TDEE Calculator
Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the calories you burn in a day — and the goal calories for losing, maintaining or gaining weight.
What Is a TDEE Calculator?
A TDEE calculator estimates your Total Daily Energy Expenditure: the total calories your body uses in a day. That total has parts — the energy you burn at complete rest (your BMR), the energy used digesting food, and everything you spend moving, working and exercising. Rather than measure the parts separately, a calculator estimates BMR from your sex, age, weight and height, then multiplies it by a single activity factor that bundles movement and digestion together. The result is your maintenance level: eat close to it and your weight should stay roughly where it is.
That one number is the reference point for every calorie goal. A deficit below it drives weight loss, a surplus above it drives gain — which is why this page shows the goal calories alongside your TDEE, and why getting the estimate roughly right matters more than chasing false precision. TDEE is an estimate for healthy adults, not a measurement and not medical advice; the honest way to use it is as a starting point, then adjust by 100–200 kcal based on what your weight actually does over 2–3 weeks.
How to Use the TDEE Calculator
- Select your sex and your units — Metric (cm / kg) or Imperial (ft/in / lb).
- Enter your age, weight and height.
- Choose the activity level that honestly matches a typical week — most people overestimate this, and it is the biggest source of error.
- If you know your body fat percentage, enter it to unlock the Katch-McArdle result; otherwise leave it blank.
- Click Calculate TDEE and read your maintenance calories at the top, with the formula comparison, all activity levels and the goal calories below.
The Three BMR Formulas
Mifflin-St Jeor (1990) is the primary formula here, and the one most widely used in clinical practice today: for men, BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5; for women, the same but − 161 instead of + 5. It was fitted to a modern, representative sample and generally predicts resting burn better than older equations.
Harris-Benedict (revised by Roza and Shizgal, 1984) is the classic equation it replaced: men, 88.362 + 13.397 × weight + 4.799 × height − 5.677 × age; women, 447.593 + 9.247 × weight + 3.098 × height − 4.330 × age. It tends to run a little high, and it is shown on this page as a comparison so you can see the spread between the two estimates rather than trusting one blindly.
Katch-McArdle takes a different route: BMR = 370 + 21.6 × lean body mass(kg), where lean mass is your weight minus its fat portion. Because it keys off lean mass instead of total weight, it can be the most accurate of the three for lean, muscular people — but only if the body fat figure you feed it is accurate. Our Body Fat Calculator can estimate that percentage if you don't know it.
Activity Multipliers
The multiplier converts resting burn into a full day. The standard five levels run from ×1.2 (sedentary — a desk job and no deliberate exercise) through ×1.375 (lightly active), ×1.55 (moderately active), ×1.725 (very active) to ×1.9 (extra active — very hard training or a physical job). Pick by your whole week, not your best day: someone who trains hard three times a week but sits for the other 160 hours is usually lightly to moderately active, and choosing a level too high is the most common reason a "deficit" fails to produce loss.
Goal Calories and Safe Minimums
From your TDEE, the goal table subtracts or adds 250 and 500 kcal. The old rule of thumb — 3,500 kcal is roughly a pound of body fat — makes a 500 kcal daily deficit about 1 lb per week and 250 about half that; real-world loss is slower and uneven, but the pacing is reasonable. The calculator enforces sensible floors: loss targets never go below 1,200 kcal/day for women or 1,500 kcal/day for men, the minimums usually cited for dieting without medical supervision, and any target the floor changes is flagged in the results. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or have a history of disordered eating, skip calculators and talk to a professional instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is TDEE?
TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the total number of calories your body burns in a full day, including resting, moving, exercising and digesting food. Eating at your TDEE should keep your weight roughly steady, so it is the starting number for any plan to lose or gain weight.
What is the difference between BMR and TDEE?
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is only the calories you burn at complete rest — the energy for breathing, circulation and body temperature. TDEE is BMR multiplied by an activity factor, so it also covers your job, walking, training and everyday movement. BMR is the engine idling; TDEE is the whole day's fuel use. Our BMR Calculator shows the resting figure on its own.
Which BMR formula is the most accurate?
For most adults, the Mifflin-St Jeor equation (1990) is considered the most reliable general estimate, which is why this calculator uses it as the primary result. The revised Harris-Benedict equation tends to run slightly higher and is shown here for comparison. If you know your body fat percentage accurately, Katch-McArdle can be better still, because it works from lean body mass rather than total weight.
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
A common rule of thumb is to eat about 500 kcal per day below your TDEE for loss of roughly 1 lb (0.45 kg) per week, or 250 kcal below for about half that pace. This calculator shows both, and never suggests going below 1,200 kcal a day for women or 1,500 kcal a day for men — widely used minimums for unsupervised dieting. Real results vary, so treat the first weeks as a test and adjust. Pair the target with the Macro Calculator to split it into protein, carbs and fat.
Why did the calculator raise my weight-loss calories?
If subtracting 250 or 500 kcal from your TDEE would take you under the safe minimum (1,200 kcal for women, 1,500 for men), the calculator shows the minimum instead and flags it. Eating far below those levels makes it hard to cover basic nutrition and is best done only with medical supervision.
How often should I recalculate my TDEE?
Recalculate whenever your weight changes by about 3–5 kg, or every 4–6 weeks while losing or gaining — a lighter body burns fewer calories, so a TDEE worked out at the start of a diet slowly becomes too generous. Also recalculate if your activity level changes, for example starting a physical job or a new training routine.
Is this TDEE calculator free to use?
Yes. It is completely free with no signup required. Your age, weight and height are calculated in your browser and are not sent to or stored on a server. The results are general estimates for information, not medical advice.