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Nutrition

TDEE calculator

Estimate your total daily calorie burn using the Mifflin–St Jeor equation. Updates as you type.

Your stats

Total daily energy expenditure
2,763kcal / day

Calories you burn on a typical day at this activity level.

BMR
1,783kcal
Cut
2,263kcal
Bulk
3,063kcal

Cut and bulk targets are a 500 kcal deficit and 300 kcal surplus relative to your TDEE — sensible defaults, not strict prescriptions.

What is TDEE

Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the total number of calories you burn over twenty-four hours. It is made up of three main pieces. The first is your basal metabolic rate, the energy your body needs at complete rest to keep your heart beating, your lungs working, and your cells alive. It typically accounts for 60–70 percent of the total.

The second is the thermic effect of food — the calories burned digesting and absorbing what you eat. It runs around 10 percent of daily intake for a mixed diet. The third is activity, both formal exercise and the energy you spend walking, fidgeting, and standing. Activity is the biggest source of variation between two people of the same size.

TDEE is the single most useful number for setting a calorie target. Eat at TDEE to maintain weight, below it to lose fat, above it to build muscle.

How TDEE is calculated

This calculator uses the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, which the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends as the most accurate predictive BMR equation for the general adult population.

BMR (male)   = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5
BMR (female) = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age − 161

TDEE = BMR × activity multiplier

The activity multipliers are:

  • Sedentary — desk job, little exercise: ×1.2
  • Light — 1–3 sessions per week: ×1.375
  • Moderate — 3–5 sessions per week: ×1.55
  • Active — 6–7 sessions per week: ×1.725
  • Very active — physical job or two sessions a day: ×1.9

Frequently asked questions

What is TDEE?
TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the total number of calories your body burns in a day, including resting metabolism, the energy cost of digesting food, and physical activity. It is the single most useful number for setting a calorie target.
Which formula does this calculator use?
It uses the Mifflin–St Jeor equation to estimate basal metabolic rate (BMR), then multiplies that by a standard activity factor between 1.2 (sedentary) and 1.9 (very active). Mifflin–St Jeor is the formula most often recommended by registered dietitians today because it tends to over-estimate less than the older Harris–Benedict equation.
How accurate is the estimate?
For most adults, TDEE estimates land within roughly 10 percent of measured values in a metabolic chamber. That is close enough to be useful as a starting point, but you should treat the number as a hypothesis to test, not a fixed truth. Adjust based on what the scale actually does over two to four weeks.
Which activity level should I pick?
Choose based on overall lifestyle, not just gym time. A desk worker who trains three hours a week is closer to Light than to Moderate. Manual labour and being on your feet all day pushes you toward Active. When unsure, pick the lower option — under-estimating calories burned and adjusting up is safer than the reverse.
What should I do with my TDEE?
For weight maintenance, eat near your TDEE. For fat loss, eat 300–500 kcal below it (most people lose around half a kilogram a week at a 500 kcal deficit). For lean muscle gain, eat 200–400 kcal above it. Pair either approach with adequate protein — see the protein calculator for a target.
Why is my TDEE different from other calculators?
Different sites use different equations (Harris–Benedict, Katch–McArdle, Mifflin–St Jeor) and slightly different activity multipliers. Differences of 100–200 kcal are normal. What matters is consistency: pick one number, run a deficit or surplus relative to it, and let your weight trend guide adjustments.
Does this account for body fat percentage?
No — Mifflin–St Jeor uses age, sex, height, and weight. If you know your body fat percentage, the Katch–McArdle formula is slightly more accurate for very lean or very heavy individuals. A Katch–McArdle option may be added in future.

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