TDEE Calculator
Estimate the calories you burn in a day, and see the working.
TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the total calories you burn in a day. It is your BMR, the energy your body uses at rest, multiplied by an activity factor between 1.2 for sedentary and 1.9 for very physically active. A 30 year old woman, 68 kg and 168 cm, moderately active, has a TDEE of roughly 2,200 calories. Enter your details to see yours.
This calculator is for general education only and is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The equations behind it are population averages: an individual's real energy needs can sit roughly 20% either side of the estimate. If you are managing a health condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, are under 18, or have a history of disordered eating, please work with a doctor or a registered dietitian rather than a calculator.
Maintenance calories
What your body uses across a full day at this activity level.
The working
Your goal target
Maintain weight (no change)
Every goal, side by side
Figures marked as under the floor are still shown, because hiding a number the tool calculated would be worse than printing it with the warning attached. Rows marked as a deficit at your BMI are different: there the figure itself is what the caution is about, so it is not printed at all.
Each figure is rounded once, at the point it is displayed, so multiplying the rounded BMR by the multiplier yourself can land a calorie or two away from the maintenance figure shown. Estimates for adults, roughly 20% either side for an individual. See the notes below.
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About the TDEE Calculator
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the number of calories your body uses across a full day: the energy spent keeping you alive at rest, plus digestion, plus everything you do. It is calculated in two steps. First your Basal Metabolic Rate is estimated from your weight, height, age and sex, using one of three published equations. Mifflin-St Jeor is the default because it has held up best against measured metabolic rates in the general population, which is the conclusion the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reached in its evidence review of the competing equations. Harris-Benedict is the older equation, revised in 1984, and Katch-McArdle works from lean body mass instead, which makes it the better choice if you know your body fat percentage. Then that figure is multiplied by an activity factor. These are regressions fitted to populations, not measurements of you. For an individual the estimate can easily be off by 10 to 20%, and most of that is the activity factor rather than metabolism: the multipliers are the roughest part of the whole calculation, since most people misjudge which band they belong in. If you pick a weight-loss goal, the tool checks the resulting target against the commonly cited intake minimums of about 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,500 for men, and warns you rather than presenting a sub-minimum figure as a plan. Those are general screening numbers, not personal advice. Treat the whole result as a starting point to adjust from, not a target to obey. The most useful thing you can do with it is track your actual weight for two or three weeks and correct the estimate against what really happens.
Frequently asked questions
How is TDEE calculated?+
In two steps. Your Basal Metabolic Rate comes from an equation using weight, height, age and sex, and the full Mifflin-St Jeor equation is set out on our BMR calculator. That figure is then multiplied by an activity factor: 1.2 sedentary, 1.375 lightly active, 1.55 moderately active, 1.725 very active, 1.9 extremely active. The multiplier is the coarsest part of the calculation and the part most people get wrong, so it is worth reading the next answer before you pick one.
Which BMR formula should I use?+
Mifflin-St Jeor unless you know your body fat percentage, in which case Katch-McArdle is usually closer, but only if that figure is a real measurement. A guess or a bathroom-scale reading can make it worse than Mifflin-St Jeor rather than better. Harris-Benedict is included because it is still widely cited, but it tends to read slightly high. This tool shows all three so you can see how much they disagree, which is itself useful information about how precise any of them are.
How accurate is a TDEE estimate?+
Roughly plus or minus 20% for an individual. The equations are fitted to population averages, and the activity multiplier is a coarse band rather than a measurement. Two people with identical height, weight, age and sex can genuinely differ by several hundred calories a day. Use the number as a hypothesis and correct it against your own weight trend over two to three weeks.
Which activity level should I pick?+
Most people overestimate. Sedentary means a desk job and little deliberate exercise. Lightly active is one to three sessions a week. Moderately active is three to five. Very active is six or seven hard sessions. Extremely active means a physical job on top of daily training. If you are between two, pick the lower one and adjust upward if your weight drifts down.
Why does the calculator ask for male or female?+
Because the published equations were derived that way. Mifflin-St Jeor, Harris-Benedict and the rest were all fitted using binary sex categories, and the difference in the equations reflects average differences in lean mass. If that framing does not fit you, the Katch-McArdle option ignores sex entirely and works from lean body mass, which is the more direct input anyway.
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