Important: Not medical advice. This report is a general estimate from a published formula. It is not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment plan, and it doesn't account for your health history, medications, pregnancy or other conditions. Talk to a doctor, midwife or registered dietitian before making health decisions based on it. Use of this report is at your own risk; see aiocalc.com/disclaimer and aiocalc.com/terms.

Health

TDEE Calculator

Find your total daily energy expenditure: the calories you burn in a day, including exercise. See it at every activity level, plus daily targets to lose or gain weight.

Updated October 11, 2026 · 3 cited sources

Your stats

Your TDEE

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calories/day to maintain your weight

Enter your stats to see your estimate.

BMR · Mifflin-St Jeor

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calories/day at rest

Lose ~1 lb/week

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calories/day

Gain ~1 lb/week

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calories/day

TDEE at every activity level

Sedentary ×1.2—
Lightly active ×1.375—
Moderately active ×1.55—
Very active ×1.725—
Extra active ×1.9—

Show the math

TDEE = BMR × activity factor

Estimate only, not medical advice. Real energy needs vary with muscle mass, genetics, sleep and health conditions; track your weight for a few weeks and adjust.

What is TDEE?

Total daily energy expenditure is the number of calories your body burns in a full day: keeping you alive, digesting food, moving around and exercising. If you eat about your TDEE your weight stays roughly stable; eat less and you lose, eat more and you gain. That makes it the starting point for any calorie target.

Nobody can measure TDEE at home, so calculators estimate it in two steps: predict your resting burn (BMR) from your body size, then scale it by how active you are.

What makes up your TDEE

Basal metabolic rate (about 60–70%). Breathing, circulation, organ function and body temperature at rest. Bigger and more muscular bodies burn more.
Thermic effect of food (about 10%). The energy used to digest and absorb what you eat. Protein costs more to process than fat or carbs.
Everyday movement (NEAT). Walking, standing, fidgeting, chores. It varies by hundreds of calories between people and is why two people with the same workout plan can burn very different totals.
Exercise. Planned workouts. Usually a smaller share than people expect, often 5–10% of the day's total.

Activity multipliers

The activity factor is the biggest lever in the estimate and the easiest to overstate. Choose by your average week, counting everyday movement as well as workouts:

Activity levels and multipliers
Level	Multiplier	Typical week
Sedentary	×1.2	Desk job, little or no planned exercise
Lightly active	×1.375	Light exercise or sports 1–3 days a week
Moderately active	×1.55	Moderate exercise 3–5 days a week
Very active	×1.725	Hard exercise 6–7 days a week
Extra active	×1.9	Physical job, or training twice a day

If you're between two levels, pick the lower one. Overestimating activity is the most common reason a calorie target doesn't produce the expected result.

Mifflin-St Jeor vs. Katch-McArdle

By default this calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which predicts resting energy from weight, height, age and sex. It's the equation dietitians most often use for healthy adults, and it's the same one behind the BMR calculator.

Enter a body fat percentage and it switches to Katch-McArdle: 370 + 21.6 × lean body mass (kg). Because it ignores fat mass, it suits people who are leaner or more muscular than average, for whom Mifflin-St Jeor tends to underestimate. It's only as good as your body fat figure, though, so a tape-measure estimate from the body fat calculator is a reasonable input, while a guess isn't.

Using TDEE to lose or gain weight

A 500-calorie daily deficit adds up to about 3,500 calories a week, the traditional estimate for 1 lb of body weight. That rule works for the first weeks but overstates loss over months, because your TDEE falls as you get lighter. Recalculate after every 10 lb or so.

The loss target never drops below 1,200 calories for women or 1,500 for men, levels below which it's hard to meet nutrient needs without medical supervision. For gaining muscle, a smaller surplus of 250–500 calories with resistance training limits fat gain. To turn the target into grams of protein, carbs and fat, use the macro calculator.

How this calculator works

BMR comes from Mifflin-St Jeor (10 × kg + 6.25 × cm − 5 × age, +5 for men or −161 for women), or from Katch-McArdle when you enter body fat. TDEE is BMR multiplied by your activity factor, from 1.2 to 1.9. The weight-loss and gain targets are TDEE minus or plus 500 calories, with the loss target held at the minimum for your sex. The results match the calorie calculator, which uses the same equations.

Sources

The formulas on this page come from the published research below. Last updated October 11, 2026. This calculator gives estimates for general information. It isn't medical advice, so check anything important with a qualified professional.

Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, Scott BJ, Daugherty SA, Koh YO. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990;51(2):241–247.Used for: Default BMR equation, multiplied by an activity factor (1.2–1.9)
McArdle WD, Katch FI, Katch VL. Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy, and Human Performance. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Used for: Katch-McArdle resting energy equation, 370 + 21.6 × lean body mass (kg)
Harvard Health Publishing. Calorie counting made easy. Harvard Medical School; 2024.Used for: Daily minimums of about 1,200 kcal for women and 1,500 kcal for men

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between TDEE and BMR?

BMR (basal metabolic rate) is what your body burns at complete rest, just to keep you alive. TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is everything you burn in a day: BMR plus digesting food, everyday movement and exercise. TDEE is always higher than BMR, typically 1.2 to 1.9 times it, and it's the number to use for eating targets.

How accurate is a TDEE calculator?

Equations like Mifflin-St Jeor predict resting energy within about 10% for most adults, and the activity multiplier adds more uncertainty on top. Treat the result as a starting estimate. Eat at it for two to three weeks while tracking your weight: if your weight holds steady, that intake is your real TDEE; if it drifts, adjust by 100–200 calories and check again.

Should I eat my TDEE to lose weight?

No, eating at your TDEE maintains your weight. To lose, eat below it; a 500-calorie daily deficit is the classic starting point for about 1 lb a week in the short term. To gain, eat above it. This calculator shows both targets, and it won't suggest a loss target below 1,200 calories for women or 1,500 for men without medical supervision.

Does TDEE include exercise calories?

Yes, if you pick the activity level that matches your training. The multiplier already includes your workouts, so don't add a fitness tracker's exercise calories on top or you'll count them twice. If your activity changes a lot from week to week, pick the level for an average week.

When should I use the body fat option?

Add a body fat percentage if you know it reasonably well and you're noticeably leaner or more muscular than average. Katch-McArdle works from lean mass, so it gives muscular people a higher, more realistic estimate and people with more body fat a lower one. If your body fat number is a rough guess, leave it blank and the calculator uses Mifflin-St Jeor.