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    Home » Keto Diet » Tips & Tricks » Keto Calorie Calculator for Weight Loss

    Keto Calorie Calculator for Weight Loss

    Updated April 3, 2022 • Posted on March 19, 2019 by Jennifer • 19 Comments

    An easy-to-use calorie calculator for your ketogenic diet. Learn how many calories and macronutrients you need to consume each day to reach the fat burning state of ketosis.

    Easy Keto Calorie and Macros Calculator

    As one of the most interesting emerging diets – a spin on some of the most popular diets of the 20th century – the ketogenic diet is a world of possibilities and interesting applications.

    It’s a tool in a toolkit, as we’ve mentioned before, and one that has a few interesting medical and performance implications.

    Today, however, we’re going to discuss Keto in reference to the king of dieting principles: the calorie deficit.

    We’re going to answer all your pressing questions:

    • How does keto deal with calories?
    • Do you need to count calories on keto?
    • What sort of ketogenic diet guidelines should you be following?

    Stick with us, and you’ll have a great understanding of how keto fits into the overall map of weight-loss dieting and what an effective, well-balanced ketogenic diet will look like when thinking about the macros and calories!

    Table of Contents
    • Keto Calorie Calculator
    • Results
    • Calorie Counting: The Reputation Calories Have in Dieting
    • What is a Calorie?
    • The Role Calories Play in Weight-Loss Dieting
    • Keto: A Weight-Loss Diet
    • Calories and Weight-Loss
    • 4 Ways Keto Makes a Calorie Deficit Easier
    • Do You Need to Count Calories on Keto?
    • Closing remarks

    Keto Calorie Calculator

    Units

    Gender

    Ageyears

    WeightKg

    Heightmeters (e.g. 1.76 meters = 176 cm)

    Weightlbs

    Heightfeet inches

    Weightstones lbs

    Heightfeet inches

    Activity Level

    Body fat%

    Net carbsgrams

    Specify the amount of daily net carbs you'd like to consume. Typically, 20-30 grams is recommended to start with.

    Results

    Maintenance

    Maintenance level is the level at which your weight remains stable.

    Your BMR is:1536kcal
    Calories to consume:2027kcal
    Your fat intake should be:184grams
    Net CarbsProteinFat
    25grams69grams184grams
    100kcal275kcal1653kcal
    5%14%81%

    Goal

    Sorry, cannot offer any weight loss suggestions. Please use the Custom section for weight loss macro targets.

    Your body fat is too low. You should have a minimum of 3% body fat (essential fat you cannot lose). It is not advisable for you to lose any more weight.

    Based on the amount of net carbs you specified, it would impossible to lose any weight. Please, reduce the amount of net carbs and try again.

    Below is a range of calorie deficits to help you lose weight. For best results, it is recommended that you opt for a moderate calorie deficit of 10-20%.

    Small calorie deficit (11%)

    Calories to consume:1804kcal
    Your fat intake should be:159grams
    Net CarbsProteinFat
    25grams69grams159grams
    100kcal275kcal1430kcal
    6%15%79%

    Moderate calorie deficit (22%)

    Calories to consume:1581kcal
    Your fat intake should be:134grams
    Net CarbsProteinFat
    25grams69grams134grams
    100kcal275kcal1207kcal
    6%17%77%

    Large calorie deficit (33%)

    Calories to consume:1358kcal
    Your fat intake should be:109grams
    Net CarbsProteinFat
    25grams69grams109grams
    100kcal275kcal984kcal
    7%20%73%

    Below is a range of calorie surpluses to help you bulk up and gain muscle size. Keep in mind that you will need to add physical activity (weight training) in order to increase your muscle mass. For best results, it is recommended that you opt for a moderate calorie surplus of 10-20%.

    Calorie surplus (10%)

    Calories to consume:2231kcal
    Your fat intake should be:206grams
    Net CarbsProteinFat
    25grams69grams206grams
    100kcal275kcal1856kcal
    4%12%84%

    Calorie surplus (15%)

    Calories to consume:2332kcal
    Your fat intake should be:218grams
    Net CarbsProteinFat
    25grams69grams218grams
    100kcal275kcal1958kcal
    4%12%84%

    Calorie surplus (20%)

    Calories to consume:2434kcal
    Your fat intake should be:229grams
    Net CarbsProteinFat
    25grams69grams229grams
    100kcal275kcal2059kcal
    4%11%85%

    Enter the calorie intake adjustment. For a calorie deficit (weight loss) enter a negative value (e.g. -10) while for a calorie surplus (weight gain) enter a positive value (e.g. 15). It is recommended that you opt for a moderate calorie deficit or surplus.

