About Calorilator

Calorilator is a free set of calorie and macro calculators, a USDA-verified food database, and a 7-day meal-plan generator, built to answer one practical question: given your numbers, what should that actually look like day to day? This page covers how the numbers are worked out, who writes the site, how it's funded, and how to reach us — the things worth knowing before you trust a calculator with your own numbers.

How the numbers are calculated

Every calorie target starts from a published resting-energy formula — Mifflin-St Jeor by default, or Katch-McArdle automatically if you provide a body-fat percentage, since lean mass gives that formula a real edge. Activity is layered on with standard multipliers, either the five common levels or a granular sessions-per-week input mapped onto the same scale. Every calculator screen includes a "how we worked this out" trail showing the actual numbers at each step — nothing is a black box.

A handful of safety floors are hard-coded and can't be argued down by the inputs: targets never drop below 1,500 kcal for men or 1,200 kcal for women, aggressive deficits are flagged rather than defaulted to, and a BMI under 18.5 replaces weight-loss options with a note to speak to a doctor instead. These exist because a calorie tool that outputs a dangerous number is a real harm, not just a bad estimate.

The food database is USDA FoodData Central data, verified entry by entry against the real source rather than estimated — every food links back to what it's built from. The meal-plan generator turns a target into real portions using a constraint-based search: protein is treated as a hard floor it never comes in under, calories stay within a close range, and carbohydrate/fat have a documented tolerance since forcing an exact percentage sometimes means forcing in a food that doesn't fit the rest of the day. When a plan needed flexibility to fit unusual settings, it says so plainly rather than hiding the gap.

Every number here is a population-average estimate carrying roughly ±10-15% individual variance, not a measurement of your actual metabolism. Treat any result as a well-reasoned starting point, track real-world change over two to three weeks, and adjust from there.

Who writes this

Calorilator is written and maintained by the Calorilator Editorial Team. We don't name an individual author or invent credentials for one — if a genuinely named, credentialed reviewer is ever involved, that will be stated plainly with real, checkable credentials, not implied through a stock byline. Until then, "medically reviewed" framing doesn't appear anywhere on this site; instead, articles cite real, checkable sources directly — NIH, WHO, USDA, PubMed, Cochrane — so you can verify a claim yourself rather than take a byline's word for it.

Nothing on this site is individual medical advice. Every calculator and article gives general, population-level information and consistently points toward a clinician or registered dietitian for guidance specific to you, particularly if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, managing a medical condition, or have a history of disordered eating.

How this site is funded

Calorilator is supported by display advertising, including Google AdSense. Ad slots are reserved and pre-sized specifically so they never shift page content around while you're reading or using a calculator. Advertising never influences what a calculator outputs or what an article says — the underlying formulas and food data are identical regardless of what's running in an ad slot, and no content here is sponsored or paid placement dressed up as editorial.

Ads and analytics on this site use cookies, gated behind the consent choice you're asked for on your first visit. The full detail — what's stored, what Google does with it, and how to change your mind later — is on the Privacy Policy, not repeated here.

Privacy, in brief

This site doesn't require an account and doesn't store your calculator inputs on a server — calculations run in your browser, and the only things saved locally on your device are a few preferences (your last theme choice, an in-progress meal plan) that never leave it. The full Privacy Policy covers cookies, analytics, and advertising in detail; the Terms of Service cover acceptable use and liability.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or a source that needs fixing — reach us at contact@calorilator.com, or use the contact page. If you're flagging a factual error in an article or a food's nutrition data, a link to the specific page is the fastest way to get it looked at.