TDEE Calculator

What Is TDEE?

Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories your body burns in a 24-hour period. It includes four things: your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — calories burned at rest just to keep you alive; physical activity (workouts, walking, fidgeting); the Thermic Effect of Food (energy used to digest meals, ~10% of intake); and Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) like typing, standing, and blinking.

TDEE is the single most important number in nutrition planning. Eat above it → you gain weight. Eat below it → you lose weight. Eat at it → you maintain. Every serious diet, cut, or bulk starts by estimating this number.

How This TDEE Calculator Works

This tool uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, recommended by the American Dietetic Association as the most accurate general BMR formula for adults. It outperforms the older Harris-Benedict equation by about 5% in validated studies.

The formula:

• Men: BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5
• Women: BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age − 161

Then your BMR is multiplied by an activity factor: 1.2 (sedentary, desk job), 1.375 (light — walks, 1–3 workouts/week), 1.55 (moderate — 3–5 workouts), 1.725 (very active — daily intense training), or 1.9 (extremely active — physical job + daily training). The result is your estimated daily calorie burn.

How to Use Your TDEE Result

If your goal is weight loss

Subtract 10–20% from your TDEE. For a 2,400 TDEE, that's 1,920–2,160 kcal/day, producing about 0.5–1 lb of fat loss per week. Never cut below your BMR — sustained intake below BMR slows metabolism and burns muscle along with fat. Use our calorie deficit calculator to get the exact number for your timeline.

If your goal is muscle gain

Add 5–15% on top of TDEE (a "lean bulk"). For most people that's 200–400 extra calories paired with resistance training and at least 1.6 g of protein per kg of bodyweight. Eating more than a 15% surplus mostly adds fat, not muscle. Split your target calories into proper macros with the macro calculator.

If your goal is maintenance

Eat at your TDEE ±100 kcal. Weigh yourself on the same day each week over 3–4 weeks. If weight is stable, your TDEE estimate is accurate. If you're trending up or down more than 1 lb/week unintentionally, recalibrate by 100–150 kcal.

Why Your TDEE Estimate Isn't Exact

TDEE calculators are accurate to within about 10% for most people, but several factors skew the number:

• Muscle mass. People with more muscle have higher BMR than the equation predicts. If you're visibly lean and lift, add 3–5%.
• Adaptive thermogenesis. After weeks of eating at a deficit, your body reduces NEAT and lowers BMR by 5–15%. Your "real" TDEE drops.
• Activity-tracker overestimates. Fitness watches routinely overstate calorie burn by 20–40%. Trust this calculator's activity multiplier, not your watch.
• Body composition changes. Your TDEE changes as your weight and muscle mass change. Recalculate every 10 lb of weight change.

Want to push from ±10% to ±2%? See how accurate is a TDEE calculator (and how to make it more accurate) — a 3-week self-calibration protocol with peer-reviewed sources.

How Often Should You Recalculate?

Recalculate your TDEE every 4–6 weeks, or any time one of these happens: you lose/gain more than 10 lb; you change activity level significantly (start/stop a training block); you hit a weight-loss plateau lasting 3+ weeks despite consistent tracking. The plateau usually means your current TDEE is lower than your calculator said 8 weeks ago — drop intake by 100–150 kcal and retest for 2 weeks.

TDEE vs BMR vs Maintenance Calories

These three terms cause a lot of confusion. BMR is what you'd burn lying in bed doing nothing (roughly 60–70% of TDEE). TDEE is BMR plus everything else. Maintenance calories is a colloquial synonym for TDEE — the number where your weight holds steady. If you want to skip the math on body composition and just log what you actually eat, a photo-based calorie tracker removes the manual logging friction.