TDEE Calculator

What is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)?

TDEE is the total energy your body spends over 24 hours: keeping you alive at rest, moving you around, powering your work and exercise, and digesting what you eat. It is measured in kilocalories per day (kcal/day), the unit food energy is counted in and the one people mean when they say “calories”. A TDEE estimate is also what most people call maintenance calories: the intake at which your weight would hold steady if the estimate were exactly right.

This calculator multiplies a basal metabolic rate (BMR) by an activity multiplier you can see and edit, then shows a likely range, the weekly total, the same figure in kilojoules and where your multiplier sits on the international FAO/WHO/UNU activity scale.

How to use the calculator

• BMR: choose Estimate it to calculate it from your body, or Known value if you have a measured BMR or resting metabolic rate (RMR), for example from an indirect calorimetry test. Enter a known value in kcal/day or kJ/day.
• Units: US (feet, inches and pounds) or metric (centimeters and kilograms). Switching converts what you’ve already typed.
• Sex used by the equation: it only selects the equation’s constant, +5 or −161.
• Age: whole years, 18 to 100.
• Height and weight: measured without shoes and in light clothing. The line under each field shows the other unit, so a slip such as 5.9 in the feet box (read as 5 ft 10.8 in) is easy to spot.
• Activity level: each option shows its multiplier; the line under it gives the usual description and the matching FAO/WHO/UNU band. Custom multiplier accepts any value from 1.0 to 2.5 and starts from the level you had chosen.
• Activity note (optional): a few words such as “training for a half marathon”. It travels with copied results and saved scenarios, so you can tell them apart.

The result changes as soon as you edit a field. Each Try button fills in a case: a measured RMR of 1,650 kcal/day, a metric entry, or the FAO/WHO/UNU desk-day multiplier discussed below. To weigh two activity levels or two BMR sources, store the first result with Save for comparison, change the level or the source, then store that one too: the second column lists the difference from the first. Continue in the BMR Calculator carries your measurements over to compare Mifflin–St Jeor with other BMR equations, and Continue in the Adult BMI Calculator carries them over for the healthy weight range at your height.

How TDEE is calculated: BMR × activity multiplier

Multiply your BMR by an activity multiplier. When you don’t enter a known BMR, it comes from the Mifflin–St Jeor equation:

$$\text{TDEE} = \text{BMR} \times m \qquad \text{BMR} = 10W + 6.25H - 5A + s$$

• $W$ is weight in kilograms and $H$ is height in centimeters (1 lb = 0.45359237 kg and 1 in = 2.54 cm exactly).
• $A$ is age in years.
• $s$ is +5 with the male constant and −161 with the female constant.
• $m$ is the activity multiplier, from 1.0 (resting all day) to 2.5.

The likely range is TDEE × 0.9 to TDEE × 1.1, the weekly total is TDEE × 7, and kilojoules are kcal × 4.184.

Worked example: a 46-year-old man, 5 ft 9 in and 190 lb

He has a desk job and goes to the gym twice a week, so he picks Lightly active (× 1.375).

1. Convert the measurements: 5 ft 9 in = 69 in × 2.54 = 175.26 cm, and 190 lb × 0.45359237 = 86.1826 kg.
2. BMR: 10 × 86.1826 + 6.25 × 175.26 − 5 × 46 + 5 = 861.826 + 1,095.375 − 230 + 5 = 1,732.20 kcal/day.
3. TDEE: 1,732.20 × 1.375 = 2,381.78, shown as 2,382 kcal/day.
4. Likely range: 2,381.78 × 0.9 = 2,143.60 to 2,381.78 × 1.1 = 2,619.95, so 2,144 to 2,620 kcal/day.
5. Per week: 2,381.78 × 7 = 16,672 kcal. In kilojoules: 2,381.78 × 4.184 = 9,965 kJ/day.

His resting rate is 73% of the total; the other 650 kcal/day (27%) covers activity and digesting food. At each conventional level his estimate would be:

Every step is 0.175 × 1,732.20 = 303 kcal/day, about 13% of his estimate.

Which activity level should I choose?

The one that matches your typical week as a whole: your job, how you get around and your exercise together, not your hardest training week. The five conventional multipliers come with short descriptions (sedentary, light exercise 1 to 3 days a week, and so on), but those words aren’t a standard, and different calculators attach them to different amounts of exercise. Two people who both train three times a week can have very different days if one sits in an office and the other waits tables.

Use the descriptions as a first pick, then check it against the FAO/WHO/UNU examples in the next section, which spell out a whole day hour by hour. If you’re torn between two levels, look at both rows of the TDEE at each activity level table or save both as scenarios; the gap between them is the uncertainty your choice adds.

