TDEE Calculator
Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the calories you need to maintain your weight.
The TDEE Calculator estimates your Total Daily Energy Expenditure — every calorie your body burns in a day, from resting metabolism to workouts to fidgeting. Multiply your BMR (Mifflin-St Jeor) by an activity factor and you get the magic number: what you can eat to stay exactly the same weight.
From that maintenance figure, planning is simple arithmetic: eat roughly 500 kcal less per day for sustainable fat loss (about half a kilogram a week), or a modest surplus for muscle gain. The calculator shows all three targets at once, so the numbers you need are on screen together.
Activity multipliers are inherently approximate — a 'moderate' day means different things to different people. The honest way to calibrate: eat at the estimate for two to three weeks, then adjust by the scale trend. Everything is computed locally in your browser.
TDEE (maintenance)
2,662.13 kcal/day
Moderately active (3–5 days/week)
BMR (resting)
1,717.5 kcal/day
× activity factor
≈ for weight loss
2,162.13 kcal/day
~0.5 kg / week deficit
≈ for muscle gain
2,962.13 kcal/day
modest surplus
TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Activity multipliers are estimates — track your weight for 2–3 weeks and adjust calories by the trend rather than trusting any calculator blindly.
How to use the TDEE Calculator
- Enter your sex, weight, height and age.
- Choose the activity level that best matches your average week.
- Read your TDEE — the maintenance number.
- Note the suggested loss and gain targets.
- Track your weight for 2–3 weeks and fine-tune if reality differs.
Frequently asked questions
How is TDEE calculated?
TDEE = BMR × activity factor, where BMR comes from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and the factor ranges from 1.2 (sedentary) to 1.9 (very active). The factor averages your weekly exercise, not a single hard workout day.
Is 500 kcal below maintenance the right deficit?
A 500 kcal daily deficit targets about 0.5 kg of fat per week — a sustainable rate that preserves more muscle than faster cuts. Heavier people can tolerate larger deficits initially; lighter people should use smaller ones.
Why is my fitness tracker's number different?
Trackers estimate with proprietary algorithms and often overestimate calories, especially for exercise. Treat both numbers as estimates and let the two-to-three-week scale trend be the referee.
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