TDEE Calculator
Calculate your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), the calories you burn in a day from rest, daily activity and exercise. It is the maintenance figure that a cutting or bulking target starts from. Enter your sex, age in whole years, height and weight in feet, inches and pounds or in centimeters and kilograms, and your activity level. An empty field gets a message, so type 0 inches for a whole number of feet. If you know your body fat percentage, type it too and the calculator uses the Katch-McArdle equation. Under the result, type your own figure, such as -400, to see your TDEE minus 400.
If you know it, the page uses the Katch-McArdle equation from your lean mass. Leave it empty to use height, age and sex.
How to use the TDEE Calculator
- Enter your numbers in the TDEE Calculator above.
- Press the Calculate TDEE button to see the result.
- To try other numbers, change any value and press the button again.
The TDEE formula
TDEE = BMR × activity factor With body fat %: BMR = 370 + 21.6 × lean mass in kg
BMR is your basal metabolic rate, the calories you burn at rest. This calculator gets it from the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, or from the Katch-McArdle equation when you type a body fat percentage. The activity factor runs from 1.2 for sedentary to 1.9 for extra active, which means a physical job plus training.
Worked example
A 28-year-old woman, 5 ft 6 in and 143 lb, lightly active. The calculator converts her to 167.64 cm and 64.86 kg, so BMR = 10×64.86 + 6.25×167.64 − 5×28 − 161 ≈ 1,395 kcal. Times 1.375, her TDEE shows as 1,919 cal/day. The tiles below it show 1,419 to lose about 1 lb a week, 919 to lose about 2 lb and 2,419 to gain about 1 lb. The 919 is under 1,000 cal/day, the lowest diet the NHLBI's weight-loss guide recommends for most women, so the calculator marks that tile and adds a note to plan it with a doctor. In metric, a 30-year-old man, 180 cm and 85 kg, lightly active: BMR = 10×85 + 6.25×180 − 5×30 + 5 = 1,830 kcal. Times 1.375, his TDEE shows as 2,516 cal/day. Type -400 in the box under the tiles and it shows 2,516 − 400 = 2,116 cal/day, about 0.4 kg of loss a week by the 3,500 kcal per pound rule. Now give the same man a body fat of 25%. His lean mass is 85 × 75 ÷ 100 = 63.75 kg, so BMR = 370 + 21.6 × 63.75 = 1,747 kcal. Times 1.375, his TDEE shows as 2,402 cal/day, 114 below the 2,516 from Mifflin–St Jeor.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is the calculated TDEE?
The resting part of the estimate comes from an equation that Mifflin and colleagues published in 1990. They measured resting energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry in 498 healthy adults aged 19 to 78, of whom 264 were normal weight and 234 obese. Weight, height, age and sex explained 71% of the variation between those people, an R² of 0.71, and the equation leaves the other 29% unexplained. The activity multiplier is a broad category on top of that, and the study did not test it. Track your weight over 2–3 weeks and adjust intake up or down based on actual results. Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, volume 51, issue 2.
What is the Katch-McArdle equation, and when should I use it?
It works out BMR from lean mass alone: BMR = 370 + 21.6 × lean mass in kg, where lean mass is your weight × (100 − body fat %) ÷ 100. Height, age and sex are not in it. Type a body fat percentage and the main figure, the tiles and the box under them all use this equation, and the page shows the Mifflin–St Jeor figure beside them. Use it when you have a body fat figure you trust, because an error carries through: 5 points of body fat at 85 kg moves BMR by 92 kcal a day. The same 370 and 21.6 are in Cunningham's 1991 review of adults over a broad range of body weights, where the equation explains 65 to 90% of the variation in resting energy expenditure. He adds that fat mass may help predict it in obese women, and this equation leaves fat mass out. Omni Calculator credits the name to the textbook Exercise Physiology by McArdle, Katch and Katch. This page relies on the abstract of Cunningham's paper and not on that book.
Does this TDEE calculator apply to anyone under 18?
Not on the evidence behind it. The Mifflin–St Jeor study covered adults aged 19 to 78, and Cunningham proposed the body fat equation for adults. So neither supports a figure for a child, and the study had no one under 19. The page still does the sum for any age under 19 and adds a note beside the result, but do not read that figure as a target. A doctor or registered dietitian can set one.
Should I use TDEE or BMR to set my calories?
Use TDEE. BMR is only your resting expenditure and leaves out daily activity. Even at the sedentary factor of 1.2, BMR sits about 17% below TDEE, so eating at BMR is already a deficit. The BMR calculator shows the resting figure on its own.
Does TDEE change over time?
Yes. Weight and age are inputs to the equation. Each kilogram you lose lowers the BMR estimate by 10 kcal a day, and each year of age lowers it by 5 kcal. TDEE moves with them, and again when your activity level changes. Recalculate when any of those change.
What does TDEE minus 400 mean?
It means eating 400 calories a day below your TDEE. Type -400 in the box under the tiles and the page does the sum: for the man in the metric example, 2,516 − 400 = 2,116 cal/day. At 3,500 kcal per pound, 400 a day is 2,800 a week, or about 0.8 lb (0.4 kg), and that rule overestimates weight loss. The NHLBI's weight-loss guide for doctors, written for overweight and obese adults, gives about 0.5 lb a week for a 300 to 500 kcal deficit and 1 to 2 lb for 500 to 1,000 kcal. A figure above 0 is a surplus, so 300 adds 300 calories a day. A deficit that lands under 1,200 cal/day for a man, or 1,000 for a woman, gets the same mark as a tile, and a cut above 1,000 a day gets a note. A doctor or registered dietitian can tell you whether a deficit suits you.
How does the calculator get the lose 1 lb/week target?
It subtracts 500 kcal a day from your TDEE, and 1,000 kcal for the 2 lb tile. The per-week labels come from the 3,500 kcal per pound rule, which Thomas and colleagues found to overestimate weight loss when they tested it against seven experiments for the International Journal of Obesity in 2013. The calorie calculator page explains the rule and where it breaks down. A target under 1,200 cal/day for a man, or 1,000 for a woman, gets a mark and a note. Those are the lowest diets the NHLBI's weight-loss guide for doctors recommends. A target of 0 or less reads Not possible. A sedentary 80-year-old woman, 4 ft 10 in and 90 lb, has a TDEE of 922 cal/day, so her 1 lb tile shows 422 and her 2 lb tile reads Not possible.