TDEE Calculator
Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the actual number of calories you burn every day including all activity.
How to use this calculator
Adjust the sliders for your height, weight, and age, then choose your gender and activity level. Be honest about activity — most people overestimate. Your TDEE and calorie targets update instantly. Optionally enter your body fat percentage (tap the ? button) to use the more precise Katch-McArdle formula.
Understanding your TDEE
TDEE is your true daily calorie burn — your BMR (what you burn at rest) multiplied by how active you are. It is the sum of four parts: your BMR, the energy spent digesting food (TEF), the calories from everyday non-exercise movement (NEAT), and your deliberate workouts (EAT). This is your maintenance number: eat at this level and your weight stays stable. Because activity drives so much of the total, the activity level you select moves your TDEE more than any other input — choosing it honestly is the key to an accurate result.
Frequently asked questions
TDEE activity multipliers explained
Your TDEE is calculated by multiplying your BMR by an activity factor. The multiplier you choose has the biggest impact on your result — the difference between sedentary and very active is 400–700+ calories per day. Most people who "work out a few times a week" fall into Lightly Active, not Moderately Active.
| Activity level | Description | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Desk job, no intentional exercise | × 1.2 |
| Lightly active | 1–2 workouts or walks per week | × 1.375 |
| Moderately active | 3–4 moderate workouts per week | × 1.55 |
| Very active | 5–6 intense workouts or active job | × 1.725 |
| Extremely active | Physical labor job + training, or 2× daily workouts | × 1.9 |
What makes up your TDEE?
Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the sum of four components. Most people focus on exercise, but it actually represents a smaller fraction of total burn than most expect.
| Component | Abbreviation | Typical % of TDEE | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basal Metabolic Rate | BMR | 60–70% | Energy to keep you alive at rest — breathing, circulation, cell repair |
| Thermic Effect of Food | TEF | 8–15% | Energy used to digest and absorb food — protein burns more than fat |
| Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis | NEAT | 15–30% | Fidgeting, posture, daily movement — highly variable between individuals |
| Exercise Activity Thermogenesis | EAT | 5–15% | Deliberate workouts — often overestimated by trackers |
NEAT — the most variable piece of your TDEE
Of the four components, Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) varies the most from person to person — and even day to day in the same person. It covers everything you do that is not a deliberate workout: walking, standing, fidgeting, posture, gesturing, doing chores. Two people of identical size and exercise habits can differ by hundreds of calories a day purely through NEAT, which is a major reason real-world calorie burn so often diverges from a formula.
- ·NEAT can swing by 400–800+ calories a day between a mostly-seated lifestyle and a constantly-moving one — far more than a single gym session burns
- ·The body quietly down-regulates NEAT during a prolonged calorie deficit (you move and fidget less without noticing), which is part of why a static TDEE number drifts over time
- ·Increasing daily step count is one of the most reliable ways to raise TDEE without formal exercise, because it lifts NEAT directly
- ·Desk-bound jobs suppress NEAT; standing desks, walking calls, and movement breaks add up across a day
- ·Because NEAT is hard to self-estimate, the activity multiplier is the rough proxy for it — which is exactly why honest multiplier selection matters so much
Recalculate your TDEE as your weight changes
TDEE is not a fixed number you calculate once. It moves as your body changes, so treating it as a one-time figure is a common reason progress stalls. The most important habit is to re-run the calculator periodically rather than trust a months-old estimate.
- ·BMR scales with body weight — as you lose weight, your TDEE falls, and as you gain weight it rises, so recalculate every 5–10 lbs of change
- ·Lighter bodies burn fewer calories doing the same activity, which is why weight loss naturally slows even at the same effort
- ·After any noticeable weight change, re-enter your current stats here rather than dieting against an outdated maintenance number
- ·Building muscle gradually raises BMR, so a recomposition over months can lift your TDEE even at a stable scale weight
- ·Use the recalculated TDEE as your new baseline, then verify it against real-world results over two to three weeks
TDEE vs BMR vs calorie calculator — what's the difference?
These three terms are related but distinct. BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the calories you burn at complete rest — "coma calories." TDEE is BMR adjusted for your activity level — your actual daily burn. A calorie calculator tells you how much to eat based on your TDEE and your goal. TDEE = what you burn. Target calories = what you should eat.