TDEE Calculator
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
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1
Enter age, sex, weight and height
These feed the BMR equation — the calories you'd burn lying in bed all day.
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2
Optionally enter body fat %
If you know it (DEXA, InBody), Katch-McArdle uses lean mass for a more accurate BMR.
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3
Pick activity level
Sedentary, lightly active, moderately active, very active or athlete.
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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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