TDEE Calculator
Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure and recommended macronutrient intake
How It Works
Overview
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories your body burns in a day, including everything from breathing and digestion to walking, working, and exercising. It's the most useful single number in nutrition planning: hit your TDEE in calories and your weight stays stable; eat under it and you lose weight; eat over it and you gain.
This calculator estimates TDEE in two steps. First it computes your basal metabolic rate (BMR) — the calories you'd burn lying still all day — using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. Then it multiplies BMR by an activity factor between 1.2 (sedentary) and 1.9 (very active) to capture the rest of your daily energy use. The output is a starting point; expect to fine-tune by 100–300 calories based on real-world results over 2–4 weeks.
The Formula
BMR (Mifflin-St Jeor, in calories/day):
- Men: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5
- Women: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age − 161
Activity multipliers:
- Sedentary (1.2): desk job, no formal exercise
- Light (1.375): 1–3 workouts per week
- Moderate (1.55): 3–5 workouts per week
- Active (1.725): 6–7 workouts per week
- Very Active (1.9): hard daily exercise + physical job
Worked Example
A 30-year-old man, 80 kg, 180 cm tall, training moderately (4 workouts/week):
- BMR = 10×80 + 6.25×180 − 5×30 + 5 = 800 + 1125 − 150 + 5 = 1,780 cal/day
- TDEE = 1,780 × 1.55 ≈ 2,759 cal/day
- For ~1 lb/week fat loss: target ~2,260 cal/day
- For ~0.5 lb/week lean gain: target ~3,010 cal/day
A 35-year-old woman, 65 kg, 165 cm tall, sedentary office worker:
- BMR = 10×65 + 6.25×165 − 5×35 − 161 = 650 + 1031 − 175 − 161 = 1,345 cal/day
- TDEE = 1,345 × 1.2 ≈ 1,614 cal/day
When to Use This
- Setting a calorie target — establish a sensible baseline before you start any cutting or bulking phase.
- Tracking progress — combine with a food diary to see whether actual intake matches your TDEE-based plan.
- Recalculating after weight change — re-run after every 4–5 kg of loss or gain so your targets stay honest.
- Macro planning — use TDEE as the calorie pool you split into protein, carbs, and fat.
- Sanity-checking diet apps — compare with what apps like MyFitnessPal recommend; they typically use the same Mifflin-St Jeor base.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Overestimating activity. Most people who think they're "moderately active" are closer to "lightly active." Pick one tier lower than feels right and adjust upward only if results stall.
- Counting workouts twice. If your activity multiplier already includes exercise, don't add cardio calories from a fitness tracker on top — you'll double-count and underfeed muscle gains or overshoot fat loss.
- Treating the number as exact. Mifflin-St Jeor is ±10% accurate. Use the calculated TDEE as a starting point and adjust based on 2–4 weeks of real weight data.
- Ignoring NEAT. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (fidgeting, walking, standing) can vary 300–800 calories between individuals — a major reason two people with the same BMR have different TDEEs.
- Aggressive cuts. Sustained intake below 1,200–1,500 calories often backfires through muscle loss, hormonal disruption, and metabolic slowdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
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