Free TDEE Calculator
Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the number of calories you burn per day. Get calorie targets for cutting, maintaining, or bulking.
What is TDEE and Why Does It Matter?
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories your body burns in a 24-hour period. It combines three components: your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the thermic effect of food (roughly 10% of calories consumed), and all physical activity from walking to intense training.
Understanding your TDEE is the foundation of any nutrition strategy — whether you want to lose fat, build muscle, or fuel your training properly. Eat below your TDEE consistently and you will lose weight. Eat above it and you will gain weight. It is that straightforward. If your goal is fat loss, use our calorie deficit calculator to get a specific daily target, macro breakdown, and timeline based on your goal weight.
BMR vs. TDEE
BMR is what your body burns at complete rest — lying in bed all day, doing nothing. It accounts for breathing, circulation, brain function, and cell repair. For most people, BMR makes up 60 to 70% of total daily calories. Your TDEE adds activity on top of that. Even a sedentary person burns about 20% more than their BMR from daily movement like walking, fidgeting, and digesting food.
The Mifflin-St Jeor Formula
This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which research has shown to be the most accurate BMR prediction formula for most adults. It was published in 1990 and has consistently outperformed the older Harris-Benedict equation in validation studies. The formula accounts for weight, height, age, and sex.
Male BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5
Female BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age − 161
How to Use Your TDEE
Your calculated TDEE is an estimate — a starting point, not gospel. Use it to set your initial calorie target, then track your weight for 2 to 3 weeks. If your weight trends the way you want (losing, maintaining, or gaining), your target is accurate. If not, adjust by 100 to 200 calories and re-evaluate. This iterative approach is more reliable than any formula alone.
For lifters, pairing calorie tracking with a one rep max calculator and recovery tracking gives you the complete picture: how much to eat, how strong you are getting, and whether your body is recovering between sessions.
Track Your Nutrition and Training Together
Slate logs your workouts in seconds and tracks your strength progress automatically. Pair your TDEE targets with real training data to see how nutrition fuels your gains.
Download Free for iOSFrequently Asked Questions
TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It is the total number of calories your body burns in a day, including your basal metabolic rate (the calories you burn at rest), the thermic effect of food (calories burned digesting food), and all physical activity. Knowing your TDEE helps you set calorie targets for losing fat, building muscle, or maintaining your current weight.
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the number of calories your body needs to perform basic life-sustaining functions like breathing, circulation, and cell production while completely at rest. TDEE includes your BMR plus all additional calories burned through daily activity and exercise. Your TDEE is always higher than your BMR because it accounts for movement throughout the day.
TDEE calculators provide an estimate, typically within 10% of your actual expenditure. The Mifflin-St Jeor formula used here is considered the most accurate predictive equation for most adults. However, individual variation in metabolism, body composition (more muscle burns more calories), and actual activity intensity means you should treat the result as a starting point. Track your weight and intake for 2 to 3 weeks and adjust from there.
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation, published in 1990, is generally considered the most accurate for estimating BMR in healthy adults. Studies have shown it predicts BMR within 10% for most people, outperforming the older Harris-Benedict equation. This calculator uses Mifflin-St Jeor as the default formula.
Be honest and conservative. Most people overestimate their activity level. If you work a desk job and exercise 3 to 4 times per week, Moderately Active is likely the right choice. If you train hard 5 or more days per week or have a physically demanding job, Very Active may be appropriate. Extremely Active is reserved for athletes training multiple hours per day or people with very physically demanding occupations combined with regular training.
To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your TDEE. A moderate deficit of 250 to 500 calories per day is sustainable and leads to roughly 0.5 to 1 pound of fat loss per week. Larger deficits can work short-term but may lead to muscle loss, fatigue, and metabolic adaptation. Start with a moderate cut and adjust based on how your weight trends over 2 to 3 weeks.
To build muscle efficiently, eat slightly above your TDEE — a surplus of 200 to 500 calories per day is ideal for most lifters. This provides the extra energy needed for muscle protein synthesis without excessive fat gain. Beginners can build muscle closer to maintenance calories, while experienced lifters typically need a larger surplus. Pair your surplus with a structured resistance training program and adequate protein intake (0.7 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight).
Yes. As your body weight changes, your TDEE changes too. A lighter body burns fewer calories at rest. Recalculate your TDEE every 10 to 15 pounds of weight change, or every 8 to 12 weeks. Also reconsider your activity level if your training has changed. The best approach is to use the calculator as a starting point and then fine-tune based on real-world results — if you are losing weight faster than expected, eat a bit more, and vice versa.