Free TDEE Calculator — Daily Calorie Burn

Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. See your BMR, maintenance calories, and targets for weight loss or gain.

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Enter your details on the left, then press Calculate.

What is this calculator for?

You're trying to lose 25 pounds and you read that you need a calorie deficit, but you don't know your maintenance number. Or you're trying to gain muscle and want to know what "slight calorie surplus" actually means in numeric terms. TDEE — Total Daily Energy Expenditure — is the number of calories your body burns in a day. Eat below it to lose weight; eat above it to gain. Knowing yours specifically (not the generic "2,000 calories" on food labels) is the foundation of any fitness or weight goal.

TDEE has four components: BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, 60-70% of total) is what your body burns at rest. NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, 15-30%) is fidgeting, standing, walking around — the activity that isn't formal exercise. EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, 5-15%) is your gym workouts and runs. TEF (Thermic Effect of Food, 5-10%) is calories burned digesting food. A sedentary office worker's TDEE is dominated by BMR; an active person's TDEE has bigger NEAT and EAT contributions.

This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor BMR formula (most accurate for general population) and applies activity multipliers based on your self-reported lifestyle. The output is your maintenance calories — what to eat to stay at your current weight. Deficits or surpluses are easy adjustments from that baseline.

How to use this calculator

Enter age, sex, height, and weight. The Mifflin-St Jeor formula uses these to compute BMR — the calorie floor your body burns at rest. For men: BMR = 10×weight(kg) + 6.25×height(cm) − 5×age + 5. For women: BMR = 10×weight(kg) + 6.25×height(cm) − 5×age − 161.

Select your activity multiplier: Sedentary (×1.2): desk job, almost no exercise. Lightly active (×1.375): light exercise 1-3 days/week. Moderately active (×1.55): moderate exercise 3-5 days/week. Very active (×1.725): intense exercise 6-7 days/week. Extremely active (×1.9): very intense daily training, physical job. The big mistake most people make: overestimating activity level. A desk job plus three 45-minute gym sessions per week is "lightly active" or "moderately active" — not "very active."

The calculator outputs your BMR (rest baseline) and TDEE (full daily burn including activity). Recommended deficits or surpluses are shown below — typical weight-loss targets are 250-500 calories below TDEE; muscle-gain targets are 200-300 above.

Understanding your results

The calculator returns your BMR, TDEE, and target calorie intake for various goals (maintain, lose at different rates, gain).

How to read it. A 35-year-old man, 5'10", 195 lbs, lightly active: BMR ≈ 1,830 cal. TDEE = 1,830 × 1.375 = 2,517 cal. Maintenance = 2,517. Lose 1 lb/week = eat 2,017 cal (500 deficit). Gain 0.5 lb/week (lean bulk) = eat 2,767 cal (250 surplus).

The accuracy reality. Mifflin-St Jeor predicts BMR within ±10% for most adults. Activity multipliers are rougher — your actual NEAT plus EAT varies day to day. Your calculated TDEE is likely within ±15% of actual; experience adjusts the number. The right protocol: eat your calculated TDEE for 2-3 weeks, track weight weekly, adjust. If weight is rising consistently at "maintenance," real TDEE is lower than calculated; reduce by 100-150 cal/day. If dropping, the opposite.

Metabolic adaptation. Sustained deficits (4+ months) cause your BMR to drop 5-15% beyond what weight change alone predicts. This is your body's survival response. A 6-month dieter at 1,800 cal/day might find weight loss slowing dramatically; not because they're cheating but because their actual TDEE has dropped to ~1,950 from a calculated 2,200, eroding their nominal 400-cal deficit. Solutions: occasional "diet breaks" (1-2 weeks at maintenance to reset metabolism), refeeds (1-day high-calorie meal), or stepping the deficit slightly larger as adaptation occurs.

The muscle building angle. To build muscle, you need a calorie surplus (typically 200-500 above TDEE) AND adequate protein (1.6-2.2 g/kg body weight) AND a resistance training stimulus. Surplus alone without training builds fat, not muscle. Surplus without protein builds less muscle than otherwise possible. Surplus with training and protein at 200-300 cal/day produces about 0.5-1 lb of muscle per month for trained adults, and 0.5-1.5 lb of muscle per month for beginners (the "newbie gains" effect lasts 6-18 months before slowing).

A worked example

Daniel, 28, 6'0" (183 cm), 175 lbs (79.4 kg), works at a tech company, plays recreational basketball twice a week, lifts weights 3x/week. He's been at 175 lbs for two years and wants to gain 10 lbs of muscle over the next 18 months.

BMR: 10×79.4 + 6.25×183 − 5×28 + 5 = 794 + 1,144 − 140 + 5 = 1,803 cal. Activity multiplier: moderately active (×1.55) — basketball + lifting = 5 sessions/week. TDEE = 1,803 × 1.55 = 2,795 cal.

Lean bulk plan: TDEE + 250 cal surplus = 3,045 cal/day. At 1.8g protein per kg body weight = 143g protein/day. Carbs and fats fill remaining calories per macro preference. Expected muscle gain rate: 0.5-1 lb/month. Over 18 months: 9-18 lbs gained, of which 6-12 lbs should be muscle (the rest fat — bulks always include some fat gain).

