TDEE Calculator
A 70 kg, 175 cm, 30-year-old moderately active man has an estimated BMR of 1,649 kcal/day and an estimated TDEE of 2,556 kcal/day. This TDEE calculator estimates how many calories you burn in a typical day from five inputs: weight, height, age, sex, and activity level. It uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation for basal metabolic rate, then applies a standard activity multiplier to estimate maintenance calories. Use it when you want a practical starting point for maintaining weight, planning a calorie deficit, or setting a surplus for muscle gain. TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure. That number includes the calories your body uses at rest plus the calories tied to daily movement, exercise, and routine activity. The estimate is most useful when you pair it with real-life feedback such as body-weight trend, hunger, workout performance, and recovery over the next few weeks.
Quick answer
BMR is your estimated calorie burn at complete rest before walks, workouts, chores, and other daily movement.
What this tells you
- •BMR is your estimated calorie burn at complete rest before walks, workouts, chores, and other daily movement.
- •TDEE takes that BMR and multiplies it by an activity factor so the estimate better reflects a full day.
- •Activity level matters a lot. Two people with the same age, height, and weight can have very different TDEE values if one trains often and the other sits most of the day.
- •The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is widely used for calorie planning because it is simple, practical, and based on body size, age, and sex.
- •Treat the result as a starting estimate. Adjust your intake after a few weeks of tracking if your real maintenance level looks higher or lower.
How to Use
- 11. Enter your weight in kilograms. If you usually think in pounds, convert first so the formula receives the right unit.
- 22. Enter your height in centimeters. Small input errors matter because height is multiplied by 6.25 in the BMR equation.
- 33. Enter your age and choose your sex. The formula uses different constants for men and women, and age lowers the estimate slightly each year.
- 44. Pick the activity level that matches a normal week, not your most active week. Daily steps, job demands, and training frequency all count.
- 55. Calculate your result, then use the TDEE number as a maintenance starting point. From there, compare it with your weight trend before making bigger calorie changes.
How It Works
Formula
BMR for men = 10W + 6.25H - 5A + 5
BMR for women = 10W + 6.25H - 5A - 161
TDEE = BMR x activity multiplierW is weight in kilograms, H is height in centimeters, and A is age in years. The calculator first computes BMR with the male or female version of the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. It then multiplies BMR by the selected activity factor: 1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for light, 1.55 for moderate, 1.725 for very active, and 1.9 for extra active. Results are rounded to whole calories for display, so the shown answer may be 1 calorie higher or lower than the raw decimal value.
Calculation note: values are processed in the order shown above, using the current input units.
Worked Examples
Moderately active male
BMR = 10 x 70 + 6.25 x 175 - 5 x 30 + 5 = 1,648.75, which rounds to 1,649. Moderate activity uses 1.55, so TDEE = 1,648.75 x 1.55 = 2,555.5625, which rounds to 2,556. This is the same math the calculator applies behind the scenes.
Sedentary female
BMR = 10 x 60 + 6.25 x 165 - 5 x 40 - 161 = 1,270.25, which rounds to 1,270. Sedentary activity uses 1.2, so TDEE = 1,270.25 x 1.2 = 1,524.3, which rounds to 1,524. This kind of estimate fits someone whose week is mostly seated with little formal exercise.
Lightly active male
BMR = 10 x 82 + 6.25 x 180 - 5 x 28 + 5 = 1,810. Light activity uses 1.375, so TDEE = 1,810 x 1.375 = 2,488.75, which rounds to 2,489. This is a realistic example for someone with a desk job who also trains or plays sports a few times a week.
Very active female
BMR = 10 x 68 + 6.25 x 172 - 5 x 33 - 161 = 1,429. Very active uses 1.725, so TDEE = 1,429 x 1.725 = 2,465.025, which rounds to 2,465. This example shows how training volume and a busy routine can lift daily calorie needs well above BMR alone.
Extra active male
BMR = 10 x 95 + 6.25 x 188 - 5 x 45 + 5 = 1,905. Extra active uses 1.9, so TDEE = 1,905 x 1.9 = 3,619.5, which rounds to 3,620. Only use this highest multiplier if your normal week really includes very high training volume or physically demanding work.
Sedentary male checking maintenance before a walking plan
Dev, 52, has a desk job and no regular exercise yet, and he wants a maintenance number before he starts daily walks. BMR = 10 x 88 + 6.25 x 176 - 5 x 52 + 5 = 1,725. Sedentary uses 1.2, so TDEE = 1,725 x 1.2 = 2,070. That lands inside the 2,000 to 2,200 sedentary range for men 51 and older in the reference table below, which is a good sign the activity choice fits. Once the walks become routine, rerunning the estimate at the light level would raise it to about 2,372.
