Goal Weight Calorie Calculator for Weight Loss, Gain, or Maintenance

Goal Weight Calorie Calculator Sign

This weight loss, gain, and maintenance calorie calculator will calculate the daily calorie target you will need to aim for to achieve and maintain your desired weight.

Plus, the calculator will tell you whether or not achieving your goal weight in the specified time frame can be done within the "Safe" zone.

Finally, the calculated results will display a bar chart showing the difference between your daily maintenance calories and your daily goal calories.

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Goal Weight Calorie Calculator

Calculate your daily calorie target for achieving and maintaining your goal weight.

Special Instructions

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Selected Data Record:

A Data Record is a set of calculator entries that are stored in your web browser's Local Storage. If a Data Record is currently selected in the "Data" tab, this line will list the name you gave to that data record. If no data record is selected, or you have no entries stored for this calculator, the line will display "None".

DataData recordData recordSelected data record: None
Gender:Gender:Gender:Gender:

Gender:

Select male or female.

Age:Current age:Current age:Current age:

Current age:

Enter your current age as an integer (no decimals or fractions).

#
Hgt inches:Height inches:Height in inches:Height in inches:
Convert x'x" to Inches
Feet
Inches
= inches

Height:

Enter your height (without shoes on) in inches. Use the decimal equivalents for fractions (for 1/4 enter .25, for 1/2 enter .5, for 3/4 enter .75).

If you need to convert feet and inches to inches, expand the description to reveal a mini feet-to-inches conversion calculator.

Wgt lbs:Weight lbs:Weight in pounds:Weight in pounds:

Weight:

Enter your weight in pounds.

Body fat %:Body fat %:Body fat percentage:Body fat percentage (optional):

Body fat percentage (optional):

Enter your body fat percentage if you know it, expressed as a percentage (for 28%, enter 28). Refer to the Weight Loss Calculators section to calculate your body fat percentage.

%
Activity lvl:Activity level:Daily activity level:Average daily activity level:

Activity level:

Select the activity level that best describes your own daily activity level.

Pounds you desire to gain or lose:

Select whether you want to lose or gain weight, then enter the number of pounds you wish to lose or gain.

Pounds toPounds you would like to:::

Goal time frame:

Select the desired time periods (days, weeks, months, years) and then enter the number of periods you want to take to achieve your weight loss goal.

Number of:to achieve goal:to achieve goal weight:
Maint cals:Maint calories:Daily maintenance calories:Maintanence calorie target per day:

Daily maintenance calories:

This is the estimated number of calories you will need to consume per day in order to maintain your present weight.

Goal cals:Goal calories:Daily goal calories:Calorie target per day to achieve goal weight:

Daily calorie target:

This is the estimated daily caloric intake target you will need to shoot for in order to achieve your goal weight.

If you would like to save the current entries to the secure online database, tap or click on the Data tab, select "New Data Record", give the data record a name, then tap or click the Save button. To save changes to previously saved entries, simply tap the Save button. Please select and "Clear" any data records you no longer need.

Help and Tools

Tips

Three ways to effect weight change and how I achieve the most success.

Three Ways to Effect Weight Change

I'm certainly no expert in the field of weight-loss, so all I can do is to offer you tips that have worked well for me. These tips, as with most other tips on this site, are based on simple, common-sense principles that don't require an expensive book, plan, or miracle cure to implement.

Weight Management

Weight management is a very simple concept.

Your body requires a certain number of calories (units of energy) each day to support its daily activity level.

If you take in fewer daily calories than your body needs for its daily activity level, your body will use stored body fat to subsidize your intake -- causing you to lose weight.

On the other hand, if you take in more daily calories than your body needs for daily activity, your body will add to its fat reserves -- causing you to gain weight.

This means there are basically three ways to lose or gain weight:

  1. Adjust your daily caloric intake.
  2. Adjust your daily activity level.
  3. A combination of #1 and #2.

The 80/20 Formula for Cutting Calories

If the 80/20 formula applies to caloric intake as well as it does to so many other areas of our lives, then that would mean that 80% of the calories we consume comes from only 20% of the food and beverages we consume. And if that's true, then we only need to identify and cut out the food and beverages that are in the 20% group.

As a real-life example, I love a certain name brand cookie and have a habit of having 2 cookies after lunch and 2 after supper. That one habit adds up to 213 calculators per day alone -- which is about 1/3 of the daily calories I need to cut out to lose weight at a desirable and safe rate.

Make Calorie Burning Fun or Profitable

For me, the secret to increasing my calories burned on a consistent basis is to choose calorie-burning activities I either enjoy, or I deem to be profitable.

I get bored to death on treadmills, but I love to golf. So instead of spending five lunch breaks per week being a zombie on a treadmill in the summer, I choose to burn the same number of calories by walking and playing one 18-hole round of golf with my family and friends.

In the winter when the golf courses are closed, I do spend an hour each weekday on my elliptical machine, but while doing so, I take lynda.com online training classes via my laptop. And while I don't typically enjoy spending time on the elliptical machine, I get so engrossed in the video lessons that I often lose track of the fact that I'm even exercising. Of course, since I'm increasing the value of my product (me) while studying concepts I'm genuinely interested in, my time on the elliptical is both enjoyable and profitable.

Combine the 80/20 Rule with Enjoyable/Profitable Exercise

For me, the best way to lose weight is to formulate a plan that combines exercise I enjoy and/or deem profitable, with cutting out a portion of the 20% of foods and beverages that account for 80% of my caloric intake. That way I'm attacking the extra weight from both fronts -- without giving up all of the foods I enjoy, and without having to dread going to the gym every day. But that's just me.

What To Do To Increase Calories Burned?

If your daily calorie consumption is above the target suggested by the calculator, and you prefer to make up the difference by increasing your activity level -- instead of by reducing your calorie intake -- visit the Exercise Calorie Calculator to put together a plan for increasing your calories burned.

Adjust Calculator Width:

Move the slider to left and right to adjust the calculator width. Note that the Help and Tools panel will be hidden when the calculator is too wide to fit both on the screen. Moving the slider to the left will bring the instructions and tools panel back into view.

Also note that some calculators will reformat to accommodate the screen size as you make the calculator wider or narrower. If the calculator is narrow, columns of entry rows will be converted to a vertical entry form, whereas a wider calculator will display columns of entry rows, and the entry fields will be smaller in size ... since they will not need to be "thumb friendly".

Show/Hide Popup Keypads:

Select Show or Hide to show or hide the popup keypad icons located next to numeric entry fields. These are generally only needed for mobile devices that don't have decimal points in their numeric keypads. So if you are on a desktop, you may find the calculator to be more user-friendly and less cluttered without them.

Stick/Unstick Tools:

Select Stick or Unstick to stick or unstick the help and tools panel. Selecting "Stick" will keep the panel in view while scrolling the calculator vertically. If you find that annoying, select "Unstick" to keep the panel in a stationary position.

If the tools panel becomes "Unstuck" on its own, try clicking "Unstick" and then "Stick" to re-stick the panel.