How many calories should I eat

Estimate, then steer

Mifflin-St Jeor times activity is a start. Fat loss: minus 300-500. Hold: eat that number. Gain: plus 150-300. Recheck every two weeks. That is the whole method.

Why the first number feels wrong

You might fidget more than the form thinks, or less. You might forget oils. Two weeks of honest tracking beats arguing with a formula. Then lock a meal plan to the number that actually moved you.

Then stop asking the internet every morning

Once you have a number from the calculator and two weeks of scale data, lock it. Tweak every 2-3 weeks, not every high-salt Tuesday. Asking “how many calories should I eat” daily is how you never start the diet.

The quiz will give you a neighbourhood. The blueprint turns it into meals. Your job is to cook and walk, not to renegotiate physics before breakfast every time the scale has a mood swing.

TDEE is a neighbourhood, not a commandment

Mifflin-St Jeor times an activity factor is a start. It is not a lab measurement. Two people with the same printout can burn 300 calories apart because of steps, fidgeting, and how honestly they log oils. Treat the first number as a neighbourhood you will test for 14 days.

Fat loss: minus 300-500. Hold: eat the number that kept the average flat. Gain: plus 150-300. Recheck every two weeks. That is the whole method. Your mate's 2000 is trivia.

Pick the activity factor that matches your job, not your hopes. Desk plus three lifts is usually light or lightly active, not athlete. Then test. If the 14-day average drops too fast, you eat more. If it rises, you leaked or the neighbourhood was high. Arguing with the formula in the comments will not move your waist.

Two-week averages beat Tuesday drama

Weigh most mornings, average the week, compare weeks. A Tuesday after a salty dinner is not a verdict. If you change calories every time the scale blinks, you never ran a diet. You ran a mood.

Clothes, waist, and a photo in the same light will often move before you emotionally accept the average. Stay with the number until you have 14 honest days. Then edit 100-150, not 600.

Salt, travel, late meals, and a hard squat day can each add water. That is why Tuesday is a terrible dictator. Keep the weigh-ins, hide the chart if you have to, and only open the weekly average on one planned day. People who negotiate calories daily never give a setting enough time to show fat loss.

Activity multipliers people inflate

Three gym sessions and a desk job is not very active. That box is for people on their feet all day plus training. Inflating the multiplier is how a cut becomes maintenance with extra steps you do not take.

Watches over-report a lot of workouts. Eating 100% of a watch burn is a common stall. If you eat back activity, eat a fraction, and only if the session was real work, not a stroll you already counted in TDEE.

A 45-minute lift is not 800 calories for most people, even if the watch said so. Use TDEE that already includes I train, then add food back only for long extra sessions you do not already count, and only part of the watch number. If your cut stalls and you eat back every beep, stop eating the beeps for 14 days.

Hold, cut, or surplus: pick one job

You cannot run all three in the same week and call it a strategy. Pick the job for the next 8-12 weeks. A Look Like Us quiz prints a neighbourhood, then a blueprint turns it into meals so you stop asking the internet every morning.

If you want fat loss, accept a modest deficit and slower PRs. If you want size, accept a small surplus and a waist you watch. If you just got lean, practice hold. Switching the job every Sunday because a photo annoyed you is how you stay the same size with a more complicated notes app.

Write the job on the meal card: cut, hold, or build. Date it. Eight weeks. You can have a meal out inside that job. You cannot have a secret surplus on weekends and a cut story on Monday. If you want to change jobs, change them on purpose after a review, not after a photo you hated at 11pm.

FAQ

Should I eat back workout calories?

Some of them if the burn is real. Eating 100% of a watch estimate is how cuts stall.

Why am I hungry at my calorie number?

Protein or volume is low, or the deficit is too big. Fix those before you assume the number is a lie.

Why does my calorie target feel too high?

You might be used to crash dieting, or you might be under-counting. Eat the target for 14 days with a scale. If weight rises fast, the target was high or the log was leaky. If weight holds, you found maintenance.

Should shorter people always eat under 1800?

Height is only one input, along with muscle, steps, and job. Plenty of shorter lifters maintain above 1800, and plenty of taller sitters do not. Test the number for two weeks.

Can I use hunger alone instead of a calorie number?

Some people can after they have practiced portions. Most who eat to hunger on a cut still overshoot at night. Get a number first. Hunger becomes useful once the plates are honest.