Estimated daily calorie needs by age, sex, and activity level
Federal reference estimates for adults at a healthy weight, useful as a sanity check against your calculated TDEE. In this source, sedentary means only the physical activity of independent living, moderately active adds the equivalent of walking about 1.5 to 3 miles a day at 3 to 4 miles per hour, and active adds more than 3 miles a day at that pace.
| Sex | Age | Sedentary | Moderately active | Active |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 19 to 30 | 1,800 to 2,000 | 2,000 to 2,200 | 2,400 |
| Female | 31 to 50 | 1,800 | 2,000 | 2,200 |
| Female | 51 and older | 1,600 | 1,800 | 2,000 to 2,200 |
| Male | 19 to 30 | 2,400 to 2,600 | 2,600 to 2,800 | 3,000 |
| Male | 31 to 50 | 2,200 to 2,400 | 2,400 to 2,600 | 2,800 to 3,000 |
| Male | 51 and older | 2,000 to 2,200 | 2,200 to 2,400 | 2,400 to 2,800 |
Source: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, Appendix 2. Values are kcal per day, rounded to the nearest 200 calories, for reference-height adults at a healthy weight, grouped here from the appendix's five-year age bands. Estimates for females exclude pregnancy and breastfeeding. The appendix states that an individual's needs may be higher or lower than these averages.
How to use your TDEE estimate
This calculator multiplies BMR by one of five activity factors: 1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for light, 1.55 for moderate, 1.725 for very active, and 1.9 for extra active. Sedentary fits a desk-based day with little planned exercise. Light covers training about 1 to 3 days a week, and moderate covers exercise about 3 to 5 days a week. Very active means hard training most days or a job with substantial movement, while extra active is reserved for twice-daily training, endurance volume, or very demanding physical work. If you sit between two levels, start with the lower one and adjust after tracking results for a few weeks.
Maintenance calories usually start near your TDEE. Fat-loss plans often begin a few hundred calories below that number, while muscle-gain plans often start a few hundred calories above it. The right adjustment depends on your body size, training, recovery, and how fast you want progress to happen.
Real maintenance calories are observed, not guessed once. If your estimated TDEE is 2,500 and your body weight stays roughly flat for two to three weeks around that intake, the estimate is doing its job. If your weight rises or falls faster than expected, adjust the target instead of forcing the original number to be correct.
Activity multipliers cause many of the biggest misses. Three hard gym sessions do not always make a full week very active if the rest of the day is spent sitting. A physically demanding job can also raise TDEE even without formal workouts, so think about the whole week instead of exercise alone.
TDEE changes over time. Dieting, muscle gain, changes in step count, illness, recovery, and season changes can all shift your real calorie needs. Recheck the estimate when your weight, routine, or training load changes enough that the old inputs no longer describe your current week.
Common mistakes
- Picking the highest activity option because you train hard a few times, even though most of the week is sedentary
- Entering pounds or inches after a partial unit conversion, which creates a mismatch with the metric inputs this calculator expects
- Using today's workout plan to choose activity instead of your average week
- Assuming TDEE is exact on day one instead of comparing it with your scale trend over time
- Cutting calories too aggressively without considering recovery, performance, or long-term adherence
Limitations
TDEE here is the Mifflin-St Jeor estimate of resting energy (Mifflin et al., 1990, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition) multiplied by one of five activity factors. Frankenfield et al. (2005, Journal of the American Dietetic Association) found Mifflin-St Jeor was the most reliable of the common resting equations in healthy adults but still missed measured values by more than 10% for a meaningful share of people, with indirect calorimetry as the reference method. The activity factors are a long-standing convention commonly paired with the older Harris-Benedict equation and often called the Harris-Benedict activity factors, and they were not part of the Mifflin study, so the self-reported activity level is usually the largest source of error in the final number. For comparison, the FAO/WHO/UNU report Human Energy Requirements (2004) places sedentary or light-activity lifestyles at a physical activity level of about 1.40 to 1.69, above this tool's 1.2 floor, which is one reason a sedentary estimate can run low for some people. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 (Appendix 2) also notes that individual calorie needs may be higher or lower than reference estimates. The tool does not measure body composition, thyroid function, medication effects, adaptive metabolism, menstrual-cycle changes, illness, or day-to-day changes in nonexercise movement, so use the result as a starting point and fine-tune it with weight trend, measurements, energy levels, and training performance.
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