Two months in: Daniel is up 4 lbs (179 lbs). Roughly half a pound per week — slightly above target. He could either reduce calories slightly (to 2,950) to slow gain to 0.4 lbs/week, or accept the current rate. He chooses to accept; the visible muscle gain is good and his lifting numbers are climbing fast.

Six months in: 184 lbs. Still gaining roughly 1.5 lbs/month average — on track. His TDEE has crept up to about 2,890 cal (heavier body burns more); same 3,045 cal intake is now a smaller 155-cal surplus, which is why gain rate has stayed similar instead of accelerating.

At 12 months: 188 lbs. He decides he's gained enough mass; time to "cut" the fat that came with the muscle. Switch to TDEE − 300 cal = 2,650 cal/day for 8 weeks. Loses 4 lbs (mostly the fat layer over muscle, since training continues at high intensity). Final state at 14 months: 184 lbs, visibly more muscular than at start, body fat percentage actually lower than at start despite higher weight. Successful body recomposition — modest weight gain with significant body composition improvement.

Related resources

For setting daily calorie targets given your TDEE and goals, the Calorie Calculator. For protein, carb, and fat targets within your calorie budget, the Macro Calculator. For body composition context, BMI Calculator and Body Fat Calculator. The USDA's Dietary Reference Intakes calculator is the federal government's version of TDEE estimation, useful for verification.

Related calculators

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Frequently asked questions

TDEE vs. BMR — what's the difference?

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is calories burned at complete rest, just keeping you alive — breathing, circulation, brain function. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is BMR plus everything else: NEAT (fidgeting, walking around), exercise, and the thermic effect of digesting food. BMR is ~60–70% of TDEE for most adults. Eat below BMR and your body slows metabolism to defend its weight — bad strategy.

How do I count calories accurately?

The biggest source of error is portion size, not food choice. Studies show people underestimate intake by 20–40% when self-reporting without measuring. Use a food scale for everything for at least 2 weeks to calibrate. After that, you can eyeball more reliably. Apps like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer make tracking faster — barcode scan + saved meals cuts entry time to seconds.

Should I eat below BMR?

Generally no. Eating below BMR signals starvation to your body, triggering metabolic adaptations: thyroid downregulation, increased cortisol, reduced NEAT (you fidget less, take fewer steps unconsciously), muscle catabolism. A 500-cal/day deficit (below TDEE, not BMR) yields about 1 lb/week of fat loss and is sustainable for months. For aggressive cuts, supervise medically — VLCDs under 800 cal/day are clinical interventions, not DIY.

How accurate is the Mifflin-St Jeor formula?

Among the best for general adults — within ±10% of measured BMR for ~70% of people. More accurate than the older Harris-Benedict formula, which tends to overestimate BMR by 5-15%. Less accurate for: very lean athletes (formula underestimates their BMR due to high muscle mass), very obese individuals (formula overestimates), and elderly adults (BMR drops with age beyond what the formula captures). For most readers of this calculator — adults 18-65 in normal weight range — the formula is reliable.

Why does TDEE drop as I lose weight?

Two reasons. (1) Smaller body burns less. Every pound of fat or muscle requires calories to maintain — losing 30 lbs reduces BMR by about 150-250 cal/day. (2) Metabolic adaptation. The body downregulates basal metabolism slightly when sustaining a calorie deficit, beyond what weight change alone explains — typically another 100-200 cal/day reduction. Combined, a 30-pound weight loss can drop TDEE by 300-450 cal/day. This is why weight loss progressively slows on a fixed calorie target: you started with a 500-cal deficit, but as TDEE drops, your same intake produces a smaller deficit. The fix: recalculate TDEE at your current weight every 8-12 weeks and adjust intake.

What's the difference between TDEE and BMR?

BMR is what your body burns at complete rest (lying in bed all day, awake, fasted). TDEE is BMR plus calories burned by all activity throughout the day — fidgeting, walking around, climbing stairs, formal exercise. For sedentary adults, TDEE ≈ BMR × 1.2. For very active people, TDEE can be 1.9-2.2× BMR. TDEE is what you eat against for weight goals; BMR is the underlying floor.

Should I eat back the calories I burn during exercise?

Depends on how you measure. If your TDEE calculation already includes your typical exercise (activity multiplier accounts for it), don't add exercise calories on top — you'd be double-counting. If your TDEE calculation assumes sedentary baseline and you log exercise calories separately on workout days, then yes, eat back some of them. Caveat: fitness trackers and gym equipment over-estimate calorie burn by 30-100%. A device saying you burned 600 cal on a run probably burned 400-450. Eating back the inflated number leads to gradual unwanted weight gain. Better practice: include typical exercise in your activity multiplier, don't try to log per-workout burns.

Is TDEE different for men and women?

Yes, for the same height and weight, men have higher TDEE than women — roughly 10% higher BMR due to more muscle mass and slightly different metabolic patterns. The Mifflin-St Jeor formula accounts for this with sex-specific equations. A 5'7", 150-lb man (BMR ~1,560) has a different BMR than a 5'7", 150-lb woman (BMR ~1,400). The activity multipliers are the same across sexes. Caloric needs at the same body weight: men typically need 200-400 more cal/day at equivalent activity.

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