Useful Utilities

TDEE Calculator

Estimate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure from age, height, weight and activity level, starting from the Mifflin–St Jeor basal metabolic rate and the standard activity multipliers.

Fill in the values and calculate

SexThe basal-rate formula splits by sexDefault Male
Age (years)*Age at last birthday — required
Height (cm) (cm)Height in centimetres, shoes offDefault 170
Weight (kg) (kg)Current weight in kilogramsDefault 70
Activity levelBe honest about training volume, not gym membershipDefault Moderately active (×1.55)

The form sends itself back to this page — results print below, computed on the server.

No results yet: fill the form above and press Calculate.

About TDEE Calculator

TDEE — Total Daily Energy Expenditure — is what your body burns across a normal day including your exercise habits. The standard two-step method first estimates basal metabolic rate with the Mifflin–St Jeor equation: 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5 for men, and the same terms with − 161 for women; then multiplies it by an activity factor: ×1.2 sedentary, ×1.375 lightly active, ×1.55 moderately active, ×1.725 very active and ×1.9 extremely active.

Your maintenance figure is the calorie level where weight stays stable: eat at your TDEE and you neither gain nor lose. Weight change therefore comes from the gap between food in and TDEE out, which is why diet plans quote deficits against this number rather than against BMR. The full multiplier table is shown so you can see how sensitive the result is to honest self-reporting of training volume.

These multipliers are a coarse model — serious athletes and heavy manual workers can sit outside the ×1.2–×1.9 band, and the estimate carries a few percent of individual error even before behaviour. Measured trackers (heart-rate monitors, METs tables) give a per-session answer instead; use those for a training day and this table for an ordinary week.

Questions about TDEE Calculator

What multiplier should I pick?

Judge sessions per week, not intentions: nothing beyond walking is sedentary; 1–3 light sessions is light; 3–5 moderate workouts is moderate; 6–7 hard sessions is very active; ×1.9 is reserved for elite training loads. A desk worker who lifts twice a week belongs at light, not moderate.

How accurate is TDEE for weight loss?

As a planning number it is as good as anything: a sustained deficit of 500 kcal/day against your TDEE corresponds to roughly 0.5 kg a week of tissue change. The formula's own error (a few percent) matters less than honesty about your real activity level.

Is TDEE the same as calories burned in workouts?

No. Workout burn uses metabolic-equivalent (MET) tables and only covers the exercise itself; TDEE here is your whole-day average level, which already includes sitting hours. See the calorie-burn calculator for per-session figures.

Why does weight matter more than age here?

The mass and height terms dominate: Mifflin–St Jeor's age term removes about 5 kcal/day per year, while every kilogram adds 10 kcal/day to the base. Age mostly matters for people comparing across years, not within one body.

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