TDEE Calculator

About the TDEE Calculator

Your body burns energy all day, not just when you exercise. Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or TDEE, is the estimated number of calories you use over 24 hours once everything is added together: the energy needed to keep you alive at rest, the energy spent digesting food, the calories burned by everyday movement like walking and fidgeting, and the calories used in deliberate exercise. This calculator estimates that figure from your sex, age, height, weight, and a single activity setting, so you have a concrete starting point instead of guessing.

The estimate has two steps. First it calculates your basal metabolic rate (BMR) with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which estimates what you would burn lying still in a comfortable room. Then it multiplies that number by an activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9. The multiplication is where most of the uncertainty lives, because the same label can describe very different weeks. Someone who trains four times a week but sits at a desk all day and someone who lifts three times a week on a construction site may both call themselves moderately active while burning quite different amounts.

Knowing your TDEE matters because every nutrition goal is a comparison against it. Eating below it over time leads to weight loss, eating near it holds weight steady, and eating above it supports gain. The calculator turns that into four ready-made targets, from a one pound per week deficit to a modest surplus, and adds a protein, carbohydrate, and fat split in grams. It suits people planning a cut or a bulk, anyone curious why their intake and their scale disagree, and coaches or parents who need a quick, transparent estimate rather than a black box.

When to Use It

How to Use It, Step by Step

1. Choose US or Metric at the top first. This switches the height input between feet and inches or centimeters, and the weight input between pounds and kilograms. Enter your numbers in the units that match the toggle, because switching the toggle does not convert values you already typed.
2. Select your sex using the Male or Female buttons. The equation uses a different constant for each (plus 5 for male, minus 161 for female), so this choice changes your BMR by 166 calories before anything else is considered.
3. Type your age in whole years. The tool accepts ages from 13 to 100, and if the age is blank or outside that range, no result appears. Age matters because metabolic rate drifts downward as the years pass, mostly through gradual loss of lean mass.
4. Enter your height. In US mode there are two boxes, feet and inches, so someone 5 feet 10 inches tall enters 5 and 10. In Metric mode use a single centimeter value. Measure barefoot against a wall if you are unsure, since people often round up.
5. Enter your current weight, ideally measured in the morning after using the bathroom and before eating, and use the same scale each time you recheck. A single reading can swing by a few pounds from water alone, so averaging several mornings gives a better input.
6. Pick your activity level from the drop-down: Sedentary, Lightly active (1 to 3 days a week), Moderately active (3 to 5 days a week), Very active (6 to 7 days a week), or Athlete (two sessions a day, hard training). Think about your whole week including your job, and choose the lower option if you are torn between two.
7. Read the headline TDEE number and the smaller BMR line beneath it. Then scan the four goal rows: lose at minus 1 lb per week, mild loss at minus 0.5 lb per week, maintain, and gain at plus 0.5 lb per week.
8. Check the suggested macros at the bottom, which show grams of protein, carbohydrate, and fat at maintenance calories. Use them as a rough template, then adjust to your preferences, training, and any guidance from a dietitian or physician.

Understanding Your Results

The large number is your estimated TDEE in calories per day, and the line under it is your BMR, the resting portion. For most adults the BMR accounts for the majority of daily burn, and the gap between the two is your activity allowance. A result that looks very high compared with what you actually eat while holding a steady weight usually means the activity setting was too generous. A result far below your habitual intake with no weight gain suggests the opposite, or that you are underreporting food.

The four goal rows are simple arithmetic around that number: TDEE minus 500, minus 250, unchanged, and plus 250. The rule behind them is that roughly 3,500 calories correspond to a pound of body weight change, which is a convenient approximation rather than a law. Early weight changes include water and stored carbohydrate, so the first week or two of a diet often looks faster than the arithmetic suggests. The tool applies no minimum, so check that a deficit target is not unreasonably low for your body size.

