Know Your Calories. Reach Your Goals. Free. No Sign Up.

TDEE Calculator: Find Your Total Daily Calories Burn

How your maintenance calories change with activity. Your selected level is highlighted.

Activity level	Calories / day

Daily calories needed to lose or gain weight at different paces.

To lose weight

Pace	Per day	Per week

To gain weight

Pace	Per day	Per week

Private by design. Every calculation runs in your browser and nothing you enter is stored on a server.

Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the total number of calories your body burns in a full 24-hour day — including rest, digestion, and movement. A TDEE calculator estimates this number using your age, sex, height, weight, and activity level, then runs it through a validated formula such as the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.

Once you know your TDEE, everything else in a nutrition plan becomes simple math: eat below it to lose weight, at it to maintain, or above it to build muscle. Below is a free, straightforward breakdown of the calculation methodology, how TDEE compares to BMR, a real example, and exactly how to use your number — whether your goal is fat loss, maintenance, or muscle gain.

What Is TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)?

TDEE is the sum of every calorie your body uses in a day. It’s made up of four components, and most people are surprised by how small a role exercise actually plays.

Blue heart outline icon on a light blue background

BMR

Calories burned at complete rest — breathing, circulation, organ function.
60–70% of TDEE

Blue plus sign icon on a light blue background

NEAT

Walking, fidgeting, chores, standing — everyday movement outside the gym.
15–30% of TDEE

Blue fork and spoon utensils icon on a light blue background

TEF

Energy used to digest, absorb, and metabolize what you eat.
~10% of TDEE

Blue expand icon with four outward arrows

EAT

Calories burned during structured workouts.
10% of TDEE

This is why two people who “work out the same amount” can have very different TDEEs — daily movement (NEAT) and body size usually matter more than the hour spent at the gym.

Learn How Many Calories You Burn Every Day

Your daily calorie burn is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). It includes the calories your body uses at rest, during everyday movement, while exercising, and while digesting food. Your TDEE is different from person to person because it depends on factors such as body size, age, sex, muscle mass, activity level, and daily movement.

A tdee calculator free tool estimates this number by first calculating your BMR and then applying an activity multiplier. In other words, when you calculate TDEE, you are estimating how much energy your body needs over a complete 24-hour period.

If you’re wondering, “what is my TDEE?”, the easiest approach is to use an online TDEE calculator. Enter your age, sex, height, weight, and activity level to get an estimate of your daily calorie needs. You can then use that number as the starting point for maintenance, weight loss, or muscle gain.

For example, if your estimated TDEE is 2,300 calories, eating around 2,300 calories per day would theoretically maintain your current weight. Eating below that level creates a calorie deficit, while eating above it creates a calorie surplus.

This is why a free TDEE calculator can be useful before setting a calorie target. Rather than choosing an arbitrary number, you have an estimate based on your individual measurements.

TDEE Calculator Methodology

Here’s exactly how this TDEE calculator — and the guidance in this article — arrives at your number, so the math isn’t a black box.

The two-step method. Every trustworthy TDEE calculator estimates your Basal Metabolic Rate first, then scales it up with an activity multiplier. Neither step is a guess; both run on published, peer-reviewed formulas rather than proprietary guesswork.

Step 1: Estimate BMR With Mifflin-St Jeor Equation

This methodology uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the formula most dietitians, clinicians, and the American Council on Exercise (ACE) point to as the most accurate for the general population. It replaced the older 1919 Harris-Benedict formula in most modern tools because head-to-head validation research found it predicts measured resting energy expenditure more closely across a wide range of body types.

Men: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age in years) + 5
Women: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age in years) − 161

A widely cited systematic review in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found Mifflin-St Jeor predicted measured BMR within 10% accuracy for the large majority of both non-obese and obese adults — a better hit rate than Harris-Benedict or Katch-McArdle in most comparisons.

Step 2: Apply an Activity Multiplier

Activity Level	Description	Multiplier
Sedentary	Desk job, little to no exercise	×1.2
Lightly active	Light exercise 1–3 days/week	×1.375
Moderately active	Moderate exercise 3–5 days/week	×1.55
Very active	Hard exercise 6–7 days/week	×1.725
Extra active	Physical job + daily intense training	×1.9

TDEE = BMR × Activity Multiplier. These tiers follow the FAO/WHO/UNU framework for human energy requirements — the same reference point most clinical and consumer calculators are built on.

