Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the number of calories you burn each day including all activity. Know your TDEE to eat for your goal, losing weight, maintaining, or building muscle.
This TDEE calculator is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for medical advice. Individual needs vary. Consult a healthcare provider before making changes. Eating fewer than 1,200 (women) or 1,500 (men) calories a day is not recommended.
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) = BMR × activity multiplier: 1.2 (sedentary), 1.375 (light), 1.55 (moderate), 1.725 (very active), 1.9 (athlete). To lose weight: eat ~500 kcal below TDEE. To maintain: eat at TDEE. To gain: eat ~250-500 kcal above. GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide reduce intake ~25-30% below TDEE without conscious calorie counting.
Source: Harris-Benedict / Mifflin-St Jeor, Am J Clin NutrTotal Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories your body burns in a 24-hour period. It includes everything: the calories that keep your heart beating, the calories burned digesting your breakfast, the calories you use climbing stairs, and the calories you burn in a workout.
If you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or maintain your current body, TDEE is the number you're actually eating around. Your BMI tells you where you stand. Your BMR tells you your baseline. TDEE is the number you calibrate your plate to every day.
TDEE is highly individual. Two 30-year-old men, both 180 pounds, can have TDEEs that differ by 500+ calories based on muscle mass, job, training volume, and daily movement habits.
Your daily calorie burn isn't a single number, it's the sum of four distinct things your body is doing. Understanding each one is the difference between a real plan and guesswork.
Basal Metabolic Rate, the calories needed to stay alive at rest. The largest and most stable portion of TDEE. Calculate yours with our BMR calculator.
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, everything you burn outside of intentional exercise: walking, standing, typing, fidgeting, household tasks. NEAT varies enormously between individuals, sometimes by 1,000+ calories a day.
Thermic Effect of Food, calories burned digesting and processing what you eat. Protein has the highest TEF (20-30%), carbs in the middle (5-10%), fat the lowest (0-3%).
Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, calories burned during intentional workouts. Usually smaller than people assume. A hard 45-min workout burns 300-500 calories for most people, not 1,000.
Biggest surprise: NEAT is where the real variation lives. Someone with a desk job and short evening walks may burn 300 calories in daily NEAT. A server or construction worker can burn 1,500+. The gym doesn't make up the difference, lifestyle movement dwarfs it.
Our calculator uses the two-step formula nearly every evidence-based nutritionist uses:
Step 1: Calculate BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.
Step 2: Multiply BMR × activity multiplier = TDEE.
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation:
If you know your body fat percentage, we use the Katch-McArdle formula instead, which bases BMR on lean body mass, more accurate for muscular or very lean individuals.
The calculator then multiplies your BMR by an activity multiplier (detailed below) to produce your TDEE.
The activity multiplier is the single biggest source of error in TDEE calculations. Almost everyone overrates themselves. Here's the honest breakdown:
| Multiplier | Level | What it actually means |
|---|---|---|
| 1.2 | Sedentary | Desk job, no structured exercise, minimal walking. Fewer than 5,000 steps/day. |
| 1.375 | Light | Desk job + 1-2 light workouts per week. 5,000-7,500 steps/day. |
| 1.55 | Moderate | Moderate-to-hard exercise 3-5 days/week. Or an active job. 7,500-10,000 steps/day. |
| 1.725 | Very Active | Hard training 6-7 days/week, or physical labor job. 10,000+ steps/day. |
| 1.9 | Extremely Active | Two-a-day training, competitive athletes, or physical labor + exercise on top. |
Reality check: if you go to the gym 3 days a week but otherwise sit at a desk, you're in the "light" (1.375) or low-"moderate" bucket, not "very active." The gym burn is smaller than your all-day movement gap.
A more accurate approach for many people is to pick the multiplier one notch below what they'd intuitively pick, then eat to maintenance for 2-3 weeks and check whether their weight actually holds steady. If it drops, TDEE was higher; if it climbs, TDEE was lower. Calibrate from there.
Once you have your TDEE, every fitness goal becomes simple math:
Eat in a calorie deficit, typically 15-25% below TDEE. A 2,500-calorie TDEE produces ~1 lb of fat loss per week at a 500-calorie deficit (2,000 calories/day).
For most people, the sweet spot is a 300-500 calorie deficit below TDEE. More aggressive deficits lead to muscle loss, hormone disruption, and rebound weight gain. Our calorie deficit calculator walks through the exact numbers.
Eat at TDEE. Weight, body composition, and performance hold. This is where athletes spend most of their year, it's the "resting state" between goal phases.
