TDEE Calculator

What is TDEE?

Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the number of calories your body burns over a full day, including all activity. It is the reference point for setting your calorie target — eat below it to lose weight, at it to maintain, above it to gain. TDEE is built from four components:

• BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) — 60 to 75 % of TDEE, the energy needed to keep you alive at rest
• TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) — roughly 10 %, the cost of digesting and processing what you eat
• NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) — 15 to 30 %, all the daily movement that is not formal training
• EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) — 5 to 15 %, your actual workouts

The Mifflin-St Jeor formula

This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the current standard in nutrition research, then multiplies BMR by an activity factor:

• Men: BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5
• Women: BMR = 10 × weight + 6.25 × height − 5 × age − 161

The activity multipliers are:

• 1.2 — Sedentary (desk job, no training)
• 1.375 — Lightly active (light exercise 1-3 days/week)
• 1.55 — Moderately active (3-5 days/week)
• 1.725 — Very active (6-7 days/week, hard training)
• 1.9 — Extremely active (physical job + daily training)

How to use your TDEE

For cutting, subtract 15 to 25 % from TDEE for a sustainable rate of fat loss (about 0.5 to 1 % of body weight per week). For maintenance, eat right at TDEE. For bulking, add 10 to 20 % depending on training age — leaner trainees benefit from a steeper surplus, more advanced lifters do better on a slower one.

On cycle, several factors push real-world energy needs upward: increased lean mass raises BMR, enhanced recovery boosts NEAT and training volume, and nitrogen retention shifts substrate utilization. A common practical adjustment is to add 5 to 10 % on top of the calculated TDEE during a bulking cycle, then re-anchor every two weeks on the scale and the mirror. Pair this calculator with the FFMI tool to set a realistic muscle-gain target for the cycle.

Useful companion tools and communities for tracking real intake: MyFitnessPal and Cronometer for daily logging, Stronger By Science and Renaissance Periodization for evidence-based programming context.