The macro grams apply a fixed 30 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrate, and 30 percent fat split to your maintenance calories, using 4 calories per gram for protein and carbohydrate and 9 per gram for fat. Notice the grams are computed from maintenance, not from the loss or gain row you choose. If you eat below maintenance, scale them down together. Treat the whole page as a hypothesis: eat to it for two to four weeks, track your average weight, and adjust upward or downward based on what actually happens.

More Worked Examples

Tips for Better Results

• Weigh yourself at the same time on several mornings and average the readings before entering a weight. Daily fluctuations from water, sodium, and digestion can easily reach several pounds and would otherwise skew your result.
• When you are choosing between two activity levels, pick the lower one. Most people overestimate exercise and underestimate how much of the day they sit, so starting conservative and adjusting upward is safer than overshooting.
• Do not add your workout calories on top of the TDEE number. The activity multiplier already assumes a typical week of exercise, so eating back every session's burn as well would count the same energy twice.
• Test the estimate against reality for two to four weeks. If your average weight stays flat while eating at the maintenance number, the estimate is good for you; if it rises or falls, nudge intake by 100 to 200 calories and observe again.
• Recalculate after any significant weight change, roughly every 10 pounds or 5 kilograms. A smaller body burns fewer calories, so a target that created a deficit at your starting weight may land close to maintenance later.
• Spread your protein across meals and keep resistance training in the plan if you are eating below maintenance. Adequate protein and strength work help preserve muscle while you lose weight, and the macro grams here are a reasonable starting template.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Choosing an activity level based on your workout intentions rather than your actual last month. Count only sessions you reliably complete, and remember that a long desk job pulls the real average down.
• Entering height or weight in the wrong unit. Typing a kilogram value while the toggle says US will give a wildly low result, so check the label next to each box and note that switching the toggle does not convert your numbers.
• Treating the result as a fixed prescription. The equation predicts the average person with your measurements, and real expenditure can differ by several hundred calories either way, so use it as a hypothesis and verify with your own weight trend.
• Applying the minus 500 row to an already small calorie budget. For a smaller or sedentary person, that row can produce a very low number, and the calculator does not impose a floor, so you must judge whether it is sensible.
• Ignoring changes in life circumstances. Illness, injury, pregnancy, certain medications, and thyroid conditions can all shift energy needs in ways the formula cannot know, so talk to a clinician if your results consistently contradict the estimate.

Assumptions and Limits

• The BMR comes from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which was fitted to adult data. It uses weight, height, age, and sex only, so it cannot see body composition. Very muscular people tend to burn more than it predicts, and people with a higher proportion of body fat may burn less.
• Activity multipliers are broad categories, not measurements. They do not distinguish a physical job from a sedentary one, and the five levels are spaced coarsely, which means the difference between adjacent levels can be a few hundred calories.
• Results are rounded to whole calories and grams. The calculator uses your unrounded BMR for the TDEE calculation, so a result may differ by one calorie from doing the arithmetic with rounded intermediate numbers.
• The tool is designed for adults and accepts ages from 13, but the equation was not built to capture growth in teenagers, the added needs of pregnancy or breastfeeding, or conditions affecting metabolism. Those situations call for individualized guidance from a physician or registered dietitian.

Key Terms

BMR (basal metabolic rate)

The estimated calories your body burns at complete rest to keep breathing, circulating blood, and maintaining organs. It usually makes up the largest share of daily energy use.

TDEE

Total Daily Energy Expenditure, the full day's calorie burn including rest, digestion, daily movement, and exercise. Eating at this level should keep your weight roughly stable.

Activity multiplier

A factor, from 1.2 to 1.9 in this tool, that scales your BMR upward to account for how much you move through a typical week.

NEAT

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis, the calories burned through walking around, standing, chores, and fidgeting. It varies a lot between people and is a major reason two people with the same stats burn different amounts.

Thermic effect of food

The energy your body uses to digest, absorb, and process what you eat. It is part of TDEE and is generally higher for protein than for fat or carbohydrate.

Macronutrients

The three main sources of calories in food: protein and carbohydrate at 4 calories per gram, and fat at 9 calories per gram.