TDEE Calculator

People mix these up a lot, but they measure very different things. Your BMR is what your body burns if you literally did nothing all day. No movement whatsoever. It's essentially the baseline cost of being alive.

TDEE takes that baseline and layers on everything you actually do. For most people, TDEE ends up anywhere from 20% to over 100% higher than BMR, depending on activity level. If you tried eating at your BMR, you'd be in a significant calorie deficit without even trying. That's why TDEE is the number worth knowing when you're planning your diet.

This is where most people go wrong. It's tempting to pick "very active" because you work out, but the activity multipliers are meant to reflect your entire day, not just your time at the gym.

Ask yourself what a typical week honestly looks like. If you hit the gym three times but spend the rest of your time at a desk or on the couch, you're probably in the lightly active range. Starting with a conservative estimate and adjusting based on real results is always better than overestimating and wondering why nothing is happening.

The number you get is your maintenance calorie level. Eat roughly that many calories each day and your weight should stay about the same over time. It's an estimate, not a guarantee. Individual metabolism varies, and the formulas carry a margin of error.

Treat your TDEE as a starting point. Track your intake and watch your weight for two to three weeks. Gaining unexpectedly? Your actual TDEE might be a bit lower than the calculator says. Losing weight while eating at your TDEE? It might be slightly higher. That real-world feedback is what turns a rough estimate into something genuinely useful.

Once your BMR is calculated, it gets multiplied by a Physical Activity Level (PAL) factor. These are standardized values developed through research on human energy expenditure:

So if your BMR is 1,600 calories and you're moderately active, your TDEE works out to roughly 2,480 calories per day (1,600 × 1.55).

This is the formula most dietitians and researchers reach for first. Developed in 1990, it tends to produce more accurate results for modern populations than older equations do.

Here's how it works:

• For men: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age) + 5
• For women: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age) - 161

It's been validated across a wide range of ages and body types, which is why most modern TDEE tools use it as the default.

For most people, Mifflin-St Jeor comes closest to actual measured resting metabolic rate. Studies comparing common equations consistently show it outperforms the older Harris-Benedict formula, which was developed in the early 1900s from a much smaller sample of people.

That said, no formula nails it for everyone. If you carry a higher percentage of lean muscle mass, your actual calorie needs may be higher than any standard equation predicts, since muscle burns more calories than fat at rest. If you have a body composition scan or know your lean mass, the Katch-McArdle formula uses fat-free mass instead of total body weight and can get more precise in that case.

For most people though, Mifflin-St Jeor is the right starting point. Track your real-world results and adjust from there.

This is for people with desk jobs who don't exercise regularly and spend most of the day sitting. Driving to work, sitting at a computer, watching TV in the evening, not much walking. That's the picture.

It's more common than people like to admit. If your step count rarely breaks 5,000 on a typical day and you're not doing structured workouts, sedentary is probably your category. Multiplier: 1.2.

You exercise a few times a week but your job is still mostly sedentary, or you have a somewhat active daily routine without doing formal workouts. Maybe you walk the dog every day and get to the gym twice a week. That kind of combination often lands here.

A lot of people who think of themselves as active actually fall into this bucket once they take an honest look at the full week. Multiplier: 1.375.

You work out consistently, four or five days a week, at moderate intensity. Your non-exercise time might still be fairly sedentary, but regular training pushes your total burn up in a meaningful way. This is a realistic category for a lot of gym-goers following a consistent program. Multiplier: 1.55.

You're training hard most days of the week, or you combine regular intense workouts with a job or lifestyle that keeps you on your feet. Serious recreational athletes, people running twice-a-day training blocks, or someone who exercises daily and also has an active job. That's the range we're talking about here. Multiplier: 1.725.

This one is reserved for people with genuinely demanding physical lives. Construction workers, competitive athletes deep in a training block, or anyone combining a hard physical job with regular intense workouts. If you're burning significant calories just getting through your workday on top of structured training, this is your level. Multiplier: 1.9.

Most recreational gym-goers don't belong here, even if they train hard. Total daily movement is what matters, not just workout intensity.

To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your TDEE. That gap is your calorie deficit. A deficit of around 500 calories per day works out to roughly one pound of fat loss per week, which is a sustainable and commonly recommended pace.

A few things worth keeping in mind:

• Don't go too aggressive. Cutting more than 20-25% below your TDEE for extended stretches tends to increase muscle loss, tank your energy, and make the whole thing harder to stick with.
• A deficit of 250-500 calories below TDEE is a reasonable starting range for most people.
• As you lose weight, your TDEE will drop slightly because a lighter body burns fewer calories. Recalculate every four to six weeks.
• Keep protein high. Around 0.7-1g per pound of body weight helps preserve muscle while you're in a deficit.

Weight loss isn't perfectly linear, by the way. Expect fluctuations from water retention, hormonal shifts, and digestion. Judge progress over weeks, not individual days.

Building muscle requires eating more than your TDEE. Your body needs extra energy and raw materials to build new tissue, and without that surplus, muscle gain slows to a crawl or stalls entirely.

A modest surplus of 200-350 calories above TDEE is what most people recommend for lean bulking. Going much higher tends to speed up fat gain without meaningfully accelerating muscle growth, since the body can only build new muscle tissue so fast.

• Beginners often make solid progress with smaller surpluses because their bodies respond more strongly to training stimulus early on.
• More experienced lifters may need slightly larger surpluses to keep progressing.
• Just like with a deficit, recalculate your TDEE as your weight increases.

Also, pair your surplus with a solid resistance training program. Extra calories without training mostly just turns into fat gain.

Sometimes the goal is just to stay where you are. Eating at your TDEE means your weight should stay stable over time, and honestly, that's a completely valid and underrated goal. Maintenance eating is especially useful during diet breaks, high-stress periods in life, or when you're focused on performance rather than changing your body composition.

In practice, hitting your TDEE exactly every single day isn't realistic or even necessary. What matters is the weekly average. You'll eat a bit more some days and a bit less on others. As long as the overall weekly intake tracks close to your TDEE multiplied by seven, your weight will stay roughly consistent.

Maintenance is also a genuinely good phase to dial in your food habits, build a sustainable routine around eating, and give your body a break from the demands of a prolonged deficit or surplus.