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TDEE
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Enter your metrics and we show maintenance calories, the deficit and surplus targets around them, and every step of the arithmetic that got there.
What TDEE actually measures
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is everything you burn in twenty-four hours, and it breaks into four parts of very unequal size.
Basal metabolic rate is the largest, at roughly 60 to 70 percent — the cost of staying alive with no movement at all. The thermic effect of food takes about 10 percent, because digestion is not free. Deliberate exercise is usually the smallest slice, which surprises people. And the remainder is non-exercise activity: walking, fidgeting, standing, carrying things.
That last category is the one that varies most between two people of identical size, and it is the reason two people with the same calculated TDEE can hold different weights on the same intake.
Why the activity multiplier is the weak link
The equation for resting rate is reasonably precise. The multiplier bolted onto it is not — it is a five-band approximation of a continuous variable, and most people place themselves one band too high.
Three gym sessions a week is lightly to moderately active, not very active, if the rest of your day is spent at a desk. A labourer who never trains may genuinely sit above someone who lifts four times a week. Choose based on your whole week, not on how hard your sessions feel.
Use the number, then correct it
The honest way to use any calculated TDEE is as a two-week experiment. Eat at the figure, weigh yourself daily under the same conditions, and take the weekly average — daily weight swings on water and gut contents are far larger than the signal you are looking for.
If the average is flat, the estimate was right. If it moved, adjust by 100 to 200 calories and repeat. After a month you have something no equation can give you: a maintenance figure measured on the actual person.
Turning calories into food
A calorie target on its own does not tell you what to eat. Run the number through the macro calculator to split it into protein, carbohydrate and fat, and read the protein guidefor why the protein figure is the one worth getting right first.
Common questions
What is TDEE?
Total Daily Energy Expenditure — every calorie your body burns in 24 hours. It is your basal metabolic rate (what you burn at complete rest, roughly 60–70% of the total) plus the energy used digesting food, plus deliberate exercise, plus all the incidental movement of a normal day. Eat at your TDEE and your weight holds steady.
How accurate is a TDEE calculator?
Treat the number as a starting point, not a measurement. Prediction equations land within about 10% for most people, which on a 2,500 kcal maintenance is a ±250 kcal band. The activity multiplier is the least precise part. Use the estimate for two weeks, track your weight, and adjust from what actually happens.
Which formula does this use?
Mifflin-St Jeor by default, because it validates better than Harris-Benedict in modern populations and is what clinical practice moved to. If you enter a body fat percentage, the calculator switches to Katch-McArdle, which works from lean mass and is more accurate for lean or unusually muscular people.
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
A 20% deficit below your TDEE is a sensible default — fast enough to see progress, slow enough to hold onto muscle. Steeper deficits cost you lean mass and adherence. If you are already lean, drop to a 10–15% deficit instead.
Should I eat back the calories my watch says I burned?
No. Your activity multiplier already includes your training. Adding tracker calories on top double-counts them, and wrist-based expenditure estimates are known to be unreliable, frequently overestimating by 30% or more.
Why is my TDEE different from what my fitness app says?
Different apps use different equations and different activity bands, so a 200–300 kcal spread between tools is normal. None of them is measuring you. The one that matters is whichever number you tested against real weight change over a few weeks.