TDEE Calculator: Total Daily Energy Expenditure and BMR
This free online TDEE calculator estimates your total daily energy expenditure — the calories you burn in a full day — from your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and an activity multiplier. It shows your BMR and your TDEE as separate numbers, prints the arithmetic step by step, and lists TDEE for all five activity levels at the same time so you can see how much the activity choice actually moves the result.
What this tool is. An arithmetic estimate for healthy US adults planning training and nutrition. It does not diagnose, prescribe or advise. Nothing here is medical advice, and the activity multiplier is the largest source of error in the number.
TDEE calculator
Enter your units, sex, age, height and weight, then pick the activity level that matches a normal week. Body fat percentage is optional and only used to switch to the lean-mass BMR method.
Your results
Basal metabolic rate (BMR)
— kcal/day
Calories your body burns at complete rest.
Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)
— kcal/day
Maintenance estimate at your chosen activity level.
Estimate with limitations Method: Mifflin-St Jeor
Method & sources
Reference starting points to check yourself: Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST et al., A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals, Am J Clin Nutr 1990 — pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2305711; NIDDK Body Weight Planner — niddk.nih.gov/bwp.
The Katch-McArdle coefficients (370 + 21.6 × lean mass in kg) are a commonly used alternative estimate, so treat that figure as a rough comparison, not a result.
Corrections: use the contact or correction channel published on the Varnda site (no address is invented here).
Text alternative: enter your values and calculate to compare BMR with TDEE.
TDEE for all five activity levels
The same BMR multiplied by every activity factor, so you can see the full range in one place. Pick the row that matches your real week rather than the number you hope for.
| Activity level | Multiplier | TDEE (kcal/day) | What the week looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1.2 | — | Desk job, under 5,000 steps, no planned exercise |
| Lightly active | 1.375 | — | Light exercise or walking 1–3 days a week |
| Moderately active | 1.55 | — | Moderate exercise 3–5 days a week |
| Very active | 1.725 | — | Hard exercise 6–7 days a week |
| Extra active | 1.9 | — | Very hard training, physical job, or twice-daily sessions |
Text alternative: the activity multiplier can change TDEE by more than half, while a 2 kg weight change moves it by roughly one to two percent. Choosing the honest activity level matters more than shaving decimals off your inputs.
How to use the TDEE calculator
Use the form to calculate calorie expenditure for a whole day: enter six numbers, pick the activity level that matches your week, and read both stages of the arithmetic with your own values.
- Choose your units. Metric (cm, kg) or US customary (in, lb). Conversions run at full precision: 1 in = 2.54 cm exactly and 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg exactly.
- Enter sex, age, height and weight. Sex selects which constant the BMR equation uses; age and height are direct terms in the formula.
- Pick one activity level. Describe a normal week, not a best week. This is the single biggest lever on the result.
- Add body fat only if you know it. If you have a reliable measurement, the calculator also runs the lean-mass comparison. If you do not, skip the field rather than guessing.
- Read both numbers. BMR is what you burn doing nothing; TDEE is the full-day estimate that maintenance calories should start from.
Step-by-step arithmetic for your inputs
Every figure below is generated from the numbers you entered, with full precision kept until display rounding.
Enter your details and select Calculate TDEE to see the substitution.
The formula
Two stages. First, basal metabolic rate with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, where weight is in kilograms, height in centimeters and age in years:
Male: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(years) + 5
Female: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(years) − 161
Then, total daily energy expenditure from an activity multiplier applied to that BMR:
TDEE = BMR × activity multiplier
The multipliers (1.2, 1.375, 1.55, 1.725, 1.9) are a calculator convention used across the industry; no primary source was opened for them, so they are treated as a documented convention rather than an official standard. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is a candidate from the 1990 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition paper listed in Method & sources.
Worked examples
Two hypothetical people, worked out with exact decimal arithmetic. They show the shape of the calculation; your own numbers will differ.
| Profile | Inputs | BMR | Sedentary ×1.2 | Moderate ×1.55 | Extra ×1.9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example A — hypothetical male | 30 y, 180 cm, 80 kg | 1,780 | 2,136 | 2,759 | 3,382 |
| Example B — hypothetical female | 30 y, 165 cm, 60 kg | 1,320 | 1,584 | 2,046 | 2,508 |
| Example C — US units | 30 y, 71 in, 176 lb | 1,780 | — | 2,760 | — |
Example C converts exactly to 79.83225712 kg and 180.34 cm, giving BMR 1780.447571 and a moderately active TDEE of 2759.693735, displayed as 2,760. All three examples are hypothetical inputs that test arithmetic only — they are not real people and not a recommendation.
