What is TDEE?
TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure, is the total number of calories you burn in a day. It is made of four parts:
| Part | What it covers | Typical share |
|---|---|---|
| BMR (basal metabolic rate) | Keeping you alive at rest: heart, lungs, brain, organs | 60–70% |
| Thermic effect of food | Digesting and processing what you eat | About 10% |
| Everyday movement (NEAT) | Walking, standing, chores, fidgeting | Varies widely |
| Exercise | Planned training and sport | 5–10% for most people |
Everyday movement is the part that varies most between people, and the reason two people with the same body can have very different TDEEs. The graphic in the calculator shows this split for your numbers.
How the TDEE calculator works
First we estimate your BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation:
If you know your body fat percentage, you can switch to the Katch-McArdle equation, which uses lean body mass instead: BMR = 370 + 21.6 × lean mass (kg).
Then we multiply BMR by an activity multiplier:
| Activity level | Description | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Desk job, little or no exercise | 1.2 |
| Lightly active | Light exercise 1–3 days a week | 1.375 |
| Moderately active | Exercise 3–5 days a week | 1.55 |
| Very active | Hard exercise 6–7 days a week | 1.725 |
| Extremely active | Physical job plus training, or training twice a day | 1.9 |
Choosing the right activity level
Most people overestimate how active they are. An hour in the gym three times a week is only three hours of a 168-hour week. If you sit most of the day and train 3–4 times a week, “moderately active” is usually the highest honest choice, and “lightly active” is often closer. When in doubt, pick the lower level and adjust later.
BMR, TDEE and maintenance calories
- BMR is your floor: the energy you would burn doing nothing at all.
- TDEE is your real daily burn.
- Maintenance calories is simply TDEE used as an eating target.
To lose fat, eat below your TDEE. To build muscle, eat slightly above it. The calorie calculator turns your TDEE into a target for your goal, and the macro calculator splits it into protein, carbs and fat.
How to find your true TDEE
A formula can only estimate. To find your real number, eat a consistent, tracked amount for 2–3 weeks and weigh yourself several times a week at the same time of day. If your average weight is stable, that intake is your TDEE. If you are gaining or losing, adjust by about 7,700 kcal for each kilogram changed (3,500 kcal per pound), spread over the days measured.
Research behind this calculator
- Mifflin MD et al. (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
- Frankenfield D et al. (2005). Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults. Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
- Westerterp KR (2004). Diet induced thermogenesis. Nutrition & Metabolism.
- Pontzer H et al. (2021). Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science.
Last updated September 21, 2026.