    Calorie adjustment:%

    Custom adjustment (0%)

    Your BMR is:1536kcal
    Calories to consume:2028kcal
    Your fat intake should be:184grams
    Net CarbsProteinkcal
    25grams69grams184grams
    100kcal275kcal1653kcal
    5%14%81%
    Based on KetoDiet calculator

    Calorie Counting: The Reputation Calories Have in Dieting

    Calorie counting is often discussed like it’s the very worst thing in the world – like it’s a diet that is based on salads and starvation.

    This is because calories are misunderstood and demonized: everybody wants to achieve their goal body, but nobody wants to spend all day counting their food intake.

    There are pretty much two reasons that this reputation has come about:

    1. Being attentive to your diet is often associated with compulsive or overly-restrictive behaviors, and the inevitable failure and guilt they come with
    2. The amount of effort and discomfort associated with being on a very strict, numerical food plan is a real psychological bummer!

    So when we talk about calories, it’s going to be important to break down the difference between how a ketogenic diet deals with calories and, as a totally different discussion, whether or not you’ll have to count calories on a ketogenic diet.

    Obviously, this means starting out with a discussion of what a calorie is and how it plays into your diet…

    What is a Calorie?

    Calories are just a measure of the energy found in food. As a scientific concept, it is the amount of energy necessary to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1-degree.

    If you’re super knowledgeable on energy, its also just over 4 joules. This isn’t actually that important, what is important is what it means to you in a practical sense.

    A calorie is a unit of energy that food provides – but calories are not good or bad by themselves. They become bad when you have too many, and good when you need more.

    A calorie surplus is how you become obese, but it’s also how you become incredibly muscular. This is because the energy itself doesn’t code for fat or muscle – your body decides what to do with this energy based on your lifestyle: your diet, training, sleep, supplementation, hydration, and so on.

    So when we look at calories, it’s important to remember that they’re just energy.

    If you have an excess of energy, your body will either store it as fat to be used later or it will use this additional energy to repair and grow tissues like muscle.

    On the other hand, calorie deficits are key to weight-loss dieting.

    The simple principle is that your body is lacking energy when you consume fewer calories than you use, during which time your body burns that stored body-fat to make up the difference and ensure you’re getting all the energy you need for exercise and other activity.

    This is how dieting works – something we need to discuss a little more in-depth.

    The Role Calories Play in Weight-Loss Dieting

    Creating a calorie deficit between your food/drink and your activity levels is entirely the point of any weight-loss diet.

    While there are many differences between popular diets – some more-effective and some less so – the general idea is to create a sustainable deficit for long enough that you burn away excess body-fat as fuel.

    This is also why diet is considered essential for weight-loss, while exercise is only considered beneficial. You can create a calorie deficit by simply eating less, while exercise and other forms of activity can increase this deficit by upping your overall calorie needs.

    This balance between reducing food and increasing exercise is going to be a personal preference, but the way that your calorie balance is important. This is why we describe weight-loss diets in the “calories-in, calories-out” model:

    Weight Change = Calories In – Calories Out

    This isn’t all there is to weight loss – there are dozens of dietary factors that will maximize your results and health – but it’s the bedrock.

    You could lose weight just by eating fewer calories, but the diets that do this (IIFYM and “flexible” dieting) tend to totally overlook key areas of dietary quality!

    However, this is the launching-off point for what keto is, how it plays within these rules, and how it provides a unique way of dealing with your calorie intake/weight-loss.

    Keto: A Weight-Loss Diet

    The ketogenic diet is a weight-loss diet. While many people think you can gain muscle on keto, the reality is that it really doesn’t work for that purpose very well.

    With protein limitations, carb reductions, and a preference for endurance-performance over strength and power, it’s clearly a diet that aims to boost your fat-loss potential rather than balance it off against strength and muscle results.

    This is even more obvious when you look at what nutritional ketosis is and how it works. The keto-adaptation process is only effective to the top-level when combined with calorie maintenance (TDEE) or a calorie deficit.

    Keto-adaptation is what happens when you’re utilizing body-fat as a fuel source because your external fuel sources – especially carbs – are restricted.