Why the Methodology Matters

Two calculators can ask identical questions and still disagree, usually because one still runs the outdated Harris-Benedict formula or rounds activity tiers differently. If you know your body fat percentage, look for a calculator that offers the Katch-McArdle formula instead — it’s built on lean body mass rather than total weight, which makes it more precise for very lean or very muscular people. Whichever formula is used, treat the output as an estimate with a realistic 10–15% margin of error, not a lab measurement.

What Affects Your TDEE?

Several factors influence your total daily energy expenditure, so your TDEE is not a fixed number that stays the same forever.

Body size: Larger bodies generally require more energy to maintain basic functions and move throughout the day. Changes in body weight can therefore change your estimated TDEE.
Age: Energy needs often change with age, partly because body composition and activity levels can change over time.
Sex: Men and women can have different estimated energy requirements because average body composition and lean mass differ. This is one reason a TDEE calculator women use may produce a different estimate than one using the same measurements for a man.
Muscle mass: Muscle tissue requires energy to maintain. Someone with more lean mass may have a higher resting energy expenditure than another person of the same body weight.
Activity level: Exercise is only one part of activity. Walking, standing, household tasks, work, and other everyday movement also contribute to your calorie expenditure.
Food intake: Digesting and processing food requires energy. This is known as the thermic effect of food, or TEF.
Daily movement: Two people can complete the same workout but have different TDEE values if one person spends the rest of the day walking and moving while the other sits for most of the day.

Because these factors change, the number from a tdee calculator should be treated as an estimate rather than a permanent calorie prescription.

How Accurate Is This Calculator?

A useful estimate for your nutrition plan – not an exact number.

A tdee calculator accurate enough for everyday nutrition planning can give you a useful starting estimate, but no calculator can measure your exact calorie expenditure from a few personal inputs.

Blue target with dart hitting the bullseye representing goal achievement

Use It As a Starting Point

Your Tdee estimate is usefull for building an initial calorie type.

TDEE calculator illustration showing BMR, activity level, calories burned, weight trend, and calorie calculation

How it Works

A tdeecalculato typically estimates BMR using an equation such as Mifflin-St Jeor and then multiplies that result by an activity factor. The final number depends heavily on how accurately you describe your usual activity level.

Navy blue warning triangle icon with exclamation mark

Activity Level Matters

For example, selecting “very active“ when most of your day is spent sitting can make the estimated TDEE higher than your actual energy expenditure. Likewise, choosing “sedentary” when you walk many thousands of steps every day may underestimate your needs.

Track and Adjust

The best way to use a tdee calculator online is to treat the result as a starting point. Follow your calorie intake and body-weight trend for several weeks. If your actual results consistently differ from what the calculator predicts, you can make a small adjustment to your calorie target.

Your Real World Results Matter

Your actual real-world results are especially useful because they reflect your individual metabolism, movement, food intake, and routine rather than relying only on population averages.

TDEE vs BMR: What’s the Difference?

A BMR calculator only tells you how many calories you’d burn lying in bed all day doing nothing. A TDEE calculator takes that BMR and adds your real-world activity — your job, workouts, and daily movement — to give you the actual number of calories you burn. If you’re building a diet plan, TDEE is the number that matters; BMR is just the input used to get there.

	BMR	TDEE
What it measures	Calories burned at complete rest	Calories burned across a full day, activity included
Includes exercise or daily movement?	No	Yes
Right number for a calorie target?	No — usually too low to diet around	Yes — this is the number you eat toward
Typical size vs. the other	Baseline	20–90% higher than BMR, depending on activity level

For example, someone with a BMR of 1,500 calories who trains four times a week might land closer to a 2,300-calorie TDEE — nearly 50% higher. Setting a diet target around BMR instead of TDEE is one of the most common calorie-counting mistakes, since it manufactures a far bigger deficit than intended and often backfires as fatigue, plateaus, or bingeing.

TDEE vs BMI

Different number. Different Purpose.

Blue flame icon inside a circular outline

TDEE

Estimate how many calories your body uses in a typical day.

BMI

A weight- to- hight screening measure .

