TDEE calculator

What is TDEE?

TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure: all the calories your body burns in 24 hours. If you eat that many calories, your weight stays about the same, which is why people also call it maintenance calories.

It adds up four things:

• Resting calories (BMR). What your body burns just to stay alive: breathing, circulation, keeping warm. For most people this is the biggest share.
• Everyday movement. Walking, chores, standing, fidgeting. Anything that isn't planned exercise.
• Exercise. Workouts, sports, training.
• Digesting food. A small share of what you eat is spent processing it.

How to calculate TDEE (formula and example)

You calculate TDEE in two steps: estimate your resting calories, then multiply by a factor for how active you are.

For the first step, this calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which an evidence review by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found to be the most reliable of the common equations. Here it is in pounds and inches:

Then:

A worked example

A 35-year-old woman who is 5 ft 5 in and weighs 170 lb has a BMR of about 1,470 calories (1,467 before rounding). If she's lightly active, her TDEE is 1,470 × 1.375 = about 2,020 calories a day.

A 40-year-old man who is 5 ft 10 in and weighs 200 lb has a BMR of about 1,820 calories. Moderately active, his TDEE is about 2,830 calories a day.

Which activity level should you pick?

The activity level is the part of a TDEE calculator people get wrong most often, usually by picking too high. Choose the one that describes a normal week, not your best week. These are the standard activity multipliers most calorie calculators use:

A desk job plus three workouts a week sits on the line between lightly and moderately active, and lightly active is usually the better pick: most of the week is still spent sitting. Daily steps count too, so a desk job with a long daily walk is closer to lightly active than sedentary.

If you're between two levels, pick the lower one. You can always move up if your weight drops faster than you expected.

TDEE vs. BMR: what's the difference?

BMR (basal metabolic rate) is what you'd burn lying still all day. TDEE is what you actually burn once movement, exercise and digestion are added. TDEE is always the higher number.

Eat by your TDEE, not your BMR. Your BMR is a building block of the calculation, not a calorie target. You may also see RMR (resting metabolic rate): it's measured a little differently, but for everyday purposes it means the same thing as BMR.

How many calories do you burn a day? Maintenance calories by weight

Your maintenance calories are your TDEE: the two words mean the same number. A 150 lb woman who is 5 ft 4 in, 35 years old and sedentary burns about 1,630 calories a day; a 200 lb man who is 5 ft 10 in, 35 and sedentary burns about 2,220.

These tables show maintenance calories at a few weights, calculated with the same function as the tool above. For your own number, use the calculator.

Women (5 ft 4 in, age 35)

Men (5 ft 10 in, age 35)

Calories a day, rounded to the nearest 10.

How to use your TDEE to lose weight

To lose weight, eat less than your TDEE. The gap between what you burn and what you eat is your calorie deficit.

A common starting point is about 500 calories a day under your TDEE, which works out to roughly 1 lb a week. It's an estimate: weight loss tends to slow as you get lighter, because a smaller body burns fewer calories. The calorie deficit calculator does that math for 1 or 2 lb a week and shows about how long your goal weight takes.

Two things keep a deficit sensible:

• Don't go too low. A common rule is not to eat fewer than 1,200 calories a day for women or 1,500 for men unless a health professional is supervising. The calculator never suggests less.
• Keep the gap moderate. A moderate gap you can keep up beats a large one you can't.

TDEE on a GLP-1: how many calories to eat on semaglutide or tirzepatide

GLP-1 medications lower appetite, so people tend to eat less. That holds for semaglutide and tirzepatide alike, including the FDA-approved brands (Ozempic® and Wegovy® for semaglutide, Mounjaro® and Zepbound® for tirzepatide). It flips the usual problem: instead of eating too much, the risk is eating too little.

Your TDEE gives you the reference point. If your TDEE is 2,020 calories and you're only managing 900, the gap is far larger than it needs to be, and that can cost you muscle and energy along with the fat.

A few practical rules while you're on treatment:

• Keep a floor. The same daily minimums apply: about 1,200 calories for women and 1,500 for men unless your clinician says otherwise.
• Protein first. When you can't eat much, make protein the priority at each meal. Here's how much protein you need on a GLP-1.
• Recalculate as you lose. Your TDEE drops as your weight drops, so the number from month one won't fit month six.

Medication is prescribed by a licensed clinician, who is the right person to ask how much you should be eating.

How accurate is a TDEE calculator?

A TDEE calculator gives you a good estimate, not a measurement. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation predicts resting calories within about 10% of the measured value for most people, and the activity factor is a rough average for a whole week.

That's also why two TDEE calculators can disagree: they may use different equations or define the activity levels differently. Watches and fitness trackers estimate it too, with their own error.

The best check is your own weight. Eat at your calculated TDEE for two or three weeks: if your weight holds steady, the number is right for you. If it drifts up or down, adjust by 100 to 200 calories and watch again.

When to recalculate your TDEE

Your TDEE changes as you do. Recalculate it:

• Every 10 to 15 lb of weight change.
• When your routine changes: a new job, a new training plan, or an injury that keeps you off your feet.
• When your weight has stalled for a few weeks and you want to know your new maintenance number.

After weight loss, your maintenance calories are lower than where you started. That's expected: there's less of you to fuel. Curious where your weight sits for your height? Check the BMI calculator.