TDEE Calculator
Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure - the calories you burn in a day
How to Use This TDEE Calculator
- Enter your age, gender, height, and weight
- Select your activity level from sedentary to extra active
- Click 'Calculate TDEE' to see your daily calorie expenditure
- Use the calorie targets table to adjust for your goal (lose, maintain, or gain)
Example: A 30-year-old male, 5'10", 180 lbs, moderately active (gym 4x/week): TDEE is ~2,650 calories/day. To lose 1 lb/week, eat ~2,150 calories. To gain 0.5 lb/week, eat ~2,900 calories.
Tip: TDEE is an estimate - use it as a starting point, then track your weight for 2-3 weeks. If you're not seeing expected changes, adjust by 100-200 calories rather than making drastic changes.
Why Use a TDEE Calculator?
TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the total calories you burn daily, including everything from breathing to exercise. It's the foundation of any nutrition plan because you can't manage what you don't measure.
- Calculate how many calories you actually burn each day
- Set accurate calorie targets for fat loss or muscle gain
- Understand why your weight has plateaued despite 'eating right'
- Determine if you're eating too little (metabolic adaptation) or too much
- Plan caloric surplus for lean bulking without excessive fat gain
- Compare energy needs across different activity levels
Understanding Your Results
Results display your BMR, TDEE, and calorie targets for different goals from extreme fat loss to bulking.
| Result | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) | Calories burned at complete rest - just to keep you alive | Eating below BMR long-term can slow metabolism and cause muscle loss |
| TDEE (maintenance calories) | Total daily burn including all activity | Eating at TDEE maintains current weight over time |
| TDEE minus 500 (fat loss) | ~1 lb/week fat loss rate | Sustainable deficit for most people; preserves muscle with adequate protein |
| TDEE plus 250-500 (muscle gain) | Caloric surplus for building muscle | Smaller surplus (250) minimizes fat gain; larger surplus (500) faster gains but more fat |
Meaning: Calories burned at complete rest - just to keep you alive
Action: Eating below BMR long-term can slow metabolism and cause muscle loss
Meaning: Total daily burn including all activity
Action: Eating at TDEE maintains current weight over time
Meaning: ~1 lb/week fat loss rate
Action: Sustainable deficit for most people; preserves muscle with adequate protein
Meaning: Caloric surplus for building muscle
Action: Smaller surplus (250) minimizes fat gain; larger surplus (500) faster gains but more fat
Note: TDEE calculations can be off by 10-15% depending on individual factors like genetics, body composition, and NEAT (fidgeting, posture, etc.). Treat the number as a starting point, not gospel.
About TDEE Calculator
Formula
TDEE = BMR × Activity Multiplier This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation for BMR (most accurate for modern populations). Activity multipliers range from 1.2 (sedentary) to 1.9 (extremely active). The multiplier accounts for both exercise and daily movement.
Current Standards: Mifflin-St Jeor equation (1990) is within 10% accuracy for 82% of people. Activity multipliers are based on the Harris-Benedict activity factors, refined over decades of research. For precise measurement, indirect calorimetry or doubly labeled water studies are required, but these are impractical for everyday use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why am I not losing weight at my calculated deficit?
Almost always because the real deficit is smaller than you think, not because the math is broken. The most common cause is under-reported intake—studies show people frequently underestimate calories, so weigh and log everything for a week before concluding anything. Your true TDEE may also be lower than the estimate, especially after a long period of dieting. Water retention from new exercise, high sodium, stress, or the menstrual cycle can mask fat loss on the scale for days or weeks. You may even be losing fat while gaining muscle and water, keeping scale weight flat. Track waist measurements and progress photos alongside the scale, and consult a professional if progress stays stuck.
How do I know my activity level?
Match it to your weekly movement, and lean conservative—most people overestimate. Sedentary (multiplier ~1.2) is a desk job with little exercise and minimal walking. Lightly active (~1.375) is a desk job plus 1-3 gym sessions or around 7,000+ steps daily. Moderately active (~1.55) is an active job, or a desk job plus 4-5 intense workouts a week. Very active (~1.725) is a physical job with regular exercise, or training 6-7 days at high intensity, and extra active (~1.9) is reserved for hard physical labor or twice-daily training. If you are unsure, pick the lower option—it is easier to add calories later than to undo weeks of accidental overeating.
Should I eat back exercise calories?
Usually no, and partially at most. If you are working from TDEE, exercise is already built into your activity multiplier, so adding calories for the same workouts double-counts them and erases your deficit. Eating exercise calories back only makes sense when you calculate from BMR and add activity separately. Even then, be cautious: fitness trackers and cardio machines tend to overestimate calorie burn, sometimes substantially, so a reading of 600 calories may really be closer to 350-400. If you do eat them back, replace only about half to three-quarters of the estimate to stay on the safe side. When in doubt, judge by your weight trend over a few weeks rather than the tracker.
My TDEE seems too high/low. What should I do?
Test it against reality rather than trusting any single number. Eat at your calculated TDEE for 2-3 weeks while weighing yourself daily, then use the weekly averages to smooth out normal day-to-day fluctuations from water, food volume, and sleep. If your average weight trends up over that window, your true TDEE is lower than the estimate; if it trends down, your TDEE is higher. Adjust your intake by 100-200 calories in the appropriate direction and repeat the test. After a couple of iterations you will have a personalized maintenance figure that reflects your own genetics, body composition, and NEAT—which is more reliable than any formula, since every calculator output is an estimate.
Does metabolism slow down when dieting?
Yes, to a degree, through a process called adaptive thermogenesis. When you eat less over time, your body lowers its energy expenditure to conserve resources: BMR can drop modestly, and NEAT often falls more noticeably as you unconsciously fidget less, stand less, and move more slowly throughout the day. This combined reduction is a major reason fat loss stalls even when you stay disciplined. You can blunt the effect with a few evidence-based habits: avoid overly aggressive deficits, include resistance training and adequate protein to preserve muscle, and consider periodic diet breaks at maintenance calories for a week or two. The slowdown is real but partly reversible, and individual responses vary widely.