TDEE calculator
Estimate how many calories you burn a day — your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. Enter a few details to get your maintenance number, then set it as a target to lose, maintain or gain, and turn it into meals that fit. Free, runs in your browser, no signup.
Your details
Takes about 20 seconds.
≈ 2,630 cal · 135g protein · 75g fat · 355g carbs to maintain weight.
This is an estimate, not medical advice.
Tip: choose Maintain to see your TDEE on its own. Picking Lose or Gain adjusts that number into a daily calorie target.
What is TDEE?
TDEE is the total number of calories you burn in a day. It has four parts: the energy to keep you alive at rest (your BMR), the calories you burn digesting food, the calories from deliberate exercise, and the calories from all your other daily movement — walking, fidgeting, standing. Add them up and you get the calories you spend on a typical day.
Your TDEE is your maintenance level. Eat that much and your weight holds steady; eat below it and you lose fat; eat above it and you gain. That makes it the single most useful number for planning how to eat. For the full breakdown of where it comes from and why your tracker tends to overestimate it, read “How many calories do you burn a day?”
How to use your TDEE
Once you have the number, your goal decides what to do with it. To lose fat, eat a moderate amount below it — around 300 to 500 calories a day is the sustainable range. To maintain, eat at it. To gain muscle, eat a small amount above it.
From there, the calories split into protein, fat and carbs. If you want to see how that math works, how to calculate your macros walks through it, and how to lose weight puts the whole plan together.
Turn the number into meals
A calorie target on its own doesn’t tell you what to eat. Calculate above, then let the Adviser rank real foods and meals that fit what you have left, or give the Solver the foods you want and get the exact grams.
Common questions
- What is TDEE?
- TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure — the total number of calories you burn in a day, including everything from keeping you alive to moving around and digesting food. It is your maintenance level: eat that many calories and your weight stays roughly steady, eat below it and you lose, eat above it and you gain.
- What's the difference between BMR and TDEE?
- Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the calories your body burns at complete rest, just to keep you alive. Your TDEE is your BMR plus everything else you do — exercise, walking, fidgeting, and digesting food. TDEE is always the larger number, and it is the one to base your eating targets on, because it reflects a real day rather than lying in bed.
- How is TDEE calculated?
- This calculator first estimates your BMR from your age, height, weight and sex using the Mifflin-St Jeor formula, which is one of the most accurate for the general population. It then multiplies that by an activity factor based on how active you are, which gives your TDEE — the calories you burn on a typical day.
- How accurate is a TDEE calculator?
- It is a well-founded estimate, not an exact measurement. A formula can only average people of your size, age and sex; it cannot see exactly how much you move or your precise muscle mass, so two people with identical stats can differ by a few hundred calories. Use the number as a starting point, eat to it for two to three weeks, and adjust based on what the scale actually does.
- Should I eat my TDEE to lose weight?
- No — eat below it. Your TDEE is your maintenance level, so eating exactly that keeps your weight stable. To lose fat, take a moderate cut of roughly 300 to 500 calories below your TDEE; to gain, eat a small amount above it. This calculator does that adjustment for you when you choose a goal.
This calculator gives general estimates for healthy adults and is not medical or nutritional advice. If you have a medical condition or are pregnant, talk to a professional before changing how you eat.