Free Tool · Nutrition
TDEE Calculator
Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the total calories your body burns in a day. We calculate your BMR with Mifflin-St Jeor, layer on your activity level, and hand you a maintenance target plus cut and bulk options.
How it works
BMR × activity factor
TDEE is the sum of every calorie your body burns in 24 hours. About 60 to 75 percent of that is BMR, the cost of staying alive at rest. The rest splits between Thermic Effect of Food (10 percent), structured exercise, and Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) like walking, standing, and fidgeting.
The activity multiplier rolls exercise and NEAT into one number. It ranges from 1.2 for a truly sedentary lifestyle to 1.9 for manual labor or multiple training sessions per day. Most lifters who train 3 to 5 days per week land in the 1.5 to 1.6 range.
Once you have a TDEE number, deficits and surpluses are simple. A 500-calorie daily deficit produces about 1 pound of weekly fat loss. A 250-calorie surplus supports about half a pound of weekly lean gain without excessive fat gain.
Activity level reference
Pick the multiplier that fits your week
Sedentary
Desk job, minimal walking, no training
Light
1 to 3 light workouts per week
Moderate
3 to 5 workouts per week at reasonable intensity
Active
6 to 7 hard sessions per week
Very Active
Physical job or 2x daily training
Frequently asked questions
Questions we hear a lot
Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the total calories your body burns in a day, including resting metabolism, digestion, exercise, and non-exercise activity like walking and fidgeting. Eating at your TDEE keeps your weight stable; eating below it creates a deficit, above it a surplus.
We calculate BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiply by an activity factor from 1.2 (sedentary) to 1.9 (very active). The activity factor covers both structured exercise and everything else you do while awake.
Be honest and err on the low side. Sedentary covers desk work with minimal walking. Light means 1 to 3 short workouts per week plus some walking. Moderate is 3 to 5 workouts per week at reasonable intensity. Active is 6 to 7 hard sessions. Very Active is for people with physically demanding jobs or multiple training sessions per day.
Start with a 500-calorie deficit from TDEE for about 1 pound of fat loss per week. More aggressive deficits work for shorter cuts but risk muscle loss and adherence problems. If weight has not moved after 2 weeks, drop another 100 to 150 calories.
Start with a 250-calorie surplus from TDEE for roughly half a pound of gain per week, which is the upper limit of what most trained lifters can turn into lean mass. Eating more typically just adds fat.
Predictive formulas estimate TDEE within about 10 to 15 percent for most people. If you track calories carefully for 2 weeks and your weight does not match the prediction, recalibrate: if you are losing faster than expected, your real TDEE is higher than the formula suggested. Adjust calories by 100 to 200 based on what your scale actually does.