    This means that the weight-loss process and an optimal ketogenic diet just can’t be separated: they’re tied together in a fundamental way. What this means is that we have to discuss weight loss and calories, rather than just keto and calories.

    You can use keto for gaining weight/muscle if you want, it’s just far less effective than other forms of diet for that purpose.

    Calories and Weight-Loss

    We mentioned above how the calorie works. There are two myths/attitudes we want to get rid of right off the bat because they complicate the issue of the ketogenic diet and what it has to do with calories.

    The first myth is that keto is a magical fat-burning diet. This is from the people who think that carbs make you fat and that cutting them out is a simple way to fix everything about your body and health.

    Despite support from ‘gurus’ who claim that insulin is the only thing that matters – or that carbs are the devil – this isn’t true. The body’s response to diets of any kind – whether high or low carb – is to lose weight when put at a deficit.

    We definitely eat too many (refined) carbohydrates as a society, but that’s not how you get fat all by itself.

    The second myth is that all calorie-deficit diets are created equal.

    This is a backlash to the first problem: people claiming that the ketogenic diet and its results are identical to any other form of diet that aims to reduce body-fat.

    Suggesting that LCHF and LFHC diets are going to have exactly the same benefits and outcomes at all times is just as ridiculous as saying that there’s only one way to lose fat.

    The reality for both of these myths is that you can lose weight with any deficit diet, but the best choice for your goals is more complicated.

    It’s a complicated relationship between what different macro-nutrients do in the body and what you want your diet to do for you.

    4 Ways Keto Makes a Calorie Deficit Easier

    There are a few ways that Keto can make the weight loss process easier by simply making it easier for you to hold a calorie deficit.

    1. You Like Fats

    The first and most powerful reason is that it fits you better.

    For some people, this is literally just as simple as preferring high-fat foods to carbohydrates and being able to sustain a lean diet really easily when eating salmon and avocado and coconut oil and other stereotypically “keto foods”.

    An LCHF diet is a great choice if you love those fatty foods but you’re not so bothered about carbs – if you can cut carbs out and not feel too much impact, you’re going to do great on a keto diet.

    Sticking with your diet is the #1 factor in long-term weight loss, so prioritize it.

    2. You Like Endurance Training

    Endurance training and keto are a perfect combination: they improve each other in a way that allows you to progress rapidly in both areas.

    Ketogenic diets provide a great fuel source for endurance training.

    Relying on carbs for energy is a struggle for endurance training since you’re going to run out early into your training and performance will drop accordingly.

    However, body-fat provides hundreds of thousands of calories of energy without the need to eat.

    Once you’re keto-adapted, you can make huge changes to your performance and when you start to experience extreme fatigue-related losses.

    On the other hand, endurance training boosts ketogenic diet performance by rapidly accelerating your ability to oxidize fats.

    This, in turn, boosts efficiency in burning fats as fuels and pushes you towards nutritional and exercise-induced ketosis, as well as faster keto-adaptation.

    So, if you’re looking to perform at your best in endurance training – or you enjoy it more than heavy weights or intense gymnastics – the ketogenic diet is going to be a great way to really open up that calorie deficit.

    3. You Have a Carb/Snacking Problem

    This is the opposite of the “you like fats” reason: you really depend on carbohydrates in an unhealthy way.

    If you’re the kind of person that struggles with compulsive or stress-related eating of carbohydrates, then the keto diet is a great way to address some behavioral concerns.

    If you eat well during your meals, but you find yourself snacking on refined carbs like candy bars and sugary junk, keto can really help you.

    Improving your habits by cutting out carbs entirely, reducing your long-term cravings for carbs may be a great way of changing your dietary habits for life.

    This can cut out any silly calorie slip-ups and ensure that you’re sticking with effective rules for any time you return to intuitive or more-liberal eating practices.

    4. Satiety and Fullness

    The final benefit we’re going to discuss is how a well-balanced and well-planned ketogenic diet is going to be able to improve satiety and reduce overall cravings/hunger.

    This isn’t part of a traditional ketogenic diet specifically, but with a single addition, you can easily improve the whole keto experience and make weight-loss easier.

    The key to this is high food-volume.

    This means that all of your non-protein, non-fat foods should be focused on increased volume.

    This is the sheer size and amount of food that you’re eating for the same amount of calories.

    Everyone seems to love avocados nowadays, but they’re not the best for controlling calorie intake since a very small amount of food provides a relatively huge amount of calories.

    On the other hand, broccoli, carrots, and other fibrous vegetables provide a large amount of volume for almost no calories.

