TDEE Calculator: How to Estimate Your Daily Calorie Burn

Everything your body does during a day, including digesting food, moving around, and exercising, takes calories to power it. The total number of calories your body uses up during a day is your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE (or just TEE in some circles). Knowing your TDEE gives you a place to start if you're trying to build muscle, lose fat, or maintain your current weight.

The calculator below uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which is widely considered one of the most accurate formulas for estimating daily calorie needs. Plug in your stats to get your estimated TDEE, plus suggested targets for fat loss and lean gains.

What Is TDEE?

TDEE is the total number of calories your body burns over 24 hours. It's made up of three parts, of which the biggest chunk is your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the energy your body needs just to keep you alive while at rest. Things like breathing, circulating blood, and maintaining body temperature are all part of your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which accounts for about 60 to 70 percent of your total daily burn.

Next is the thermic effect of food, which is the energy your body uses to digest and absorb what you eat. This makes up about 10 percent of your TDEE on a typical mixed diet. The rest of your daily burn comes from physical activity, including structured exercise and general daily movement (non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT) like walking, cleaning, or taking the stairs. This last piece changes pretty dramatically based on your lifestyle, and it's the one you have the most control over.

How to Calculate TDEE

Most TDEE calculators use a two step process that starts with estimating your BMR based on your weight, height, age, and sex and using an equation like Mifflin-St Jeor. Then they multiply that BMR by an activity factor (physical activity level) to get TDEE that reflects how active you are day to day.

The Mifflin-St Jeor formulas look like this:

Men: (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) - (5 x age) + 5

Women: (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) - (5 x age) - 161

Once you have your BMR, multiply it by an activity multiplier ranging from 1.2 for sedentary lifestyles up to 1.9 for elite athletes. The result is your estimated TDEE. 

Physical activity level (PAL) multipliers:

• Sedentary (little to no exercise, desk job): 1.2

• Lightly Active (light exercise or walking 1–3 days/week): 1.375

• Moderately Active (moderate exercise 3–5 days/week): 1.55

• Very Active (hard exercise 6–7 days/week): 1.725

• Extremely Active (intense training 2x/day or physical job + training): 1.9

The calculator above handles all the math for you, so there's no need to convert units or pull out a calculator.

TDEE Calculator for Weight Loss

Your TDEE is essentially your maintenance number. If you eat about that much, your weight should stay stable over time. Of course, what the calculator pumps out might not reflect your personal physiology, but it's a good place to start. 

To lose fat, you need to consistently eat below your TDEE. A calorie deficit of about 20 percent below maintenance is where most people can start, though that really depends on your current body composition and how your metabolism responds to calorie changes (some are more cooperative than others). That's enough to drive steady fat loss without tanking your energy or losing too much muscle in the process.

So, for someone with a TDEE of 2,400 calories, a 20 percent deficit would put their target around 1,920 calories per day. Combining that deficit with resistance training is really the best way to improve your body composition because it helps preserve lean mass while the scale moves down.

Keep in mind that as you lose weight, your TDEE will gradually shift lower since your body needs less energy at a smaller size. Recalculating every 10 to 15 pounds or if your progress stalls will help keep your targets on point.

TDEE for Muscle Gain and Maintenance

If you want to gain muscle, you'll want to eat more than your TDEE so your body has the extra energy it needs to build new tissue. A modest surplus of about 5 to 15 percent above maintenance, often around 200 to 300 calories per day, is usually enough to grow muscle without unnecessarily piling on fat you'll just have to cut later. Larger surpluses beyond that range tend to speed up fat gain more than muscle gain, especially if you're an experienced lifter. If you're newer to resistance training, you can get away with the higher end of that range since your body can build muscle faster early on.

A good rule of thumb is to aim for about 0.25 to 0.5 percent of your body weight gained per week and adjust from there. If the scale is climbing faster than that, your surplus is probably bigger than it needs to be.

For maintenance, eating close to your TDEE should keep your weight stable. People who successfully maintain their weight long term tend to stay active and match their calorie intake to a relatively high daily energy expenditure rather than trying to survive on very low calories, which is no fun for anyone. Building and holding onto muscle also helps keep your TDEE higher over time because lean mass is more metabolically active than fat.

Why TDEE Varies From Person to Person

There is no single calorie number that applies to everyone. The more fat free mass you have, the higher your TDEE is likely to be because people with more muscle burn more calories at a given body weight. Sex plays a role as well, but that's mostly because men tend to carry more lean mass to begin with. After adjusting for body composition, men and women actually use a similar amount of energy per kilogram of muscle.

Your age will also make a difference, as much as that can be disappointing to hear. Metabolism remains relatively stable from about 20 to 60 years old, then gradually declines, but again, muscle mass plays a role here as well. Activity level is the other major variable. For the average adult, daily calorie burn tends to cluster around 2,000 to 2,500 calories, but smaller or less active people often burn less, and highly active or muscular people can burn quite a lot more, with studies showing around 4,000 calories per day for people at this level.

Takeaway

Your TDEE is the most useful number for setting calorie targets because it accounts for your full day, not just what happens at rest. A TDEE calculator may not be exactly accurate since everyone's physiology is different, and you might be under or over estimating your physical activity levels. Use it as a starting point and then adjust based on your goals, and recalculate as your body or activity level changes. 

FAQs

What does TDEE stand for?

TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure. It's the total number of calories your body burns in a day from all sources, including your resting metabolism, the energy used to digest food, and all physical activity. It's sometimes called your maintenance calories because eating roughly this amount keeps your weight stable.

How do I calculate my TDEE?

The simplest way to calculate your TDEE is to use a calculator based on the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which estimates your BMR from your weight, height, age, and sex, then multiplies it by an activity factor. You can also do the math manually using the formulas above. Start with your BMR and multiply by a number between 1.2 (sedentary) and 1.9 (very active) based on your lifestyle.

How many calories does the average person burn a day?

For most adults, daily calorie burn falls somewhere around 2,000 to 2,500 calories. Smaller, older, or less active people tend to be on the lower end, while larger, younger, or more active people burn more. People with a lot of muscle for their frame often sit at the higher end of the range for their body weight because lean mass takes more energy to maintain.