What exactly is TDEE?

TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the total number of calories your body burns in 24 hours, adding up your basal metabolism, digestion, exercise and everyday movement. It's your maintenance calorie need.

How do you calculate TDEE?

First we calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) with the Mifflin-St Jeor formula from your sex, age, height and weight, then multiply it by an activity factor (from 1.2 for sedentary to 1.9 for very active). This calculator does it automatically.

What's the difference between BMR and TDEE?

BMR is the energy spent at complete rest, just for vital functions. TDEE adds your physical activity and everyday movement on top of BMR. TDEE is therefore always higher than BMR.

Mifflin-St Jeor or Katch-McArdle: which one?

If you don't know your body-fat percentage, Mifflin-St Jeor (default) is the most reliable. If you do, Katch-McArdle is more accurate because it's based on your lean body mass — especially useful for muscular or very lean people.

It's a solid estimate, usually within ±10%. The most uncertain factor is your activity level. The best approach is to use it as a starting point, then adjust based on how your weight actually changes over 2–3 weeks.

How many calories to lose weight from my TDEE?

To lose weight, eat below your TDEE. A 15–20% deficit is a sustainable sweet spot (about −300 to −500 kcal). The goals table above gives you the target directly, and the deficit calculator fine-tunes the rate.

Should you recalculate your TDEE over time?

Yes. Your TDEE changes with your weight and activity. Recalculate it every 4–5 kg lost or gained, or whenever your activity level changes for good, to keep your targets accurate.

Does TDEE include exercise?

Yes, exercise is built in through the activity factor. That's why you shouldn't 'add back' the calories from a workout on top: they're already counted in your activity level. Just pick the level that reflects your whole week.

CalculatorScience-based

TDEE Calculator

Calculate your total daily energy expenditure — how many calories your body actually burns each day. It's your baseline for maintaining, losing or gaining weight.

By Adrien Grusse · Founder of Micron

Published June 25, 2026 · updated June 25, 2026

Your details

Sex

Age

yrs

Height

Weight

Body fat (optional)

Enter your body-fat percentage for a Katch-McArdle calculation — more accurate if you know it.

Activity level

Your results will appear here

Fill in your details to see your energy expenditure.

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How does the calculation work?

Step 01

Enter your details

Sex, age, height, weight and activity level — plus your body-fat % if you know it.

Step 02

We compute your BMR, then your TDEE

Mifflin-St Jeor (or Katch-McArdle) for basal metabolism, multiplied by your activity factor.

Step 03

Pick your goal

Maintain, lose or gain: your TDEE is the starting point of any nutrition plan.

What is TDEE?

TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the total number of calories your body burns over a day: basal metabolism, digestion, exercise and everyday movement combined.

It's the most useful number in nutrition: eat around your TDEE and you maintain, below it you lose, above it you gain. Every body-recomposition goal starts from this figure.

Want to lose or gain weight? Your TDEE is the baseline you apply a deficit or surplus to. Understand the calorie deficit

BMR vs TDEE: what's the difference?

BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the energy your body uses at complete rest, just to stay alive: breathing, circulation, cellular function. TDEE takes that BMR and adds everything else — exercise, walking, digestion — through an activity factor. In short: TDEE is your BMR put into real-life motion.

Which formula does this calculator use?

Basal metabolism is estimated with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the most reliable for today's population according to meta-analyses. If you enter your body-fat percentage, it switches to Katch-McArdle, which uses your lean body mass for an even more accurate result.

Mifflin-St Jeor (default)

BMR = 10 × weight + 6.25 × height − 5 × age + 5

BMR = 10 × weight + 6.25 × height − 5 × age − 161

weight in kg, height in cm, age in years

Katch-McArdle (with body-fat %)

BMR = 370 + 21.6 × lean body mass (kg)

Lean body mass = weight × (1 − body-fat %). Independent of sex.

The activity multipliers

Your TDEE multiplies your basal metabolism by a factor (PAL) that reflects your real activity level. Pick the row that best describes a typical week — it's the setting that affects your result the most.

Level	Description	Multiplier
Sedentary	Little or no exercise, desk job	×1.2
Lightly active	Light exercise 1–3 days/week	×1.375
Moderate	Moderate exercise 3–5 days/week	×1.55
Active	Hard exercise 6–7 days/week	×1.725
Very active	Very hard exercise or physical job	×1.9

TDEE examples by activity level

To give you a ballpark, here is the estimated TDEE for two reference profiles by activity level. Your own result depends on your data — use the calculator above.

Level	Man · 35 yrs, 80 kg, 178 cm	Woman · 35 yrs, 65 kg, 165 cm
Sedentary	2,091	1,614
Lightly active	2,396	1,850
Moderate	2,701	2,085
Active	3,006	2,321
Very active	3,311	2,556

Values in kcal/day, calculated with Mifflin-St Jeor. Estimates to adjust to your real metabolism.

Making the most of your TDEE

It's an estimate, not absolute truth

Your calculated TDEE is a great starting point. Adjust it after 2–3 weeks based on how your weight actually moves.

Recalculate after a few kilos

Your TDEE drops as you lose weight and rises as you gain. Recalculate every 4–5 kg to stay accurate.

Daily activity matters as much as exercise

Walking, stairs and everyday movement (NEAT) add up. Be honest about your true activity level.

Frequently asked questions

Scientific sources

This calculator is based on 4 peer-reviewed references.

[1]Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, et al.. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990;51(2):241-247.. View sourcePMID 2305711
[2]Frankenfield D, Roth-Yousey L, Compher C.. Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005;105(5):775-789.. View sourcePMID 15883556
[3]Cunningham JJ.. Body composition as a determinant of energy expenditure: a synthetic review and a proposed general prediction equation. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991;54(6):963-969.. View sourcePMID 1957828
[4]FAO/WHO/UNU.. Human energy requirements. Report of a Joint Expert Consultation. FAO Food and Nutrition Technical Report Series. 2001.. View source

About the author

Adrien Grusse

Founder of Micron

Adrien is the founder of Micron, the app that helps more than 150,000 users track their micronutrients daily. Before Micron, he worked on the Growth team at Finary (Y Combinator). Adrien is not a credentialed dietitian — his role here is to translate the scientific literature into accessible content, rigorously. Every article cites peer-reviewed sources (PubMed, Cochrane, recent meta-analyses); no claim is made without a verifiable reference. For individual medical follow-up, consult a healthcare professional.

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