TDEE Calculator — Daily Calorie Needs
Total daily energy expenditure is what your body actually gets through in a day — resting metabolism plus your commute, your job, your training and the energy it costs to digest what you eat.
Calories a day
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Fill in the fields below. The answer updates as you type.
An estimate for healthy adults, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or managing a medical condition, speak to your doctor before acting on it.
This is your maintenance number. Eat around it and your weight holds steady; that makes it the honest starting point for gaining or losing.
How the number is worked out
We calculate your BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiply by an activity factor from 1.2 for a desk-bound week up to 1.9 for physical work or twice-daily training.
TDEE = BMR x activity factor (1.2 to 1.9)
A worked example
The 28-year-old man from the BMR example has a BMR of about 1,679 kcal. Training three to five days a week gives an activity factor of 1.55, so his TDEE is roughly 2,602 kcal a day.
What it cannot tell you
- Activity factors are broad brackets. Two people who both pick "moderate" can genuinely differ by several hundred calories.
- Most people overestimate how active they are. If your weight is not moving as the number predicts, your real factor is probably lower.
- It is an estimate to start from and adjust, not a measurement.
Frequently asked
- How accurate is a TDEE calculator?
- It gets most people within about 10%. Use it as a starting point: track your weight for two to three weeks and adjust the number based on what actually happens.
- Which activity level should I pick?
- Count deliberate exercise, not general busyness. If you sit at a desk and train three times a week, that is moderate, not very active.
- Does TDEE change?
- Yes. It falls as you lose weight, because a smaller body costs less to run, and it shifts with how much you move. Recalculate every few kilograms.
- What do I do with this number?
- Eat around it to maintain, below it to lose, above it to gain. How far below is the question the calorie deficit calculator answers.