Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the calories you burn per day including activity — using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.
Quick summary: TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is your BMR multiplied by an activity factor. It tells you roughly how many calories you burn in a day, and is the number to build a deficit (fat loss) or surplus (muscle gain) around — most people should adjust by 250–500 calories from TDEE, not guess from scratch.
Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the total number of calories your body burns in 24 hours: resting metabolism (BMR), digestion (thermic effect of food), non-exercise movement (NEAT), and structured exercise, combined into one number. It is the practical starting point for any calorie target — a deficit below TDEE drives weight loss, a surplus above it drives weight gain, and matching it maintains weight.
TDEE is an estimate, not a lab measurement. Real energy expenditure varies day to day and the formula-based estimate can be off by 10–15% for a given individual, which is why tracking actual weight trend over 2–3 weeks and adjusting is more reliable than trusting the first number in isolation.
Enter your basic stats and activity level:
This tool uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, generally considered the most accurate widely-available BMR formula for the general population:
TDEE = BMR × activity multiplier (1.2 for sedentary up to 1.9 for very active). A ~500 kcal/day deficit produces roughly 0.5 kg/week of loss; a ~250 kcal/day deficit produces a milder ~0.25 kg/week, since one kilogram of body fat represents approximately 7,700 calories.
A 30-year-old woman, 168 cm, 64 kg, moderately active: BMR = 10×64 + 6.25×168 − 5×30 − 161 = 640 + 1,050 − 150 − 161 = 1,379. TDEE = 1,379 × 1.55 ≈ 2,137 calories/day. A standard fat-loss target would be roughly 1,637–1,887 calories/day.
| Level | Multiplier | Typical pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1.2 | Desk job, little to no structured exercise |
| Light | 1.375 | Light exercise or sports 1–3 days/week |
| Moderate | 1.55 | Moderate exercise 3–5 days/week |
| Active | 1.725 | Hard exercise 6–7 days/week |
| Very active | 1.9 | Physical job plus daily training |
For the 30-year-old woman in the worked example above (168 cm, 64 kg), only the activity level changes — everything else about BMR stays fixed at 1,379 calories:
| Activity level | TDEE | Fat-loss target (−500 kcal) |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1,655 | 1,155 |
| Moderate | 2,137 | 1,637 |
| Very active | 2,620 | 2,120 |
Once you know your TDEE, the next decision is which target to eat toward:
Benefits: gives an evidence-based starting calorie target in seconds, using a formula validated against measured energy expenditure in research populations.
Limitations: it is a population-average estimate — individual metabolic rate varies with genetics, muscle mass, hormones, and sleep. Activity level is self-reported and commonly overstated. Treat the number as a starting point to adjust from, not a fixed truth.
Wearable devices and metabolic-rate testing (indirect calorimetry) are increasingly used alongside formulas like Mifflin-St Jeor to personalize estimates, but for most people, a formula estimate combined with 2–3 weeks of real-world weight tracking remains the most practical and accessible approach.
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is widely regarded as the most accurate general-population formula for estimating BMR, which is then multiplied by an activity factor to get TDEE.
A common approach is eating 250–500 calories below your TDEE, producing roughly 0.25–0.5 kg of loss per week. Larger deficits are possible but increase the risk of muscle loss and fatigue.
TDEE is an estimate, not a measurement — individual metabolism, water retention, activity reporting accuracy, and adherence all cause real results to vary from the formula.
Yes — recalculate after roughly every 5–10 kg of weight change, since both BMR and TDEE shift as body weight changes.
Yes, TDEE and "maintenance calories" refer to the same thing — the calorie intake at which body weight stays roughly stable.