Estimate Total Daily Energy Expenditure from BMR and activity level. Plus maintenance and calorie-target suggestions.
A free, in-browser Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator. It computes your BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiplies by an activity factor (1.2 – 1.9) from the Institute of Medicine DRI report to estimate total daily calories burned. You'll also get three calorie targets — cut, maintain, and bulk — based on a ±500 kcal/day adjustment.
Enter your body metrics
Height, weight, age, and sex. Switch metric/imperial with the toggle at the top. These feed the Mifflin-St Jeor BMR equation.
Pick your activity level
From Sedentary (desk job, no exercise) to Very active (hard training plus a physical job). Be honest — most people overestimate their activity.
Read BMR and TDEE
BMR is calories at rest; TDEE is BMR × activity factor. The result updates live.
Use the calorie targets
Lose weight (TDEE − 500), Maintain (TDEE), Gain weight (TDEE + 500). A 500 kcal deficit or surplus translates to about 0.45 kg (1 lb) of weight change per week.
Sedentary = mostly sitting, no structured exercise. Light = walking plus 1–3 short workouts/week. Moderate = 3–5 workouts/week or an active job. Active = near-daily intense training. Very active = twice-daily training or manual labor plus training. If in doubt, pick one level lower — most people overestimate activity.
500 kcal/day × 7 days = 3,500 kcal/week, which roughly equals 0.45 kg (1 lb) of fat. It's the most common starting point because it's aggressive enough to see progress but gentle enough to preserve muscle and training performance. Larger deficits work but increase hunger, muscle loss, and adherence risk.
Recalculate whenever your weight changes by more than 3–4 kg (7–9 lb) or your activity level shifts meaningfully. Your TDEE decreases as you lose weight (less mass to move), so a static target that worked at the start will stall.
No. All calculations run in your browser. Your inputs and the resulting BMR/TDEE are never sent to a server.
TDEE combines two separate pieces of science. The BMR portion comes from Mifflin et al. (1990), a predictive equation derived from indirect calorimetry of 498 healthy adults — the most accurate common formula for resting energy expenditure. The activity multipliers come from the Institute of Medicine's 2005 Dietary Reference Intakes report, which defined Physical Activity Level (PAL) categories based on doubly-labeled-water studies — the gold standard for measuring free-living energy expenditure. The method is well-validated for population averages but has ±10–15% individual variance; NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), digestion thermogenesis, and adaptive thermogenesis from prolonged caloric deficits are not modeled. Treat the output as a starting point and calibrate against 2–4 weeks of actual weight-change data.