    Combining the high-fat, moderate-protein ketogenic diet with a large amount of food volume for your remaining carbohydrates and veggies is a crucial way to make the most of the ketogenic diet and this can make a calorie deficit incredibly easy.

    Do You Need to Count Calories on Keto?

    For most people, these are the real big questions surrounding keto and calories.

    Do you care that you have to be under your maintenance calories if you never have to count them and you just keep happening to be under?

    Most of us don’t mind this – it’s the act of having to count calories and restrict them that concerns most people.

    Step One: Are you Losing Weight?

    The answer to the calorie-tracking question isn’t very simple.

    The first answer – and the simplest – is “probably not”.

    The ketogenic diet reduces your overall calorie intake by cutting out some of the most common calorie-dense foods like sugary junk and refined carbs, making it easier to keep your weight under control.

    However, this is only going to be the case if you are losing weight.

    If you’re on a ketogenic diet and you’re not losing weight – or you’re gaining weight – then you’re doing something wrong and you’re going to need to count calories.

    This isn’t even surprising: the high-fat approach to dieting can be a problem because fats provide 250% as much energy (calories) per gram than carbs or protein.

    This means that it is possible to over-eat on a keto diet, especially if you’re eating foods like bacon and avocado, or you’re not consuming enough fibrous veggies.

    Step Two: Do you Know How Much to Eat?

    Whatever your approach to the ketogenic diet, it’s going t be important to have a good idea of how much you can eat in a single day without gaining weight or over-shooting your calories.

    For this reason, our advice is to start counting calories once every 4 weeks on any given diet – or if you start to stall your weight loss.

    This gives you a chance to check your estimations of how much you should eat against the scale and the calorie count.

    This also allows you to get a better understanding of what the calorie/macronutrient content of your staple foods is like.

    This can be surprising and after more than a month without tracking, it can be easy to overlook your calorie intake creeping up – a concern on any weight-loss diet.

    This practice is great for better awareness of your food and it can avoid some of the serious problems associated with stalling on a weight-loss diet.

    If you’re consistently plateauing with your progress, there’s something wrong in the way your diet is set up or how you’re sticking with it.

    Calorie counting makes sure you’re not doing anything wrong.

    You Have Specific Weight-Loss Goals

    This one is a concern for anyone who is losing weight for medical reasons or to compete in a weight-class sport.

    It might also be for you if you’re going to be aiming for a very specific milestone-based goal.

    We don’t recommend worrying about a specific number if you’re just trying to lose weight for a better life/confidence, but if you’re going to do it then calories are a useful tool.

    You may lose weight without counting on a ketogenic diet, but if you’re trying to make a certain bodyweight on a certain date – or just lose weight at a consistent speed – you’ll want to count calories.

    A pound of fat is roughly 3,500 calories, so understanding your daily intake, deficit and time-frame can all be useful for making weight.

    Setting yourself a daily deficit of 500 calories on any diet can provide you with a semi-reliable 1lb/week weight loss – something that would be very hard to achieve without calorie estimates.

    You’re Not Going to Be Using Keto Forever

    This is one of the situations where Keto might be a good choice, but you don’t plan on sticking with a ketogenic diet forever.

    This would require a ketogenic diet that provides a framework for dieting without just cutting out carbs.

    This is typically what you’re going to see if you’re looking to lose weight rapidly with a ketogenic diet and then gain weight as muscle mass in the future – a common approach.

    For this type of dieting pattern, you’re going to need to know how to count calories and have a good understanding of how many calories a given meal or food provides.

    This is going to be the case for anyone who is not an endurance athlete but looking to improve their physique or strength as well as cutting body-fat in the short-term.

    Closing remarks

    The ketogenic diet cannot get past the basic science of human energy storage/use: it has to conform to the basics of how calories play into your diet.

    Without this key piece, it is going to be impossible to lose weight, even with the benefits of fat oxidation and endurance performance that the keto diet can bring.

    However, from a logistical standpoint, the keto diet does a lot of great things to reduce how much you feel the presence of calories in your life.

    Calorie counting may not be a problem if you naturally tend to stick with a good surplus when eating an LCHF diet, you can increase the deficit with endurance training, or simply remove problem-carbs from your diet.

    Overall, there may be some needs to count calories on a ketogenic diet, but only to avoid problems.

