TDEE Calculator
The real number of calories you burn in a day, once your actual activity is counted.
BMR
1721
TDEE (with activity)
2668 cal/day
Worked example, step by step
Two reference people, run through exactly the same formulas as the calculator above. Swap in your own numbers and the steps are identical.
Alex
Male · 30 · 5'9" · 170 lb · moderately active
- Weight
- 170 lb × 0.4536
- 77.1 kg
- Height
- 5'9" = 69 in × 2.54
- 175.3 cm
- BMR
- 10 × 77.1 + 6.25 × 175.3 − 5 × 30 + 5
- 1,721 cal
- TDEE
- 1,721 × 1.55 (moderately active)
- 2,668 cal
Sam
Female · 30 · 5'5" · 140 lb · lightly active
- Weight
- 140 lb × 0.4536
- 63.5 kg
- Height
- 5'5" = 65 in × 2.54
- 165.1 cm
- BMR
- 10 × 63.5 + 6.25 × 165.1 − 5 × 30 − 161
- 1,356 cal
- TDEE
- 1,356 × 1.375 (lightly active)
- 1,864 cal
What the activity levels actually mean
The multiplier is where most people go wrong, usually by picking a level too high. A desk job plus three gym sessions a week is "lightly active", not "moderately active" -- the gym hour is real, but the other 23 are sitting. Here is Alex's TDEE at every level, from the same 1,721-calorie BMR:
| Level | Who it fits | Multiplier | Alex's TDEE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Little to no exercise, desk job | × 1.2 | 2,066 cal |
| Lightly active | Light exercise 1-3 days/week | × 1.375 | 2,367 cal |
| Moderately active | Moderate exercise 3-5 days/week | × 1.55 | 2,668 cal |
| Very active | Hard exercise 6-7 days/week | × 1.725 | 2,970 cal |
| Extra active | Very hard exercise and a physical job | × 1.9 | 3,271 cal |
The gap between sedentary and very active is 904 calories a day for the same person -- more than a whole meal. When in doubt, pick the lower level and let the two-week weigh-in correct you.
After two weeks: how to adjust
Every number on this page is an estimate of the average person with your stats. You are not the average person, and the only way to find your real number is to eat at the estimate and watch the scale. The rules that make that work:
- Weigh daily, judge weekly. Same scale, same time, after the bathroom, before food. Daily readings swing 2-4 lb on water alone; compare weekly averages, not days.
- Give it 14 days. The first week of any change is mostly water and glycogen. The second week is the first honest read.
- Then move 100-200 calories, not 500. Trending down when you meant to hold? Add 100-200. Trending up? Subtract 100-200. Small moves, then another two weeks.
- Recalculate when your weight changes by 10-15 lb. Your BMR moves with your bodyweight, so a target set months ago is stale.
- Keep protein fixed, flex carbs and fat. Protein is the one macro tied to keeping muscle; it is the last thing to cut and the first to hit.
Common mistakes
- Counting the workout twice. The activity multiplier already includes your training. Adding the calories your watch says you burned on top of it double-counts, often by 300-600 a day.
- Treating the number as exact. Mifflin-St Jeor is accurate to within about 10% for most healthy adults. For Alex that is a 267-calorie band either side of 2,668.
- Eating at BMR. BMR is what you burn asleep and fasting. Eating that little for long is a crash diet with a scientific-sounding name; the deficit belongs under TDEE, not under BMR.
Keep going
- TDEE is built on top of BMR; the BMR calculator isolates the resting number before any activity multiplier is applied. BMR Calculator
- Once you know your maintenance calories, the macro calculator splits that number into real grams of protein, carbs, and fat. Macro Calculator
Frequently Asked Questions
What does TDEE actually mean?
Total Daily Energy Expenditure -- the real number of calories your body burns in a full day, including digestion, movement, and exercise, not just lying in bed.
How is TDEE different from BMR?
BMR is what you'd burn at complete rest, doing nothing. TDEE takes that number and scales it up by your actual activity level, so it reflects a normal day, not a hospital bed.
Should I eat exactly my TDEE every day?
Eating at TDEE holds your weight steady. Eat under it to lose weight, over it to gain -- see the macro calculator if you want that broken into a specific target and grams.
Why is my TDEE lower than my fitness tracker says?
Wrist trackers estimate exercise calories from heart rate and motion and are routinely 20-40% high, and they add that on top of a resting figure that already includes some movement. The multiplier here folds training into one conservative number. When the two disagree, trust the scale over two weeks, not either estimate.
Does TDEE change as I lose weight?
Yes, in two ways. A lighter body has a lower BMR (about 4.5 calories per pound), and after weeks in a deficit most people move less without noticing -- fewer steps, more sitting, less fidgeting. Together that can take 200-400 calories off a target set at the start. Recalculate every 10-15 lb.
What is NEAT, and why does it matter more than the gym?
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis: walking, standing, chores, fidgeting. It varies between people by up to several hundred calories a day and is the main reason two people with the same stats and the same workouts have different TDEEs. It is also the easiest lever to pull -- a 30-minute walk is roughly 100-150 calories with no recovery cost.