TDEE Calculator
Total Daily Energy Expenditure = BMR × activity multiplier. The maintenance calories your body actually needs.
Daily calories
TDEE (maintenance)
0
kcal/day
BMR
0
Light cut (−250)
0
Aggressive cut (−500)
0
Lean bulk (+250)
0
What the multiplier means
The activity multipliers are practical approximations from the IOM (Institute of Medicine):
- Sedentary 1.2 — desk job, no structured exercise
- Lightly active 1.375 — light walking, hobbyist sports 1–3×/week
- Moderately active 1.55 — gym 3–5×/week or active job
- Very active 1.725 — daily hard training
- Extra active 1.9 — manual labor + daily training
A pound of fat is ~3,500 kcal. A 500-calorie daily deficit ≈ 1 lb/week of weight loss. That's also a sensible upper limit — bigger deficits cost muscle.
The formula
W = weight in kg, H = height in cm, A = age in years, and the constant s = +5 for males, −161 for females. This is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, generally regarded as the most accurate of the common resting-metabolism formulas for a modern population.
An alternative, Katch-McArdle, estimates BMR from lean body mass instead of total weight (BMR = 370 + 21.6 × lean mass in kg). It can be more accurate for people notably leaner or more muscular than average, but it needs a body-fat percentage this calculator doesn't collect — Mifflin-St Jeor is the better default without that number.
Worked example
Male, age 30, 175 cm, 75 kg, moderately active:
- BMR = 10×75 + 6.25×175 − 5×30 + 5 = 1,699 kcal/day
- TDEE = 1,699 × 1.55 = 2,633 kcal/day
- Light cut (−250): 2,383 kcal/day
- Aggressive cut (−500): 2,133 kcal/day
- Lean bulk (+250): 2,883 kcal/day
Same person, different activity levels, same BMR: sedentary lands at 2,039 kcal/day and extra active at 3,228 kcal/day — an 1,189-calorie spread from the multiplier alone. Picking the wrong activity level is the single biggest source of error in a TDEE estimate, bigger than any rounding in the BMR formula itself.
Frequently asked questions
Is TDEE the number of calories I should eat to lose weight?
No — TDEE is your maintenance level, the calories that keep your weight stable. To lose weight, eat below it (a deficit); to gain, eat above it (a surplus). The "cut" and "bulk" figures above apply a common 250- or 500-calorie adjustment to that maintenance number.
Why do TDEE calculators disagree with each other?
Different sites use different BMR formulas (Mifflin-St Jeor, Harris-Benedict, Katch-McArdle) and different activity multiplier tables, and those choices alone can shift the result by 100–300 calories. That spread is expected — it isn't a sign either calculator is broken, just that TDEE is an estimate, not a measurement.
Should I recalculate as I lose or gain weight?
Yes. BMR falls as body weight falls, so a target set at 200 lb will overshoot once you're at 180 lb. Recalculating every 10–15 lb of change (or every few months) keeps the estimate reasonably current.
Does this account for the thermic effect of food or NEAT?
Not as a separate line item. The activity multiplier tables used here (and by most TDEE calculators) fold the thermic effect of food and non-exercise activity (NEAT) into the multiplier itself, rather than breaking them out individually.
Estimate — not medical advice
The numbers here are estimates built on population averages and published formulas. Any individual can sit well away from the average, so treat the output as a rough guide rather than a measurement of you specifically. It isn't a medical assessment, and it can't account for your history, medications, or anything a clinician would notice.