    It isn’t a necessary part of the diet until something goes wrong or you stall – we recommend taking this approach on a week-by-week basis rather than rushing to or away from calorie counting.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Annette

      April 12, 2022 at 11:57 am

      Jennifer, your article is easy to understand, I have been doing the Intermittent fasting approximately 2 months & watching my carb intake. In the 2 months I have lost 16 lbs. The part of your article about falling off of what I am to eat or not eat is true.If I eat something I shouldn't eat then I gain a lb. or 2.I have no one to blame but myself. So this week I have put my foot down & am going to be conscious of what I fix or put in my mouth. I have 40 lbs I want to get off before Sept. 10 for my granddaughters wedding.

      Reply
    2. Anne

      March 19, 2022 at 9:22 pm

      Great easy read thank you

      Reply
    3. Noeline

      December 25, 2021 at 4:25 pm

      Your keto is very informative and I think easier to follow going to try hard thankyou

      Reply
      • Desiree

        March 06, 2022 at 9:13 pm

        I’ve tried to many keto apps and all are a waste of time and money, I absolutely love your daily emails and your recipient you make keto so easy and your recipes is out of this world.

        Reply
    4. Pete

      August 15, 2021 at 6:33 pm

      This is the best article I’ve read about keto. I’ve been half-a$$ing the ketogenic diet for quite a while now and getting nowhere. I definitely overeat and subject to stress eating. The calorie explanations are super helpful. I have done it well in the past, with increased exercise, and realized how my thoughts are more clear. I handle stress better. I don’t have cravings. Thank you for all of the articles and tips. I will definitely be more mindful going forward as to not slip up.

      Reply
    5. Felicity MacDonald

      July 19, 2021 at 1:13 pm

      Hi Jennifer. I really love your explanation of Keto.
      Very inspiring and easy to understand. I look forward to being part of the team. Thanks for making the journey exciting to look forward to.
      Felicity

      Reply
    6. Maria

      June 18, 2021 at 4:02 pm

      This information is very helpful, I’m a beginner, but very excited.

      Reply
    7. Loretta

      May 30, 2021 at 12:56 pm

      I agree with the other comments. Your explanation is easy to understand the Keto way of eating.

      Reply
    8. Beth

      May 06, 2021 at 6:40 pm

      Great article, easy to understand. Thank you

      Reply
    9. Yap Hui Mei

      May 06, 2021 at 11:38 am

      I am yet to embark on the journey of keto diet... found this article is very informative, practical to apply and provide a clear view on how to adopt the keto diet as a beginner. Bravo! Well done.

      Reply
    10. susan dolata

      April 27, 2021 at 12:04 pm

      Thank you soo much for the information. Not only was it easy to read and understand, it was FREE!! Continuously, each and every time I do a engine search on this topic I am always asked for a credit card #. THANK YOU AGAIN!!!

      Reply
    11. Judy Taylor

      October 11, 2020 at 3:12 pm

      Very informative, helpful and exciting info for keto beginners like myself. Thank you!

      Reply
      • Jennifer Moore

        October 26, 2020 at 12:59 pm

        Thanks, Judy 🙂

        Reply
    12. Thaimara Sendra

      September 28, 2020 at 6:24 am

      Hi Jennifer I agreed with Silva is the most easiest and useful explanation about Keto Diet. I started yeat ago and then didn't saw fast result, knowing everyone body is different. Never get into Ketosis. I'm diabetic I really want to leave pills. You feel energetic and focus. I love it. I'm planning start again. !

      Reply
      • Jennifer Moore

        October 26, 2020 at 1:10 pm

        Hi Thaimara, I'm so glad you enjoyed our articles 🙂 I wish you nothing but the best on your Keto journey!

        Reply
    13. Katherine

      May 13, 2020 at 7:06 am

      Thank you for the thorough understanding of this diet.

      Reply
      • Jennifer Moore

        May 15, 2020 at 6:28 pm

        No problem Katherine, thank you for the support!

        Reply
    14. Silva

      April 29, 2020 at 1:15 am

      This was one of the easiest and most useful explanations of the Keto diet I've ever read. Thank you!

      Reply
      • Jennifer Moore

        April 29, 2020 at 3:48 pm

        Thank you so much, Silva, glad you enjoyed it 🙂

        Reply

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    Hi, I'm Jennifer and I am a Keto Addict. I've been super into the Ketogenic Diet ever since I tried it to lose weight. It not only helped with my weight loss goals but also helped me live a more happy, healthy and inspired life.

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