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TDEE Calculator

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Total Daily Energy Expenditure — TDEE — is the number of calories your body burns over a 24-hour day counting sleep, walking, working and any workouts. This calculator combines a BMR estimate (Mifflin-St Jeor or Katch-McArdle if you know body fat %) with an activity multiplier to give you a realistic maintenance number and suggested bulk/cut targets.

How TDEE is estimated

  1. 1

    Enter age, sex, weight and height

    These feed the BMR equation — the calories you'd burn lying in bed all day.

  2. 2

    Optionally enter body fat %

    If you know it (DEXA, InBody), Katch-McArdle uses lean mass for a more accurate BMR.

  3. 3

    Pick activity level

    Sedentary, lightly active, moderately active, very active or athlete.

  4. 4

    See TDEE and goal calories

    Maintenance, cut (~20% below), and surplus (~10-15% above).

Activity multipliers

Level Multiplier Description
Sedentary 1.2 Desk job, no exercise
Lightly active 1.375 1-3 light workouts / week
Moderately active 1.55 3-5 moderate workouts / week
Very active 1.725 6-7 hard workouts / week
Athlete 1.9 Twice-a-day training, physical labour

Multiply BMR by the multiplier to estimate TDEE.

Goal calories

  • Cut (weight loss): 15-25% below TDEE. More aggressive deficits accelerate muscle loss and usually don’t stick.
  • Maintenance: TDEE itself. Great for body recomposition alongside progressive strength training.
  • Surplus (muscle gain): 10-20% above TDEE. Lean surpluses keep fat gain minimal while supplying energy for growth.

Mifflin-St Jeor vs Katch-McArdle

  • Mifflin-St Jeor is the gold-standard population formula. Only needs age, sex, weight, height.
  • Katch-McArdle uses lean body mass: BMR = 370 + 21.6 × LBM (kg). More accurate for muscular or very lean individuals, but requires a reasonable body-fat estimate.

Real-world caveats

  • Activity multipliers are rough. Two “moderately active” people can differ by 400+ kcal/day depending on NEAT (non-exercise movement). Use the number as a starting point, not gospel.
  • Weight stalls. If your weight doesn’t move for 10-14 days on your target calories, adjust by 100-150 kcal — your actual TDEE is drifting from the estimate.
  • Adaptive thermogenesis. Metabolic rate drops modestly during extended deficits — 5-10%. Factor that in for cuts longer than 12 weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

In practice yes — TDEE is the calorie intake that keeps weight stable over weeks. Day-to-day you’ll see 1-2 kg fluctuation from water and digestion; trend over 2-3 weeks is what matters.

Not separately if you picked an activity multiplier that already includes your weekly training. Eating back exercise calories on top of an “active” multiplier double-counts.

Lean mass differs even at identical total weight. Muscle burns more at rest than fat, so a muscular 80 kg male has a higher TDEE than a lean but unmuscled one. NEAT also varies widely.

After any 3-5 kg weight change, or whenever your goal shifts (cut → maintenance → surplus). Weekly adjustments are overkill — the noise is bigger than the signal.

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