Activity multipliers and PAL values compared

The multiplier plays the role that the FAO/WHO/UNU report gives to its physical activity level (PAL): total energy for 24 hours divided by BMR. The report groups lifestyles into three bands and notes that levels above 2.40 are difficult to maintain for long:

The two lowest conventional multipliers, 1.2 and 1.375, sit below the report’s lowest band. Its sample days show what the bands mean:

• PAL 1.53: 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of sitting at work, an hour of driving, an hour of walking, some cooking and housework, and 2 hours of TV or conversation.
• PAL 1.76: an 8-hour shift standing and carrying light loads (waiting tables, stocking shelves), a bus commute, an hour of walking and an hour of low-intensity aerobic exercise.
• PAL 2.25: 6 hours of non-mechanized farm work plus fetching water and wood.

The NIH Body Weight Planner uses the same kind of scale. Its typical range runs from 1.4 for sedentary people to 2.5 for very active ones, and it starts at 1.6: mostly seated work plus moderate activity at least once a week.

The scales aren’t strictly interchangeable: the report’s PAL multiplies a BMR measured under strict standard conditions (awake and lying still after an overnight fast), while Mifflin–St Jeor predicts resting energy expenditure, a related measurement. Still, the gap matters in practice: for the example man, the report’s desk-day 1.53 gives 2,650 kcal/day, 268 more than the lightly active estimate. Try the FAO desk-day multiplier, 1.53 button to see it.

How accurate is a TDEE estimate?

For many adults the resting part lands within about ±10%, and the whole estimate is less certain than that if your activity level is a guess. The 10% comes from how resting-rate equations are judged: in a 2005 systematic review, Mifflin–St Jeor came within 10% of measured resting metabolic rate in more people than the other widely used equations, yet some individuals were off by more. The studies included few older adults and few members of U.S. ethnic minorities.

The ±10% band on this page is a starting range, not a promise: for the example man it runs from 2,144 to 2,620 kcal/day. The activity choice can move the answer further, since one conventional step is about 13% of his estimate. A measured RMR removes the equation’s error but not the activity estimate. Even an exact TDEE is an average for a typical day; any single day can be higher or lower.

TDEE vs BMR

BMR is only the resting part: the energy your body uses lying still, awake and fasted. TDEE adds everything else. Digesting food adds about 10% of BMR over a day, and physical activity is the most variable part. In adults, BMR makes up roughly 45 to 70% of total daily expenditure according to the FAO/WHO/UNU report, which corresponds to multipliers from about 1.43 to 2.22.

The BMR used and Above resting tiles show the split for your numbers: 1,732 and 650 kcal/day for the example man. BMR is not a figure for how much to eat in a day; TDEE is the closer match to maintenance.

Maintenance calories: using the estimate sensibly

Use TDEE as a first estimate of maintenance, then let your own records correct it. If your weight holds steady over several weeks at a known average intake, that intake tells you more about your maintenance than any equation.

This page gives no targets for losing or gaining weight. When intake changes for long, expenditure changes too, and the weight response is slow: in the model behind the NIH Body Weight Planner, half of the eventual change takes about a year to appear. The planner builds that adaptation into plans for a goal weight and date, which a fixed multiplier can’t do.

Recalculate after a sizable weight change or a lasting change in your routine, such as a new job or a new training plan.

Reading the result

• Estimated TDEE is BMR × multiplier, rounded to whole kcal/day. The line under it repeats the BMR and multiplier used.
• Likely range is ±10% of TDEE. Per week is 7 days of the estimate, and In kilojoules is the daily figure in kJ.
• BMR used says where the BMR came from; Above resting is TDEE minus BMR, with its share of the total.
• FAO/WHO/UNU band places your multiplier on the report’s scale.
• TDEE at each activity level repeats the calculation at all five conventional multipliers (plus yours, if it’s custom), with the change from your row and a CSV download.
• The scale drawing marks your multiplier, the conventional ones and the report’s three bands.

Assumptions and limitations

• The equation estimates the average for people like you. It can’t see muscle mass, medical conditions, medications or anything else that weight, height, age and sex miss.
• Mifflin–St Jeor was fitted to adults aged 19 to 78; outside that range the page flags the result as an extrapolation.
• BMR × PAL equals daily energy needs only for adults who are not pregnant or breastfeeding. Growth, pregnancy and breastfeeding add energy needs this formula leaves out, so this page is for adults only.
• The FAO/WHO/UNU figures are set for healthy population groups, and the report says they are not meant to be prescriptive for individuals. The same goes for this estimate: it is not medical or nutrition advice. A clinician or registered dietitian can interpret it alongside your health information.
• Results are rounded to whole kcal and kJ for display only.

Common mistakes

• Adding tracker calories on top. The multiplier already includes exercise. Adding a watch’s “active calories” to this estimate counts your workouts twice.
• Choosing by your training days. A level that fits your three hardest days overstates the other four. Pick the level for an ordinary week.
• Entering a TDEE as the known BMR. If another app gave you a “daily calories” figure, it probably includes activity already. Only a resting value belongs in Known BMR.
• Mixing up kilojoules and kilocalories. A value in kJ entered as kcal is 4.184 times too high. Pick kJ/day in the unit list before you type the number: changing the unit afterward converts the number as if it had been in the old unit.
• Reading the range edges as targets. 2,144 and 2,620 kcal/day are the ends of a plausible band for the example man, not amounts to aim for.