How to Calculate Your Calorie Needs to Lose Weight After 30

If you’re over 30 and wondering how many calories you actually need to eat to lose weight—this post is for you.

You’re not alone if you feel like what used to work just isn’t cutting it anymore. Your body’s changed, your life’s busier, and Googling “how many calories should I eat” sends you into a spiral of numbers, charts, and conflicting advice.

Let’s break this down in plain language. Because when it comes to weight loss after 30, knowing your calorie needs gives you a direction—and that’s where progress begins – when you know where “to go”.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

We talked here about why calories matter most at first when trying to lose weight. But how do you actually know how many calories your body needs?

That number isn’t just picked from the sky. It’s based on a few key factors:

• Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – how many calories you burn just staying alive
• Your activity level – walking, working, workouts, etc.
• Your goal – are you maintaining, gaining muscle, or losing fat?

Step 1: Estimate Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

BMR is how many calories your body burns just to keep you alive—breathing, digesting, sleeping.

You can use an online calculator or book a scan at NHF to get a personalized reading.

Here’s a simple formula (Mifflin-St Jeor Equation for women):

BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) – (5 × age) – 161

Quick conversion tips:
Weight in pounds ÷ 2.2 = kg
Height in inches × 2.54 = cm

Step 2: Multiply for Your Activity Level to get your (TDEE)

Once you know your BMR, multiply it by an activity factor to estimate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure):

• Sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR × 1.2
• Lightly active (light exercise 1–3 days/week): BMR × 1.375
• Moderately active (moderate exercise 3–5 days/week): BMR × 1.55
• Very active (hard exercise 6–7 days/week): BMR × 1.725

This number is your maintenance calories—what your body uses each day based on your height, weight and activity level.

Step 3: Create a Gentle Deficit

To lose weight, you need to eat less than your TDEE (the number you just calculated). But not drastically.

We recommend starting with a 10–20% deficit, depending on your energy, sleep, and stress levels.

Example: If your TDEE is 2,000 calories, a 15% deficit is about 1,700 calories per day.

It doesn’t have to be exact every day—but now you have a real number to guide your food choices.

What If You Don’t Want to Do the Math?

Totally fair! That’s why we offer in-person readings at NHF. We’ll take a professional body composition scan, calculate your BMR, and walk you through what that means—for you.

👉 Book a free intro here to get started.

One More Thing: Be Patient and Kind to Yourself

The scale might not move quickly, and that’s okay. When you know your numbers, you’re no longer guessing. You’re taking the first real step toward fat loss that lasts.

Your First Win: Awareness Over Perfection

Track your intake for just 3–5 days with no pressure to be perfect. You’re not trying to diet yet, you’re just gathering information so you know now what you didn’t know before. I promise you, it will make a difference. This simple step often opens your eyes to patterns you didn’t realize were happening. Awareness is always the first win.

And if you want a coach who understands what life looks like over 30 (and how hard it can be to prioritize yourself), we’re here.

Ready to Know What Your Body Needs?

At NHF, we help women over 30 understand how their metabolism works, without the stress or shame. Let us walk you through this, step by step.

👉 Book your free intro today.