TDEE and BMI measure completely different things. TDEE estimates how many calories your body uses in a typical day, while BMI is a weight-to-height screening measure. TDEE is primarily used for estimating calorie needs and setting nutrition targets. BMI does not tell you how many calories you burn and cannot be used as a substitute for a tdee calculator.

Remember

TDEE =Calories Burned and BMI=Weight relative to height

Blue megaphone icon with sound waves on a transparent background

For Example

Two people can have the same BMI but have different TDEEs because they have different ages, sexes, body compositions, activity levels, and daily routines.

Measure	What it tells you	Main use
TDEE	Estimated calories burned per day	Setting calorie and nutrition targets
BMR	Estimated calories needed at complete rest	Starting point for TDEE calculation
BMI	Weight relative to height	General weight-status screening

If your goal is calorie planning, calculate my TDEE is the more relevant question than using BMI to determine how many calories you should eat.

A tdee calculator weight loss estimate can help you establish a starting calorie target, while BMI may provide additional context about weight relative to height. Neither measurement tells the complete story about health or body composition.

How to Use Your TDEE

Once you have your number, it becomes the anchor for every goal — you’re simply adding or subtracting calories from the same baseline.

Aggressive fat loss

Calorie Target: TDEE − 750 to 1,000

~1.5–2 lbs/week

Recommended

Moderate fat loss

Calorie Target: TDEE − 500

~1 lb/week

Maintenance

Calorie Target: = TDEE

~1.5–2 lbs/week

Lean muscle gain

Calorie Target: TDEE + 200 to 300

~0.25–0.5 lbs/week

For Weight Loss

A TDEE calculator for weight loss uses your TDEE to set a calorie deficit. A 500-calorie daily deficit is a common starting point, helping support steady weight loss while preserving muscle and energy. Avoid extreme calorie restriction.

For Maintenance

Eating at your TDEE holds your weight steady. This is the right target if you’re happy with your current weight, coming off a diet phase, or deliberately taking a break between a cut and a bulk to let hunger cues and metabolism reset before the next push.

For Muscle Gain

Add 200–300 calories on top of your TDEE to fuel lean muscle growth without piling on excess fat. Pair that surplus with progressive resistance training — extra calories without a reason to build muscle mostly just add body fat.

How to Increase Your TDEE

You cannot dramatically change your TDEE overnight, but you can increase your daily energy expenditure by becoming more active and maintaining or building lean muscle mass.

Move More Every Day

Increase NEAT by walking more, taking the stairs, standing regularly, doing household tasks, and sitting less throughout the day.

Blue dumbbell icon representing strength and exercise

Add Strength Training

Resistance training helps build muscle and boost energy use. Combine it with walking, cardio, sports, or activities you enjoy.

Blue running shoe and smartwatch displaying 8,432 steps for daily activity tracking

You Don’t Need Hours

You don’t need hours of exercise to raise TDEE. Consistent daily movement can be more practical than intense workouts.

Use Tdee For Weight Loss

A TDEE calculator helps plan weight loss by balancing a calorie deficit with regular walking, strength training, and daily activity.

Woman walking with icons representing daily movement, building muscle, higher TDEE, and better results

Keep Recalculating

Remember that your TDEE will still change as your body weight, fitness, activity, and routine change. Recalculate your estimated needs periodically rather than assuming the original number will remain accurate forever.

How to Split Your TDEE Into Macros

Your calorie total decides which way the scale moves. The split decides how bearable the process is — and how much of what you gain or lose is fat rather than muscle. Protein and carbohydrate each provide about 4 calories per gram, while fat provides about 9, so two plates hitting the same calorie target can look nothing alike.

Split	Protein / Fat / Carb	Best For
Moderate carb	30% / 35% / 35%	The default — fine for most people and most training
Lower carb	40% / 40% / 20%	Fewer, heavier meals, or watching blood sugar
Higher carb	30% / 20% / 50%	Long training sessions or high training volume

Keep protein at roughly 1.6 g per kg of body weight (about 0.7 g per pound), and push it toward the higher end while cutting — that’s the part that protects muscle when calories are low.

Cutting and Bulking: Setting Your Pace

Cutting is eating under your TDEE; bulking is eating over it. The size of the gap sets the pace of the change.

