TDEE & Calorie Calculator

Total Daily Energy Expenditure — TDEE — is the number of calories your body burns in a day, including everything from keeping your heart beating to your evening walk. Once you know it, the rest of nutrition math gets simple: eat below it to lose weight, at it to maintain, above it to gain.

This calculator starts from your basal metabolic rate using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the formula most dietitians consider the best validated for the general population, then multiplies by an activity factor you choose honestly — from sedentary desk work to heavy physical training. You get maintenance calories plus sensible cut and surplus targets.

Part of the Health Calculators collection on CountCrunch.

How TDEE is calculated

First the calculator finds your BMR — what you would burn lying in bed all day — then scales it up:

Activity factors run from 1.2 (sedentary) through 1.375 (light exercise 1–3 days/week), 1.55 (moderate, 3–5 days), 1.725 (very active, 6–7 days) to 1.9 (athlete-level training or physical job). Be honest here — most people overestimate, and an inflated TDEE quietly erases a deficit.

Calorie targets for your goal

• Lose weight: TDEE minus 300–500 kcal/day, roughly 0.25–0.5 kg lost per week. Aggressive cuts below that tend to cost muscle and stall out.
• Maintain: eat at TDEE and watch the scale over 2–3 weeks; adjust by 100–200 kcal if it drifts.
• Gain weight: TDEE plus 200–400 kcal/day with resistance training, so the surplus becomes muscle rather than mostly fat.

Worked example

A 30-year-old woman, 165 cm, 65 kg, exercising moderately 4 days a week: BMR = 10 × 65 + 6.25 × 165 − 5 × 30 − 161 = 1,370 kcal. TDEE = 1,370 × 1.55 ≈ 2,124 kcal. A gentle cut would target about 1,650–1,800 kcal/day.