A walkthrough, end to end.
- 1
Enter your height, weight, age and sex. The tool computes your BMR using Mifflin–St Jeor — the calories you burn at complete rest.
- 2
Pick an activity level. Sedentary is desk job + no exercise; Light is 1–3 workouts/week; Moderate is 3–5; Active is 6–7; Athlete is twice-daily training. Multipliers run from 1.2 to 1.9.
- 3
Read your TDEE. It's BMR × activity multiplier — the calories you burn over a typical day at your current activity level. This is what you eat to maintain weight.
- 4
Use the result. Eat at TDEE to maintain. Eat 250–500 below to lose weight steadily. Eat 250–500 above to gain. The Calorie Calculator below applies the goal math automatically.
TDEE formula
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is your Basal Metabolic Rate multiplied by an activity factor. The activity factor accounts for both intentional exercise and the calories you burn from all incidental movement (walking, fidgeting, standing).
What you can do with this.
TDEE calculator for weight loss
Calculate your TDEE, then eat 500 kcal below it for ~1 lb (0.45 kg) of weight loss per week, or 250 below for ~0.5 lb per week. Going much lower than that triggers metabolic adaptation that undermines long-term loss.
TDEE calculator for weight gain
For lean muscle gain, eat 250–500 kcal above TDEE — paired with progressive resistance training. Aggressive bulks (>500 kcal surplus) put on more fat per pound of muscle without speeding muscle gain meaningfully.
TDEE calculator for women
The formula uses the same activity multipliers for women and men — the BMR portion already accounts for sex via the −161 kcal constant. Hormonal cycles add about ±150 kcal of variation across the month, which is well within the formula's margin of error.
TDEE calculator for men
Same approach as for women but with the +5 sex constant in the BMR step. Men's daily TDEE is typically 200–400 kcal higher than women's at the same height and activity level due to greater lean mass.
Sedentary TDEE — desk worker who doesn't exercise
Sedentary multiplier is 1.2 — TDEE = BMR × 1.2. For a 30-year-old, 5'7", 70 kg woman that's about 1,710 kcal. If your job involves walking but no exercise, bump up to Light (1.375) instead.
TDEE for athletes — heavy training
Athlete multiplier is 1.9 — twice-daily training, hard manual labor or intensive cardio. Most casual gym-goers should NOT use Athlete; pick Active (1.725) or Moderate (1.55) and adjust based on actual results.
TDEE calculator 2026 — what's current
The BMR-times-activity-multiplier model is still the standard in 2026. What's shifted is recognition that NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) explains a huge chunk of person-to-person variance — the same Mifflin BMR × Moderate multiplier can be off by 500+ kcal between two people. The calculator returns the population-average estimate; track real weight changes over 2–3 weeks and adjust from there.
Frequently asked.
BMR is calories burned at complete rest (lying still). TDEE is calories burned across a typical day, including movement and digestion. TDEE is always higher — typically 1.2× to 1.9× your BMR depending on activity.
Be honest, not aspirational. Most people overestimate their activity level. If you have a desk job and exercise 3 times a week, you're 'Light' or 'Moderate'. 'Athlete' is for people who train twice a day — not gym-goers.
Activity multipliers are population averages. Your real burn can vary by ±15% based on NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis — fidgeting, posture, walking around). Track your weight for 2–3 weeks at maintenance calories and adjust the number based on what actually happens.
Yes — your TDEE drops as you lose weight (smaller body burns less). Recalculate every 5–10 lb (~2–5 kg) lost, or any time you change activity level meaningfully.
No. Every calculation runs in your browser. There is no server-side processing, no analytics on what you typed, and no cookies storing your inputs.
NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) is the energy you burn from all unconscious movement — fidgeting, posture changes, taking the stairs. It can vary by 1,000+ kcal between people of the same size. The activity multipliers try to capture this on average, but real numbers vary.