TDEE Calculator: Total Daily Energy Expenditure
Your TDEE — total daily energy expenditure — is every calorie you burn in 24 hours: your resting metabolism, your commute, your workout and even digesting food. It is the true "maintenance" number: eat at your TDEE and your weight holds steady. This free calculator estimates your TDEE from your BMR and activity level, then shows you calorie targets for losing weight, maintaining or building muscle.
TDEE Calculator
How to Use This TDEE Calculator
Enter your sex, age, weight and height, and pick the unit system you prefer. These feed the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which gives your BMR — the calories your body burns at rest.
Then choose the activity level that matches your typical week — not your best week. The multiplier runs from 1.2 (desk job, little exercise) up to 1.9 (hard training twice a day). When in doubt, choose the lower option: it is easier to eat a little more than to undo a two-week overestimate.
Click Calculate and you will see your maintenance calories plus a full table of targets — from aggressive weight loss to a lean bulk. If you prefer a single goal number, the Calorie Calculator turns the same math into one daily target.
The Formula
Once you know your BMR, the math is one step: TDEE = BMR × activity factor.
BMR comes from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5 for men, and − 161 for women. The activity factors are: sedentary 1.2, light exercise 1.375, moderate exercise 1.55, very active 1.725, athlete 1.9.
Worked example: a 30-year-old man, 70 kg and 170 cm, has a BMR of 10 × 70 + 6.25 × 170 − 5 × 30 + 5 = 1,617.5, about 1,618 calories. With moderate exercise (factor 1.55), his TDEE is 1,618 × 1.55 = 2,507.9 — about 2,508 calories per day. That is his maintenance number, the intake that keeps his weight steady.
Tips for Using Your TDEE
Track your weight for two to three weeks while eating a measured amount and compare the trend to your TDEE. If you are losing faster or slower than expected, adjust by 100–150 calories — your true maintenance is rarely exactly what a formula predicts.
Recalculate every 5–10 lb (2.5–5 kg) of weight change. Each 10 lb (4.5 kg) lost lowers your maintenance by about 45 to 85 calories per day, depending on your activity level, so the same intake gradually stops working.
Activity trackers are useful, but most overestimate burn — studies find errors of 20 to 40%. Use your TDEE here as the anchor and treat the watch number with suspicion.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is TDEE?
TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure — the total number of calories you burn in a day. It is the sum of your BMR (the resting burn, about 60–75% of the total), activity from daily life and exercise, and the energy used to digest food. Eating at your TDEE keeps your weight steady.
How do I pick the right activity level?
Be honest and average your typical week, not your best one. If you have a desk job and train three times a week, "light" or "moderate" is usually right. If you are on your feet and active all day, "very active" fits. When in doubt, choose the lower option and adjust based on your actual weight trend over a few weeks.
How many calories do I need to lose 1 pound per week?
A pound of body fat stores about 3,500 calories, so you need a deficit of about 500 calories per day — for example, eating 500 calories below your TDEE. That is roughly 0.45 kg per week. The "Weight loss −0.5 kg/week" row in this calculator applies a 500-calorie daily deficit.
Why am I not losing weight despite eating at a deficit?
The usual culprits are small tracking errors (a food scale fixes this), overestimating your activity level, and water retention masking fat loss for a week or two. Give a plan a full 3–4 weeks before judging it, and measure your weight trend weekly rather than day to day.
Should I eat back the calories I burn in exercise?
Generally no. Exercise calorie estimates — from machines and most trackers — are often 20–40% too high, so eating them back can quietly erase your deficit. If you are training hard and feeling drained, eat back at most half of the estimated burn and watch your weight trend.