Eat in a modest calorie surplus, 200-500 calories above TDEE. Combined with resistance training and adequate protein, this supports lean muscle gain. More than ~500 calories over TDEE and excess weight gain becomes mostly fat.
Eat at or very near TDEE with high protein, progressive resistance training, and patience. This works best for beginners, people returning from a break, or people with higher body fat, not advanced lifters. Expect slow but quality changes.
The #1 mistake. A calculator that says you can eat 2,800 calories is doing exactly what you told it, based on an activity level that might be too high by one step. Start conservative, measure results, adjust.
Wearable devices routinely overestimate calorie burns by 20-30% or more, especially for strength training. If you're using one, don't add those numbers back into your daily intake. Let TDEE set your daily target and keep it there regardless of what the watch says.
TDEE drops as you lose weight, smaller body, fewer maintenance calories. A 30-pound weight loss can drop TDEE by 200-300 calories. Recalculate every 10-15 pounds, or sooner if weight loss stalls.
If you calculated TDEE with "moderate" activity, you already accounted for those workouts. Eating extra calories on top to "fuel" a workout double-counts and erases your deficit.
Every TDEE calculator is an estimate, typically accurate within ±200 calories. Your real TDEE emerges from 2-4 weeks of tracked eating at a consistent number and honest scale data. Math gets you close; measurement gets you accurate.
Calculators typically produce estimates within ±10% of your true TDEE for about 80% of people. The main sources of error are the activity multiplier and individual variation in BMR. Use the number as a starting point, then adjust based on what actually happens to your weight over 2-3 weeks at that intake.
You don't have to. Many people do well with calorie cycling, eating more on training days, less on rest days, as long as the weekly average lands at the target. Consistency over the week matters more than hitting the same number daily.
Yes. A hard training day can add 300-700 calories to your TDEE. A very sedentary day can knock 200-400 off. Illness, sleep, and stress also shift TDEE. Using an average of your typical week is more useful than chasing day-to-day precision.
The formulas still apply, but conditions that alter metabolism (hypothyroidism, PCOS, Cushing's) often make calculators overestimate TDEE by 100-300 calories. If you have a diagnosed condition, calibrate based on real-world weight tracking rather than relying on a single calculator output. Lab-based hormone optimization often helps.
Eat at the calculated number for 14-21 days. Weigh yourself the same way (upon waking, bathroom, unclothed) 4-5 days a week. If your average weight held steady, your TDEE estimate was accurate. If it dropped, TDEE was higher than estimated. If it rose, TDEE was lower.
Yes, but slowly, and mostly because of lost muscle and reduced daily movement, not "slow metabolism." Research shows BMR itself is stable from age 20 to 60 when adjusted for body composition. Keep lifting, keep walking, eat enough protein, and TDEE stays resilient well into your 60s.
Generally no. Eating below BMR for extended periods can suppress thyroid hormone, disrupt sex hormones, cause muscle loss, and trigger adaptive metabolic slowdown. A sustainable fat-loss plan targets TDEE, not BMR, and keeps intake above baseline in most cases.
Significantly. Low testosterone in men, low thyroid hormone, elevated cortisol, and menopausal hormone shifts can all lower TDEE by 5-15%. If you're doing everything right and results are stalled, a hormone panel often uncovers what's actually happening. An OPTML blood panel screens the relevant markers.
TDEE is your maintenance calorie target. These tools translate it into a real plan, protein, deficit size, body composition, and the hormones that determine whether your metabolism actually behaves.
Hand-picked guides on calorie strategy, fat loss, muscle preservation, and the science of body composition phases.
GLP-1 receptor agonists cut hunger and food noise so a patient can sustain 25-30% below TDEE without counting. In trials of FDA-approved branded preparations: tirzepatide (SURMOUNT-1) avg 20.9% body-weight reduction at 72 weeks; semaglutide (STEP-1) avg 14.9% at 68 weeks. Compounded preparations are not FDA-approved.
How this tool calculates
Total daily energy expenditure is calculated by multiplying basal metabolic rate (Mifflin-St Jeor equation) by standard physical activity level (PAL) multipliers: 1.2 sedentary, 1.375 light activity, 1.55 moderate activity, 1.725 high activity, 1.9 very high activity, per FAO/WHO/UNU consensus values.
Peer-reviewed sources
Important. This tool is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The tool does not prescribe medication, recommend specific dosing, or substitute for clinical evaluation. Compounded medications referenced anywhere on this site are not FDA-approved; the FDA does not verify the safety, effectiveness, or quality of compounded drugs. Treatment decisions are made only by a licensed U.S. physician after individual patient evaluation.