Set up your nutrition targets

Targets follow your latest weigh-in in Body Check-ins and the goal you chose, so a new weigh-in or a new goal gives a new target from that day. Earlier days keep the target they had.

You choose, in Targets → How exercise is counted. In my activity level works like most calorie calculators: pick Sedentary, Light, Moderate, Active, Very active or Extra active, and your exercise is already in that number, so the workouts you log are shown but not added. Add the workouts I log sets your everyday movement without exercise and adds each workout you log to that day's budget. Don't count exercise leaves workouts out entirely. With either of the last two, How much you move outside workouts covers the rest of your day — walking, standing, chores — which your logged workouts don't include; pick None: my BMR only if you want your budget to be your BMR plus only the workouts you log (or your BMR alone). Changing it applies from today; earlier days keep what they had.

Mifflin-St Jeor is the most accurate for most people and is the default. Revised Harris-Benedict is an older equation. Katch-McArdle uses your body fat % and can be more accurate if you're lean — it needs a body check-in with body fat % from the last 30 days. Average of the formulas uses the mean of them. The Calorie calculator in Targets updates as you switch, so you can compare. Every result is an estimate; your weekly check-in can correct it from what you actually eat and weigh.

BMR is what your body burns at complete rest, worked out from your latest weigh-in, height, age and sex. Expected burn adds your everyday activity outside workouts (the level you chose in Targets). Workouts are never assumed — they count only when you log them.

From what you log. Every workout in Log Exercise shows its active calories — the calories above what your body burns at rest — and the session shows its total. If you count exercise by the workouts you log, that exact number is added to that day's nutrition budget. Your resting burn is already in your target, so counting it again would add those calories twice. Strength exercises are estimated from how long each one took, from opening it to saving it, up to 4 minutes a set (older entries from the website use about 2½ minutes a set); WODs from their time; cardio uses its logged calories, or an estimate from distance and time. No estimate yet? Add a weigh-in in Body Check-ins.

Yes: the entry form, the session list and your nutrition budget all work out active calories the same way, from the workout's saved calories.

Pick a pace in lb or kg a week, or a target date. There's no limit: we recommend up to 1 % of your body weight a week when losing (0.5 % when gaining) — at 300 lb that's 3 lb a week, at 150 lb 1.5 lb — and if you pick a faster pace or a closer date, we'll set your calories for it and let you know it's faster than recommended. Your calories never go below a safe minimum.

Targets are for members who have confirmed they are 18 or older, and they need your date of birth, height and a weigh-in. You can still log food either way.

We never set a daily target below a safe minimum — 1,200 calories a day for women, 1,500 for everyone else. Under that it's hard to get enough protein, vitamins and minerals from food. When your goal asks for less, the ⓘ in the summary's corner shows the number your plan works out to and that we've set the minimum instead; choose a slower pace or a later target date to see your own number again.

Yes. Your BMR is what you burn at rest; your daily activity and workouts burn more on top, so eating a little under your BMR is what creates a real deficit when you're losing weight. The ⓘ in the summary's corner says so when it happens, and your target never goes below the minimum above.

Yes. The public calorie calculator uses the same BMR formulas and table as Nutrition → Targets. It only warns about very low numbers; your targets in the app still never go below 1,200 calories a day for women or 1,500 for everyone else. To log home cooking, see the recipe builder guide.

Yes. In My Profile, set Energy to kJ with your other units. Nutrition and the Log's active calories then show kJ, and anything you type is in kJ.