How to calculate your daily caloric needs and why this is the cornerstone of reaching your fitness goals
Searching for nutrition tips in the “online jungle” can make your head steam. I’ve already explained the 10 most common nutrition myths. Now let’s get more specific and focus on the fitness goals of losing fat or building muscle—and the nutrition strategy that fits each. That raises questions like: Where should I start? What’s right and what’s wrong? Fast and radical, or long-term and sustainable? Maybe YOU have asked yourself these questions too. In this blog post, I’ll help you find answers by giving you a science-based foundation so you can make decisions tailored to your individual needs. Let’s get started.
Basal metabolic rate, activity energy expenditure, and total daily energy expenditure.
Basal metabolic rate refers to the energy expenditure while lying down. It depends on age, sex, body weight, and body composition (muscle mass). On top of that comes activity energy expenditure (also called activity expenditure). It includes deliberate exercise as well as everyday movement and activity at work. Thermogenesis is the energy expenditure from digestive activity. This depends on the macronutrient distribution of your diet (25–30% for protein, less than 10% for carbohydrates and fats) and contributes little to total energy expenditure, which consists of these three components.
Why total daily energy expenditure is so crucial
No matter which dietary approach you choose to achieve your fitness goal, all successful ones share one thing: your caloric intake is below your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) when the goal is weight or fat loss; intake equals expenditure if you want to maintain your weight (maintenance); and intake exceeds expenditure when your goal is to build muscle mass and gain weight.
Despite this biological principle, one thing is important: you can build muscle even without a calorie surplus. As long as your body can tap into fat stores for energy and you provide the right training stimuli, so-called “body recomposition” is absolutely possible.
Depending on your starting point and goal, you can certainly begin at calculated “maintenance.” You’ll quickly see (more on that in a moment) whether you’re heading in the right direction or whether your calorie intake needs adjusting.
How do you calculate your calorie target?
Below I’ll give you a simple formula for how you can calculate your total energy expenditure—that is, your calorie needs including activity and 3–4 training sessions per week—fairly accurately:
Body weight in kilograms multiplied by the following factor:
| x 26.4 | for exclusively sedentary work and a sedentary lifestyle |
| x 33 | for a mostly standing job, e.g., in service (hospitality), teacher, etc. |
| x 37.4 | for an active job like electrician, personal trainer, etc. |
| x 44 | for a manual trade job like bricklayer or carpenter, etc. |
If you now want to lose weight, make sure you’re 10–20 percent below this value—no more! If you want to convert fat into muscle at the same body weight (recomposition), you should stay within the calculated range. If you want to build mass, you need to consume about 10% more!
On the Migros Impuls website, you can also calculate your calorie needs directly. They’re additionally listed as basal and activity expenditure, which can be useful when not every day involves the same amount of activity.
Which diet approach or macronutrient distribution is right for you?
We have already written about various diets, including their pros and cons. These include low-carb, sugar-free diets, fasting, intermittent fasting, as well as vegetarianism and veganism.
As you may already know, we’re not fans of any particular diet. Unless there’s a specific reason for one of these approaches, we prefer an everyday, no-forbidden-foods way of eating guided by the Pareto principle. What matters is having an understanding and developing a feel for how many calories and how much of each macronutrient foods contain. Tracking apps are well suited for this.
Tracking tools
I often observe that clients eat too little, the “wrong” things, or too much of the right things. Examples: completely cutting out carbohydrates and eating only salad is not healthy in the medium term. “Light” products became popular through Weight Watchers, but the company filed for bankruptcy in 2025 for a reason. In many of their products, fats were replaced by carbohydrates. Last but not least, you can also eat too many nuts. Even though they’re healthy, they are calorie-dense. Regardless of which scenario applies—if any—you either lose weight only in the short term (often water), in the worst case also lose muscle mass with a possible subsequent yo-yo effect, or you simply don’t lose weight at all. If you want to build muscle but eat too little, you’ll likewise struggle to achieve satisfying results. I’ve had to learn that from my own experience.
For that reason, it’s important to know how many calories you consume and burn on a normal day. Nutrition tracking helps with this. All of our clients who have a weight goal “must” track their intake for at least one week. We use the “Calories, Fat and Protein Counter” app for this. There are also alternatives such as “MyFitnessPal” or “FatSecret,” to name just two.
Ready-made meal plans
An open approach to nutrition “educates” you about eating and, through knowledge and awareness, helps you choose the right foods and products without having to give anything up or be “picky” at social events. This makes nutrition sustainable and successful. That’s borne out by over 10 years of experience with hundreds of clients.
For those who need more structure because too much freedom is overwhelming at the start, we offer ready-made meal plans. Based on your stated food preferences, we create meal plans that are enjoyable and tailored to you. They still give you flexibility—for example, we provide options for carbohydrates. For instance: 100 g rice (uncooked) OR 3 medium potatoes at about 170 g each. They also differentiate between rest days and training days, since the carbohydrate amounts differ. Such meal plans can also be helpful for athletes or bodybuilders who meal-prep and aren’t reliant on canteens and restaurants. Here you can download a sample plan and this is what the recipes could look like.
Goal review
The foundation has been laid. You’ve calculated your calorie target, allocated it proportionally to the three macronutrients (rule of thumb: one third each), and tracked it in an app for at least a week. But all of this only helps if you also check whether you’re getting closer to your goal. Body weight on the scale is the simplest way to track this. Although we also use the scale as a tool, it’s prone to error. Your hydration status has a major impact on the number on the scale, and so does your food choice. Salty meals or sports activities can distort weight in the short term. What matters is a weekly average rather than day-to-day changes. Especially with sensible strength training, your body composition can change and you may have lost fat and gained muscle, which won’t be reflected in the number on the scale. Skinfold measurements and circumference measurements therefore help us round out the picture and make timely adjustments to nutrition and activity before motivation runs out.
CONCLUSION
Losing or gaining weight should be planned and monitored. That’s the only way to make progress. “What gets measured gets managed.” Anything else is guesswork and will sooner or later lead to demotivation and quitting.
If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll be happy to help you finally tackle and achieve your goal.
Our 90-day challenge includes all the factors that matter in this context. In addition to the nutrition and training already mentioned, there are other pillars whose analysis is important for success. A comprehensive assessment of all key parameters—such as sleep, energy, digestion, and motivation—is crucial. Optimal results only emerge when all the puzzle pieces are analyzed.
Let’s start the journey!
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