TDEE & Calorie Calculator
Estimate your maintenance calories (TDEE) and BMR from bodyweight, height, age, and training load. Free, no signup.
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You burn roughly 2,837 kcal a day. Eat around that to hold, below it to cut, above it to gain.
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About this calculator
Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the number of calories you burn in a day — the maintenance level at which your weight holds steady. We start from your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, the energy you’d burn at complete rest) using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the most accurate general-population predictor in the research, then multiply by an activity factor for your training load. If you enter a body-fat percentage, we switch to the Katch-McArdle equation, which works from your lean body mass and is more accurate for lean, muscular athletes. Every output is an estimate: individual metabolism varies, so treat the number as a starting point and adjust based on two to three weeks of real bodyweight data.
Sources
BMR: Mifflin-St Jeor (Mifflin et al., Am J Clin Nutr 1990); Katch-McArdle when body-fat is provided. Activity multipliers 1.2–1.9. Calorie goals from 7700 kcal per kg of body mass.
FAQs
What’s the difference between BMR and TDEE?
BMR is what you’d burn lying still all day — the cost of just being alive. TDEE is BMR multiplied by an activity factor that accounts for movement and training. TDEE is the number you eat around: match it to hold weight, drop below it to lose, exceed it to gain.
Which activity level should I pick?
Base it on structured training sessions per week: sedentary (desk job, little exercise), lightly active (1–3 sessions), moderately active (3–5), very active (6–7), extremely active (a physical job or two-a-days). Most people overestimate — when unsure, pick the lower band and let real bodyweight data correct it.
When should I enter my body-fat percentage?
Only if you have a reasonably accurate figure (DEXA, calipers, or a Navy-method estimate). With it, we use Katch-McArdle, which bases BMR on lean mass and is more accurate for lean, muscular athletes than a height-and-weight formula. A rough guess can hurt more than help — leave it blank and we’ll use Mifflin-St Jeor.
How large a deficit is safe?
A common guideline is losing no more than about 1% of bodyweight per week, and not eating below your BMR for extended periods. Very low intakes (under ~1200 kcal for women, ~1500 for men) are hard to hit nutrient needs on and tend to backfire. This tool caps its suggestions at those floors and flags anything aggressive.