the single most important step you can take if your goal involves your weight.

Why your calorie number is unique to you

Your body burns a certain amount of energy just to stay alive — breathing, circulating blood, repairing cells. This is called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). On top of that, you burn more through daily movement and exercise.

Your BMR depends on:

• check Body weight — more mass = more calories burned at rest
• check Height — taller people have more surface area to maintain
• check Age — BMR decreases roughly 2% per decade after 20
• check Biological sex — men typically have higher BMR due to more muscle mass

From BMR to TDEE: your actual daily needs

BMR is just the base. To find your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) — the calories you actually burn each day — multiply your BMR by an activity factor:

Your TDEE is your maintenance number — eat this and your weight stays the same. Eat less to lose weight. Eat more to gain.

How many calories for weight loss?

A deficit of 500 kcal/day leads to roughly 0.5 kg (1 lb) of fat loss per week — a safe, sustainable rate for most people. Going too aggressive (1,000+ kcal deficit) often backfires through muscle loss, extreme hunger, and metabolic adaptation.

The 3 most common calorie mistakes

How to track it without going crazy

Knowing your calorie target is step one. Actually staying near it is step two — and that's where most people struggle. Manual logging is tedious, and estimates for restaurant meals are wildly inaccurate.

SlayCal solves this by letting you point your camera at a meal and get an instant calorie and macro breakdown — no barcode hunting, no manual searches. Your daily total updates in real time as you eat.