Your inputs — sex, age, height, weight
Mifflin-St Jeor equation → BMR
× activity multiplier → TDEE
Text alternative: inputs feed the BMR equation, the BMR is then multiplied by the chosen activity factor, and the product is your TDEE estimate.
BMR versus TDEE: what is the difference?
People mix up BMR, TDEE and maintenance calories. The short answer: BMR is the energy cost of keeping you alive at rest; TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) adds everything else you do on top of that; maintenance calories are the food intake that, for most people, sits close to TDEE over time.
If all you need is the resting half, a BMR calculator gives you that single figure — and a basal metabolic rate calculator is the same number written out in full. Here the resting figure stays visible as an intermediate result, which is what makes this a combined BMR and TDEE calculator rather than a burn estimator alone.
| BMR | TDEE | Maintenance calories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Energy at complete rest only | Energy for the whole day including activity | Food intake that holds body weight steady |
| Depends on activity? | No | Yes — strongly | Yes, in practice |
| Typical use | Baseline, clinical reference, scaling factor | Starting point for a gain, loss or maintenance plan | The number you actually eat toward |
| In this calculator | Shown as its own result | Shown as its own result, plus a table of all levels | Owned by the Calorie Calculator — this page links to it |
Choosing an activity level (the part most people get wrong)
| Level | Count it when… | Do not count it when… | Effect on TDEE vs sedentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | You sit for most of the day and do no planned exercise | You walk a lot at work or commute by bike | baseline |
| Lightly active | You train lightly 1–3 times a week or walk 7,000–9,000 steps daily | Those sessions are short and easy | +14.6% |
| Moderately active | You exercise 3–5 days a week at a real effort | You only trained twice this week | +29.2% |
| Very active | You train hard 6–7 days a week | Your job is seated and weekends are rest days | +43.8% |
| Extra active | You have a physical job plus daily hard training | You are training for an event for two weeks only | +58.3% |
Between the bottom and the top of this table there is a 58% spread on the same body. That is why the activity choice dominates small input changes: a 2 kg weight error shifts TDEE by roughly one or two percent, while jumping two activity levels shifts it by more than 25%.
What this TDEE estimate includes and what it leaves out
Included
- Mifflin-St Jeor BMR from sex, age, height and weight
- TDEE at your chosen activity level
- All five activity levels side by side
- Step-by-step arithmetic with your own numbers
- Optional lean-mass comparison when you enter body fat
- Metric and US customary units, calculated in your browser
Excluded
- Medical conditions, pregnancy and breastfeeding
- Minors and clinical nutrition decisions
- Low energy availability in performance athletes
- Diet prescriptions and calorie targets (goal targets live in the Calorie Calculator)
- Thyroid, medication and illness effects on metabolic rate
- Saving or sharing of your health inputs — nothing is uploaded
Your inputs stay in this browser tab. The calculation runs client-side; no health values are sent to a server, stored in a shareable link, or written to analytics by this page.
Common mistakes
- Picking the level you want. If you train three times a week, you are moderately active, not very active. Overstating activity is the fastest way to overshoot a goal.
- Treating TDEE as a measured value. It is an equation plus a convention. Two people with identical inputs can genuinely differ by several hundred kcal a day.
- Confusing BMR with TDEE. Eating at your BMR is eating below your daily burn, not at it.
- Guessing body fat. A guessed percentage pulls in a second formula and makes the comparison meaningless. Enter it only if you have a real measurement.
- Changing units mid-entry. Switching the unit selector converts your existing numbers; check the fields after switching.
- Using a single day's weigh-in. Daily weight moves with food and water. Use a multi-day average before you decide your inputs changed.
- Expecting the estimate to be a target. Goal-based calories belong to the Calorie Calculator; this page only estimates the burn.
TDEE calculator FAQ
What is a TDEE calculator?
A TDEE calculator estimates total daily energy expenditure: the number of calories your body uses in a full day, including rest and activity. It takes basal metabolic rate — what you burn doing nothing — and multiplies it by an activity factor. This free TDEE calculator also prints BMR on its own so you can see the two stages separately.
What is the formula for TDEE?
TDEE = BMR × activity multiplier. The BMR step uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation: for men, 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5; for women the same expression with a constant of −161 instead of +5. The multipliers used here are 1.2, 1.375, 1.55, 1.725 and 1.9 — a widely used calculator convention rather than an official standard, and no primary source for them was opened.
What is the difference between BMR and TDEE?
BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the energy your body spends at complete rest — breathing, circulation, cell repair. TDEE adds everything else: walking, training, digestion and daily movement. TDEE is always higher than BMR for the same person, and the gap is set almost entirely by your activity level. Resting metabolic rate is close to BMR in everyday use, though the two are measured under slightly different conditions.
Which activity level should I pick?
Pick the level that describes a typical week, not your best week. If you sit all day and train twice a week, lightly active is usually closer than moderately active. The choice is the largest source of error in the result: the spread from sedentary to extra active is 58% on identical inputs.
How accurate is a TDEE estimate?
It is an estimate with limitations, not a measurement. The equation predicts average resting expenditure for groups of healthy adults; individual variation, muscle mass, hormones, medications and NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) all shift the true number. Use the result as a starting point and adjust from real weight trend over two to three weeks.
What does a resting metabolic rate calculator show that this one does not?
A resting metabolic rate calculator reports the same resting-side number under a different name; here it appears as your BMR result. What this page adds is the full-day view: TDEE at your chosen level plus a table of all five levels, so you can see the effect of the activity factor instead of a single figure.
Should I use TDEE to lose or gain weight?
TDEE is the maintenance starting point; the size of any surplus or deficit you then choose is a plan decision, not a formula. Goal-based calorie targets are handled by the Calorie Calculator rather than on this page, so the two tools stay consistent.
Does this calculator store my health data?
No. Every calculation runs in your browser, and this page does not save or share your height, weight, age or body fat percentage.
Glossary
- BMR — basal metabolic rate
- Calories burned per day at complete rest: breathing, circulation, temperature and cell repair. Measured under strict lab conditions; equations predict it.
- TDEE — total daily energy expenditure
- Calories burned across the whole day: BMR plus activity plus the energy cost of digesting food. This is the number a maintenance plan starts from.
- Activity multiplier
- The factor applied to BMR to approximate activity cost, from 1.2 (sedentary) to 1.9 (extra active). A convention, not a measurement.
- Lean body mass
- Body weight minus fat mass — muscle, bone, organs and water. Used by the optional lean-mass BMR method when body fat percentage is known.
- Katch-McArdle equation
- An alternative BMR estimate built from lean body mass only: 370 + 21.6 × lean mass in kg. Listed here as a candidate; its output is shown as a comparison only.
- NEAT — non-exercise activity thermogenesis
- Energy from everything that is not sleeping, eating or planned exercise: standing, walking, fidgeting. It varies widely between people and is not captured by the multiplier.
- Mifflin-St Jeor equation
- The predictive equation used for BMR in this calculator, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1990 (reference listed above).
- Maintenance calories
- The food intake that keeps body weight roughly stable, sitting close to TDEE over time. Estimated by the Calorie Calculator.
The links below are official starting points published in the project brief; treat them as places you should check, and do not read this page as a claim that they were reviewed here.
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1990. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2305711.
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Body Weight Planner. niddk.nih.gov/bwp.
- Katch-McArdle BMR equation (370 + 21.6 × lean body mass in kg).
Limitations, exclusions and assumptions
- Estimate only. No result on this page is a measured energy expenditure, and none of it is medical, dietary or clinical advice.
- Largest error is you. The activity multiplier carries more uncertainty than every other input combined.
- Population equation. Mifflin-St Jeor predicts group averages; high muscle mass, older adults, and people with metabolic or thyroid conditions can sit well outside it.
- Formula verification status: estimate with limitations. The equation, the multiplier table and the Katch-McArdle coefficients are treated as candidates because no primary source could be opened; the branch remains functional but is labelled, never presented as an official standard.
- Excluded groups: minors under 15, pregnancy, breastfeeding, eating-disorder or clinical nutrition contexts, and performance athletes with low energy availability.
- Goal targets out of scope: any deficit or surplus recommendation belongs to the Calorie Calculator; this page deliberately shows burn only, and it reports gross daily expenditure rather than a net figure after any intake adjustment.
- Units: conversions are exact constants; display rounding is half up to whole kcal/day, computed from full-precision values.
Summary
Your total daily energy expenditure is your basal metabolic rate multiplied by an honest activity factor. Run the calculator with a typical week's activity level, read BMR and TDEE as separate numbers, compare them against the full activity table, and treat the result as a documented starting point rather than a target. Adjust from your own two-to-three-week weight trend, keep the arithmetic visible, and when you want a goal-based calorie number rather than a burn estimate, move to the Calorie Calculator.
Ready to check your numbers? Scroll up, enter your details and calculate — everything runs in your browser in under a second.
