TDEE Calculator
Your maintenance calories, the number every other nutrition decision gets made against.
Fill in the form and your result lands here.
Learn the details
How it's figured
I estimate your resting burn with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation from your height, weight, age, and sex, then multiply it by an activity factor from 1.2 for sedentary up to 1.9 for an athlete or physical job. That multiplier is the loose part, since it is a category rather than a measurement, so the total is a starting estimate you adjust from.
Treat the number as a starting point: eat around it for 2-3 weeks, watch the scale, then adjust by 100-200 calories. Recalculate when your weight changes by 10+ lbs or your activity level shifts.
Why it's an estimate
TDEE is only ever as good as the activity guess behind it, so here is the equation written out, a worked example, and why the number is a starting point rather than a fact about you.
The equation, written out
For men, BMR is 10 times your weight in kilograms, plus 6.25 times your height in centimeters, minus 5 times your age, plus 5. For women it is the same three terms with 161 subtracted instead of 5 added. The equation is written in metric, so pounds and feet get converted before any of that happens.
What it hands back is only the cost of keeping you alive at rest, which is why BMR always looks alarmingly low next to what you actually eat in a day. Everything you do on top of lying still, walking to the car included, is what the activity number is standing in for.
A worked example
Say you are a 30 year old woman, 5'4" and 140 lb, lightly active. BMR works out to about 1,340 cal/day at rest. Multiply by the lightly-active factor of 1.375 and TDEE lands around 1,840 cal/day.
Change one input and only that piece of the answer moves. The same woman at extra active instead of lightly active keeps the same 1,340 BMR but multiplies it by 1.9, landing closer to 2,550 cal/day, nearly 700 calories apart from picking the wrong level.
Why it's an estimate
Mifflin-St Jeor is the most accurate formula we have for predicting BMR from a few basic measurements, but it is still a population average: two people with identical height, weight, age, and sex can genuinely need different numbers. The activity level is self-reported on top of that, and almost everyone remembers their busy weeks more vividly than their quiet ones.
Let your weight trend over 2 to 3 weeks be the tiebreaker. If the scale is not doing what the number predicted, it is the number that is wrong, not you.
For the maths worked through on real numbers, see how many calories to maintain your weight, maintenance calories for a 200 lb man, and how many calories to gain muscle.
Maintenance calories by bodyweight and activity level
Find your weight on the left, read across to your usual week.
| Bodyweight | Sedentaryx 1.2 | Lightly activex 1.375 | Moderately activex 1.55 | Very activex 1.725 | Extra activex 1.9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120 lb | 1,810 | 2,080 | 2,340 | 2,610 | 2,870 |
| 140 lb | 1,920 | 2,200 | 2,480 | 2,760 | 3,040 |
| 160 lb | 2,030 | 2,330 | 2,620 | 2,920 | 3,210 |
| 180 lb | 2,140 | 2,450 | 2,760 | 3,080 | 3,390 |
| 200 lb | 2,250 | 2,580 | 2,900 | 3,230 | 3,560 |
| 220 lb | 2,360 | 2,700 | 3,040 | 3,390 | 3,730 |
| 240 lb | 2,470 | 2,830 | 3,190 | 3,540 | 3,900 |
| 260 lb | 2,570 | 2,950 | 3,330 | 3,700 | 4,080 |
| Bodyweight | Sedentaryx 1.2 | Lightly activex 1.375 | Moderately activex 1.55 | Very activex 1.725 | Extra activex 1.9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120 lb | 1,500 | 1,720 | 1,940 | 2,160 | 2,370 |
| 140 lb | 1,610 | 1,840 | 2,080 | 2,310 | 2,550 |
| 160 lb | 1,720 | 1,970 | 2,220 | 2,470 | 2,720 |
| 180 lb | 1,830 | 2,090 | 2,360 | 2,620 | 2,890 |
| 200 lb | 1,930 | 2,220 | 2,500 | 2,780 | 3,060 |
| 220 lb | 2,040 | 2,340 | 2,640 | 2,940 | 3,240 |
| 240 lb | 2,150 | 2,470 | 2,780 | 3,090 | 3,410 |
| 260 lb | 2,260 | 2,590 | 2,920 | 3,250 | 3,580 |
Mifflin-St Jeor, age 30, height as noted, rounded to 10 calories. Your own height and age move these, so use the calculator for your number.
The activity multipliers
This is the loose part of the estimate. Pick from your normal week, not your best one, and round down when you are between two.
- Sedentary, little or no exercise: about 1.2
- Lightly active, 1 to 3 days a week: about 1.375
- Moderately active, 3 to 5 days a week: about 1.55
- Very active, 6 to 7 days a week: about 1.725
- Extra active, athlete or physical job: about 1.9
A worked example
A 30 year old man, 80 kg, 178 cm, training 3 to 5 days a week.
- Weight: 10 x 80 = 800
- Height: 6.25 x 178 = 1,112.5
- Age: 5 x 30 = 150, subtracted
- BMR: 800 + 1,112.5 - 150 + 5 = 1,768
- TDEE: 1,768 x 1.55 = 2,740 a day
Questions people ask
- 01What is TDEE?
- Total Daily Energy Expenditure: everything you burn in a day, including the calories your body spends just staying alive plus whatever you move on top. It is the number your calorie target gets set against, so it is worth having before you decide to eat more or less.
- 02How accurate is a TDEE calculator?
- It is an estimate, and for most people it lands within a couple of hundred calories. The formula cannot see your exact muscle mass, your job, or how much you fidget. Treat the number as a starting point, eat around it for two to three weeks, and let your weight tell you whether it was right.
- 03Should I eat my TDEE to lose weight?
- No. Eating at your TDEE is roughly maintenance, so weight holds steady. To lose fat you want to be under it, and a deficit of about 500 calories a day is a common starting point. Going far below that costs you muscle and energy without making the fat leave much faster.
- 04Why did my TDEE change when I barely changed?
- The activity multiplier moves the number more than anything else. Shifting one level, say from lightly active to moderately active, can swing the result by several hundred calories. Pick the level that matches a normal week for you rather than your best week.
- 05What is a typical TDEE for a 30 year old woman?
- There is no single figure, because weight, height and activity all move it. A 30 year old woman around 5 foot 4 usually lands somewhere between roughly 1,500 and 1,900 calories if her week is mostly sedentary, and between roughly 2,100 and 2,700 if she trains most days. Where you sit inside that spread is mostly about bodyweight, so calculate your own rather than borrowing an average.
- 06Does TDEE go down as you get older?
- A little, and less than the internet suggests. Mifflin-St Jeor subtracts 5 calories per year of age, so on paper ten years costs about 50 calories a day at the same height and weight. What usually moves the number more is that people move less and carry less muscle as the decades pass, which the age term is only loosely standing in for.
- 07Do men and women have a different TDEE at the same weight?
- Yes, and the gap is consistent. At identical height, weight and age, Mifflin-St Jeor puts a woman 166 calories a day below a man at rest, since the two versions of the equation differ only in their final constant. Run that through an activity multiplier and the daily difference lands somewhere near 200 to 300 calories. Average height differences widen it further in practice.
- 08How do I calculate my TDEE by hand?
- Start with BMR: 10 times your weight in kilograms, plus 6.25 times your height in centimeters, minus 5 times your age, then add 5 if you are male or subtract 161 if you are female. Multiply that by your activity factor, which runs from 1.2 for sedentary up to 1.9 for an athlete or a physical job. Round the result to the nearest 10 and you have your TDEE.