Approach	Daily Adjustment	Typical Pace
Cut	−500 kcal/day	~0.5 kg (1 lb)/week — noticeable, but most people can hold it for a while
Mild cut	−250 kcal/day	~0.25 kg (0.5 lb)/week — slower, much easier to live with, training barely affected
Mild bulk	+250 kcal/day	Lean gaining — very little of it arrives as fat
Bulk	+500 kcal/day	Faster on the scale, but a bigger share of that is fat

Give whichever approach you pick three or four weeks before judging it — one bad week means nothing. Recalculate once your weight has shifted by 5 to 10 kg (10 to 20 lbs), since a lighter (or heavier) body burns a different number of calories and the old target quietly stops matching your goal. And don’t go under 1,200 calories a day without a doctor involved.

Free Online TDEE Calculator: What Makes One Accurate

Not every online TDEE calculator is built the same way. When you use a free TDEE calculator, check that it:

Uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation (the current clinical standard) rather than the outdated 1919 Harris-Benedict formula
Lets you select an honest activity level — most people overestimate this, which is the single biggest source of error
Offers a Katch-McArdle option if you know your body fat percentage, since it’s more precise for lean or very muscular individuals
Shows your BMR, TDEE, and calorie targets separately, not just one final number

The formula behind a free tool and a paid app is usually identical — it’s arithmetic, not proprietary technology. What actually varies between calculators is the interface, the extra features (macros, BMI, saved history), and whether the activity descriptions are clear enough for you to pick accurately.

Real-World TDEE Example (Step by Step)

Meet Sara: 34 years old, 5’5″ (165 cm), 154 lbs (70 kg), works a desk job but trains 3 times a week (moderately active).

BMR = (10 × 70) + (6.25 × 165) − (5 × 34) − 161 = 700 + 1,031.25 − 170 − 161 = 1,400 kcal
TDEE = 1,400 × 1.55 (moderately active) = 2,170 kcal/day
Weight-loss target = 2,170 − 500 = 1,670 kcal/day

That 1,670-calorie target isn’t a guess — it’s grounded in Sara’s actual stats and a scientifically supported deficit. This is exactly what a TDEE calc does for anyone, instantly.

Common Mistakes When Using a TDEE Calculator

Overestimating activity level

Most people who “work out 3 times a week” are still closer to lightly active once the rest of their day is sedentary.

Eating below BMR

Dropping under your resting metabolic rate — even in a rush to lose weight fast — risks fatigue, muscle loss, etc.

Never recalculating

Your TDEE drops as you lose weight because a smaller body burns fewer calories. Recalculate every 10–15 lbs of change.

Treating the number as exact

TDEE is an estimate. Track weight for 2–3 weeks and adjust calories by 100–200 if needed.

Key Takeaways

TDEE = the total calories you burn daily, combining BMR, NEAT, TEF, and exercise.
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is the current gold-standard formula used in most accurate TDEE calculators.
BMR typically makes up 60–70% of TDEE — daily movement matters more than most people think.
Recalculate your TDEE every 10–15 lbs of weight change for continued accuracy.

TDEE usually runs 20–90% higher than BMR depending on activity level — always build your calorie target around TDEE, never BMR alone.
For weight loss, a 500-calorie deficit below TDEE is a safe, sustainable, evidence-backed starting point.
A free online TDEE calculator is just as mathematically accurate as a paid one — accuracy comes from honest inputs, not price.

Frequently Asked Questions

There’s no single “good” TDEE — it’s specific to your body and activity level. Once you know yours, subtract roughly 500 calories to set a sustainable weight-loss target.

Most TDEE calculators are accurate within about 10–20% of your true energy expenditure. They’re a strong starting estimate, not a lab measurement — track your weight for 2–3 weeks and adjust as needed.

BMR is the calories you burn at complete rest. TDEE adds your daily movement, exercise, and food digestion on top of BMR, giving you the full picture of daily calorie burn.

For most adults, yes — 1,200 calories often falls below BMR, which can affect energy, hormones, and muscle mass. Very low intakes should only be followed under medical supervision.

Recalculate every 10–15 lbs of weight change, or every 4–6 weeks, since TDEE shifts as your body weight and composition change.

Yes. The Mifflin-St Jeor formula is public and identical whether a tool is free or paid — a free TDEE calculator gives the same accuracy as long as it uses a validated equation and you enter honest activity data.