Quick Calculators

TDEE Calculator

Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure to find out exactly how many calories you burn per day.

Your Details

ft
in

Your Maintenance Calories

0kcal / day

This is your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)

Macronutrient Goals

Bulking (+500 cal)500 kcal
Cutting (-500 cal)-500 kcal

Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is 0 kcal/day. This is how many calories you burn if you stayed in bed all day.

Last updated: July 2026

What is TDEE?

Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories your body burns in a 24-hour period. It combines your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — the calories you burn just staying alive — with the calories burned through daily movement, exercise, and digesting food. Knowing your TDEE is the most useful single number for any weight goal, since it's the baseline you eat above to gain weight or below to lose it.

The Formula: How TDEE Is Calculated

This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, generally considered the most accurate widely-used formula for estimating BMR from basic body measurements. The math happens in two steps:

Step 1 — Calculate BMR (metric units):

  • Men: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5
  • Women: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161

Step 2 — Multiply BMR by your activity factor to get TDEE:

  • Sedentary (little or no exercise): × 1.2
  • Light exercise (1-3 days/week): × 1.375
  • Moderate exercise (3-5 days/week): × 1.55
  • Heavy exercise (6-7 days/week): × 1.725
  • Athlete (2x/day training, physical job): × 1.9

Worked Example

Take a 30-year-old man who is 5'10" (177.8 cm) and weighs 180 lbs (about 81.6 kg), with a moderate exercise routine:

  • BMR = (10 × 81.6) + (6.25 × 177.8) − (5 × 30) + 5 ≈ 1,783 kcal/day
  • TDEE = 1,783 × 1.55 ≈ 2,763 kcal/day

That means this person would maintain their current weight eating around 2,763 calories a day, lose roughly 1 lb/week eating around 2,263 (a 500-calorie deficit), and gain weight eating around 3,263 (a 500-calorie surplus). These are the same defaults shown when the calculator first loads, so you can check your own math against them.

How to Use This Tool

Enter your age, gender, height, weight, and an honest assessment of your activity level. The calculator estimates your maintenance calories (TDEE) along with the BMR behind it. To lose weight, eat fewer calories than your TDEE (a deficit); to gain weight or build muscle, eat slightly more (a surplus). If you only want your resting calorie burn, our BMR Calculator isolates that number, and our Calorie Calculator turns any TDEE into ready-made daily targets for cutting, maintaining, or bulking.

This calculator provides an estimate based on population averages and is not a substitute for personalized medical or nutritional advice. If you have a medical condition or specific health goals, talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before making significant changes to your calorie intake.

Frequently Asked Questions

TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the total number of calories you burn in a full day, including movement and digestion. BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is just the calories you'd burn lying in bed all day doing nothing. TDEE is always higher than BMR — it's your BMR multiplied by an activity factor. If you only need the resting number, use our dedicated BMR Calculator instead.
A safe, sustainable rate of weight loss is about 1 to 2 pounds per week. To get there, eat 250 to 1,000 calories below your TDEE each day — roughly a 250-calorie deficit for slower, more sustainable loss, or up to 1,000 for faster loss. Avoid going far below your BMR for extended periods.
Yes. TDEE is based on your current weight, so it drops as you lose weight and rises as you gain. As a rule of thumb, recalculate your TDEE every 10-15 pounds of change, or every few weeks if you're actively cutting or bulking.
Eating below your Basal Metabolic Rate for extended periods isn't recommended without medical supervision. It can lead to muscle loss, nutrient deficiencies, fatigue, and metabolic adaptation (your metabolism slowing down to compensate).
Mifflin-St Jeor is widely regarded as the most accurate predictive equation for estimating BMR in the general population and is the formula used by most dietitians and this calculator. It's still an estimate — actual calorie burn varies with muscle mass, genetics, sleep, and hormones — so treat your result as a starting point to adjust from, not an exact number.
Base it on your typical week, not your best week. "Sedentary" means a desk job with little to no exercise. "Moderate" fits 3-5 structured workouts a week. Most people overestimate their activity level, which leads to overestimating TDEE — when in doubt, pick the lower option and adjust after 2-3 weeks of tracking your actual weight trend.
You can, but it's not required. Many people prefer a consistent daily calorie target based on their weekly average activity (which is what this calculator estimates), while others cycle calories higher on training days and lower on rest days. Both approaches work if the weekly total is on target.
They're closely related. This tool focuses on your Total Daily Energy Expenditure and shows the BMR behind it, so you can see exactly how activity level changes your number. If you just want quick calorie targets for a goal, our Calorie Calculator covers that with the same underlying science.