TDEE & Calorie Calculator

What TDEE actually means

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the number of calories your body burns in a day once you account for everything: staying alive (BMR), digesting food, and moving around, whether that's structured workouts or just walking to the kitchen. It's the single most useful number for anyone trying to lose fat, build muscle, or simply stop guessing at portion sizes. Eat below your TDEE and you lose weight; eat above it and you gain. This calculator gets you there with a choice of three validated formulas and turns the result into concrete daily calorie targets, not just a raw number to interpret yourself.

How to use this calculator

• Enter your sex, age, height, and current weight (metric or imperial — your choice).
• Pick an activity level that honestly matches your week, not your best week.
• Choose a BMR formula: Mifflin-St Jeor is the modern default most dietitians use, Harris-Benedict is the older classic, and Katch-McArdle is the most accurate of the three if you know your body fat percentage, since it calculates off lean mass instead of total weight.
• Your BMR, TDEE, six goal-based calorie targets, and a macro split appear instantly — no submit button needed.

Which formula should you pick?

If you don't know your body fat percentage, use Mifflin-St Jeor — it's been shown to predict resting energy expenditure more accurately than Harris-Benedict for most people, particularly if you're not a bodybuilder or endurance athlete. Harris-Benedict is worth trying if Mifflin-St Jeor consistently overshoots how much you actually need to eat to maintain weight, since some people run leaner than the newer formula assumes. Katch-McArdle is the best of the three if you've had your body fat measured (calipers, a DEXA scan, or even our Body Fat Percentage Calculator), because it strips out fat mass entirely and calculates calorie needs from lean tissue alone.

Real-world use cases

Cutting for a goal weight

Pick 'Weight loss' (roughly a 500-calorie daily deficit) for a sustainable ~0.45 kg/week loss, or 'Mild weight loss' if you'd rather lose slower and keep more muscle. 'Fast weight loss' exists for short, deliberate cuts — it's not meant to be a permanent plan.

Bulking without overshooting

'Mild weight gain' targets a slow, mostly-muscle gain around +0.2 kg/week, which is what most lifters actually want instead of the faster, fattier gain from a bigger surplus.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between BMR and TDEE?

BMR is the calories you'd burn lying in bed all day doing nothing but staying alive. TDEE multiplies that by an activity factor to account for exercise and daily movement — it's always higher than BMR, and it's the number you should actually eat around.

How accurate is a TDEE calculator?

These formulas are typically within about 10% of your true energy expenditure, which is close enough to plan around, but individual metabolism varies. Treat the result as a starting point: track your weight for 2-3 weeks at the suggested calories and adjust up or down based on what actually happens.

Why does my calorie target change with activity level?

Because activity is the biggest variable in daily energy burn after BMR itself. Someone training six days a week can genuinely need 500-800 more calories per day than someone with a desk job and no exercise, even at the same height and weight.

What macro split does this use?

We default to a general-purpose 40% carbs / 30% protein / 30% fat split at your maintenance calories, a reasonable starting point for most goals — strength athletes may want more protein, endurance athletes more carbs.

Do I need to know my body fat percentage?

Only if you want to use the Katch-McArdle formula. Mifflin-St Jeor and Harris-Benedict only need your height, weight, age and sex.