TDEE Calculator
Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the calories your body burns in a typical day — and get target intakes for weight loss, maintenance, or gain.
How TDEE is calculated
Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the energy your body needs at complete rest — to keep your heart beating, your brain firing, your cells repairing themselves. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is the modern standard:
Men: BMR = 10 × kg + 6.25 × cm − 5 × age + 5
Women: BMR = 10 × kg + 6.25 × cm − 5 × age − 161
TDEE = BMR × activity factor. Activity factors range from 1.2 (truly sedentary — desk job, no workouts) to 1.9 (manual labor plus daily intense training).
Activity level — pick honestly
| Level | Multiplier | Looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1.2 | Office job, no formal exercise |
| Lightly active | 1.375 | Light workouts 1–3 days/week, mostly seated otherwise |
| Moderately active | 1.55 | Workouts 3–5 days/week, or active job (teacher, nurse) |
| Very active | 1.725 | Hard workouts 6–7 days/week |
| Extra active | 1.9 | Daily training plus a physical job (construction, athlete) |
Most people overestimate their activity level. If you're not sure, pick one level lower than you think — you can adjust after a few weeks of tracking actual results.
Setting a calorie target
One pound of fat is roughly 3,500 kcal. So a 500 kcal/day deficit yields about 1 lb of fat loss per week — a sustainable rate that preserves most muscle mass. Aggressive deficits (1,000 kcal/day or more) work short-term but risk fatigue, muscle loss, and metabolic adaptation. For weight gain, the same math applies in reverse, but a 250–500 kcal surplus is enough — anything more becomes excess fat rather than muscle.
This calculator is an estimate based on a population formula. Individual metabolic rates vary by ±10–15%. Track your weight over 2–4 weeks at a fixed intake and adjust based on what you actually see.