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CICO Calculator: find your CICO score for weight loss

This free CICO calculator is a CICO weight loss calculator: enter your stats to get your BMR and your CICO score, where a negative score means a calorie deficit.

Units
Sex
Height
Your BMR (as Cico calculates it)
1,837 cal/day
Example end-of-day CICO score
−237 calorie deficit
How we calculated this

BMR 88 + 1,094 + 854 − 199 = 1,837 (178 cm, 81.65 kg, age 35). CICO score: 2,000 eaten − 1,837 BMR − 400 active = −237. Formula details are at the bottom of the page.

Your CICO score is your net calories for the day in the Cico app: calories eaten minus calories burned (your BMR plus activity), so a negative score is a calorie deficit.

Your inputs stay in your browser; this page does not store or send them.

How Cico uses your BMR

  • Your BMR is where your calories out start. Cico calculates your BMR from your age, sex, height and weight. It pulls those from Apple Health when you connect it, or you can enter them yourself. This page uses the same formula.
  • Cico counts your BMR as burned steadily through the day, so your CICO score starts at zero at midnight and drops even while you rest.
  • Activity from your steps, workouts, or wearable lowers your score further, and every food you log raises it.
  • Aim to finish the day at or below your daily CICO score target, such as −250 or −500.

Track your CICO score in real time

This page gives you one example. Cico for iPhone keeps your CICO score live all day: it burns your BMR minute by minute, adds the activity from your steps, workouts, or wearable, and updates the moment you log food with a photo, barcode, text, or voice.

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Frequently asked questions

What is a CICO calculator?

A CICO (calories in, calories out) calculator estimates how many calories you burn so you can compare that with what you eat. This one gives your BMR and an example CICO score: calories eaten minus your BMR and activity.

What is a CICO score?

A CICO score is the Cico app's net calorie balance for the day: calories eaten minus calories burned, where calories burned is your BMR plus your activity. A negative CICO score means you are in a calorie deficit, and a positive one means a surplus. The app's guidance is that a lower score is better for fat loss.

How does a CICO weight loss calculator work?

It starts with your BMR, the calories your body burns at rest, from your age, sex, height and weight. Add your activity to get calories burned, then subtract that from the calories you ate. The result is your CICO score. A negative CICO score is a calorie deficit, which is what leads to weight loss over time.

Is a CICO score the same as a calorie deficit?

Not quite. A calorie deficit means you burned more calories than you ate. Your CICO score is the signed number that says whether you are in one and by how much: a CICO score of −500 is a 500-calorie deficit, and +300 is a 300-calorie surplus. So instead of saying "I'm in a calorie deficit," you can say "my CICO score is −500."

How does the Cico app use my BMR?

Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the baseline of your calories out. Cico calculates your BMR from your age, sex, height and weight. It pulls those from Apple Health when you connect it, or you can enter them yourself. Cico subtracts it from your CICO score steadily through the day, so the score starts at zero at midnight and keeps dropping even while you rest. The food you log raises the score, and activity lowers it further. In challenges, a day only counts when the food you logged adds up to at least half of your BMR.

Which BMR formula does the Cico app use?

The revised Harris-Benedict equation (Roza and Shizgal, 1984), with each part rounded to a whole calorie. Men: 88 + 13.397 × kg + 4.799 × cm − 5.677 × age. Women: 448 + 9.247 × kg + 3.098 × cm − 4.330 × age. Cico uses this formula to calculate your BMR from your age, sex, height and weight. This calculator uses the same formula and rounding, so it gives the same BMR the app calculates from the same stats.

When does my BMR change in the Cico app?

When you update your weight, height, birthdate, or sex, Cico recalculates your BMR right away. Your CICO score switches to the new BMR at your next local midnight, and earlier days keep the BMR that applied to them.

How accurate is a BMR estimate?

It is an estimate from a prediction equation, not a measurement. Body composition, medications, and other factors make real resting energy use differ from person to person, so treat your BMR and CICO score as estimates.

How the math works: the BMR formula the Cico app uses

  1. Men: 88 + (13.397 × weight in kg) + (4.799 × height in cm) − (5.677 × age in years).
  2. Women: 448 + (9.247 × weight in kg) + (3.098 × height in cm) − (4.330 × age in years).
  3. Each part in parentheses is rounded to the nearest whole calorie before the parts are added together. 88 and 448 are the published constants 88.362 and 447.593, rounded the same way.
  4. US units are converted the way the app stores them: height in feet and inches becomes whole centimeters (total inches × 2.54, rounded), and pounds become kilograms (× 0.453592, rounded to two decimals). Age is in whole years.
  5. Example CICO score for a full day: calories eaten − BMR − active calories burned. A negative result is a deficit; a positive result is a surplus.

Sources and review date

Published by Cico Wellness & Health Solutions, LLC.

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