TDEE Calculator

TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure: everything your body burns across 24 hours, from keeping your heart beating and your brain running to walking to the kitchen, digesting lunch, and working out. It is the single most useful number in nutrition planning, because it answers the question almost everyone eventually asks: how much do I need to eat to stay the same weight, and how much less (or more) to change it?

This calculator starts from a resting estimate. We compute your resting energy expenditure with the Mifflin–St Jeor equation (Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990;51(2):241-247), then multiply by an activity factor chosen from five levels, from sedentary to extremely active. As a second reading, an advanced mode shows an estimate from the Estimated Energy Requirement equations published by the National Academies in their 2023 update to the Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy (DOI:10.17226/26818), so you can compare two independent approaches instead of trusting one.

We want to be straightforward about the weakest link. The Mifflin equation itself was validated against measured resting energy expenditure in healthy adults. The activity multipliers — 1.2, 1.375, 1.55, 1.725, and 1.9 — are a rough mapping of lifestyle categories onto numbers, not a systematically validated standard, and no published study validates this exact five-step ladder as a whole. Two people with identical stats and the same selected activity level can genuinely burn different amounts. That is why the result on this page is always a range, not a single confident digit, and why we show a sanity-check band next to it.

Resting estimate: Mifflin–St Jeor — men 10W + 6.25H − 5A + 5, women 10W + 6.25H − 5A − 161, in kcal/day, rounded to 1 kcal at display.

TDEE = resting estimate × activity factor (1.2 / 1.375 / 1.55 / 1.725 / 1.9; custom factors 1.0–2.2 accepted). The range spans half a ladder-step below and above your selected factor, computed on unrounded values.

Conversions use 1 kcal = 4.1868 kJ. The advanced NASEM 2023 EER reading uses the PAL-classified equations from the 2023 DRI update and is shown as a separate line; it is not computed for BMI below 18.5, per the report's own scope.

How this TDEE calculator works

The calculation has two steps. Step one estimates your resting energy expenditure with the Mifflin–St Jeor equation: for men, 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5; for women, the same expression ends in −161. This equation was published in 1990 and, in a widely cited systematic review of predictive equations (Frankenfield D, et al. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005;105(5):775-789), performed at least as well as the alternatives for healthy non-obese and obese adults — which is why it is our default and why we show it next to your result, not behind it.

Step two multiplies that resting estimate by the activity factor you selected. Worked example: a 30-year-old woman at 60 kg and 165 cm gets a resting estimate of 1,320 kcal/day; at the sedentary factor of 1.2 that gives a TDEE of about 1,584 kcal/day. Every field in your result panel — the resting estimate, the factor, the point estimate, the range endpoints, the kilojoule conversion, the per-hour rate, the weekly total, and the sanity-check verdict — is computed live from your inputs, and none of your data leaves your browser.

The five activity levels are a rough mapping

We need to be precise here, because this is where most TDEE calculators oversell. The factors 1.2, 1.375, 1.55, 1.725, and 1.9 are a conventional ladder that maps lifestyle labels onto multipliers. We did not find — and you should be skeptical of any site that claims — a foundational study that validates this exact ladder as a systematically tested standard. Different calculators use slightly different ladders (you will see 1.725 in one place and 1.75 in another), which is itself evidence that this is convention, not calibration.

What does that mean in practice? Choose the level by your whole day, not just your gym sessions: a desk worker who trains three times a week is usually "light" or "moderate", not "active", because sixteen waking hours of sitting dominate three hours of exercise. And if you already track workouts elsewhere, do not add their calories on top of the multiplier — the factor is meant to cover everything, and counting training twice is the most common way people inflate their own TDEE. The advanced NASEM 2023 reading exists partly to give you a second opinion built on a different activity model.

Maintenance calories: your TDEE is the number that keeps weight stable

"Maintenance calories" is not a different quantity from TDEE — it is the same number wearing a different hat. Your TDEE is what you burn; your maintenance intake is what you eat to match it. Consume roughly your TDEE over time and your weight holds steady, because energy in balances energy out. That is why people searching for "maintenance calories" and people searching for "TDEE" are looking for the identical figure, and this calculator answers both queries with the same transparent calculation.

Maintenance is also the anchor for everything else. A fat-loss phase eats below maintenance; a muscle-gain phase eats above it. Our calorie calculator turns this TDEE into goal-specific targets with explicit calorie floors, and our BMR calculator isolates the resting component you just used. If you want to see how this multiplier approach compares with other published methods before committing to a number, the TDEE formulas compared page walks through the alternatives, and how we calculate lists every parameter and its source.

Your result range and the sanity-check band

Every estimate we show comes with a range: the midpoint of the step above and below your selected activity factor, giving you a band roughly half a ladder-step wide in each direction. That band captures the honest uncertainty of the activity question — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and we do not pretend it is.

On top of the range we apply a simple sanity-check band. If your computed TDEE falls outside roughly 1,200–4,000 kcal/day for a typical adult, or if the inputs themselves look unusual for the equations' validated population, we flag the result with a "does this look right?" prompt rather than silently displaying a strange number. A result outside the band usually means an input problem (a weight in pounds entered as kilograms is the classic), but if your inputs are genuinely correct and the number still looks odd, that is a signal to treat the estimate cautiously — large deviations from population patterns are exactly where population equations are weakest, and a measured resting metabolic rate from a professional is the only way to know your real number.

Why more exercise does not always raise TDEE one-for-one

One finding worth knowing before you chase a higher activity multiplier: in a 2016 study using doubly labelled water across a wide range of activity levels (Pontzer H, et al. Curr Biol. 2016;26(3):410-417), daily energy expenditure did not rise in perfect lockstep with activity — above moderate activity, the body appears to compensate, spending less energy on background processes like low-level movement and maintenance. This "constrained" model does not mean exercise is useless; it means the very top of the activity ladder is the least reliable part of any TDEE estimate, and that your result range matters more the more active you claim to be.

The same study is also our reason for not offering a sixth "super active" tier, and for keeping the ladder capped at 1.9. When you use this number to plan, revisit it: your real TDEE reveals itself over two to three weeks of consistent eating and a scale trend, and that feedback is worth more than any equation.

References & sources

Related calculators

• BMR calculator — isolate the resting component
• Calorie calculator — turn TDEE into goal targets
• Macro calculator — split your target into protein, carbs, fat
• TDEE formulas compared — how this method stacks up
• How we calculate — every parameter and its source