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Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories your body burns in a day, combining your resting metabolic rate with the energy used by physical activity. It's the number most people actually need for calorie planning — whether the goal is losing weight, maintaining it, or building muscle.
This calculator estimates your BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiplies it by an activity factor based on how active you are day to day.
How it works
Enter your weight, height, age, and sex to estimate your BMR, then choose the activity level that best matches your typical week. The tool multiplies your BMR by the corresponding activity factor to estimate your maintenance calories.
- Enter weight (kg).
- Enter height (cm).
- Enter age.
- Enter sex.
- Enter activity level.
- Click Calculate to see your results.
Examples
TDEE for a lightly active adult
A 70kg, 175cm, 30-year-old male with a light activity level (1.375x) has an estimated TDEE of about 2,267 kcal/day.
Who should use it
- Setting a calorie target for weight loss, maintenance, or muscle gain.
- Understanding how activity level changes daily calorie needs.
Industry applications
- Nutrition and dietetics
- Fitness and personal training
Advantages
- Combines resting metabolism with activity level for a more complete calorie estimate than BMR alone.
- Uses the modern, widely-recommended Mifflin-St Jeor equation as its foundation.
Limitations
- Activity level is self-reported and easy to overestimate.
- Formula-based estimates can't account for individual metabolic variation exactly.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Overestimating activity level, which leads to eating more than actually needed.
- Treating the TDEE estimate as an exact number rather than a starting point to adjust from based on real-world results.
Best practices
- Use your TDEE as a starting point, then adjust up or down every few weeks based on how your actual weight trend responds.
Tips
- If your weight isn't moving as expected after a few weeks at your TDEE-based target, adjust intake by 100-200 calories rather than guessing a whole new activity level.