How many calories do I burn a day?

The number you burn in a day is your TDEE, and there is no single value for it because your activity changes it a lot. That is why the example shows a ladder instead of one figure.

It has two parts. The base is your resting burn, the calories your body uses just to stay alive, which the calculator estimates from your weight, height, age, and sex. For the 175 pound man above that is around 1,735 a day. On top of that you multiply by an activity factor. A desk-bound day lands near 2,080, a few training days a week pushes it toward 2,390, and a more active week reaches 2,690 or beyond.

The place people go wrong is overrating their activity. A few gym hours do not turn a mostly-sedentary week into a very active one. If you sit for work and train three times a week, you are closer to lightly active than very active. When unsure, pick the lower rung. It is easier to add calories later than to wonder why nothing is changing.

Treat the result as a close-enough starting point, then let the scale correct it. Eat at the number for a couple of weeks, watch the trend, and adjust. Your real burn is whatever the scale reveals over time.

Put your own stats in the calculator to see your daily burn.