TDEE Calculator

Find your maintenance calories and daily targets for cutting or bulking.

Weight (kg)

Height (cm)

Age (years)

Activity level

Maintenance calories (TDEE)

2,556 kcal/day

BMR 1,649 kcal/day at complete rest

Daily calories by goal

Aggressive cut (-500)2,056 kcal

Mild cut (-250)2,306 kcal

Maintain weight2,556 kcal

Mild bulk (+250)2,806 kcal

Aggressive bulk (+500)3,056 kcal

What TDEE is and how to use it

TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is roughly how many calories you burn per day. It starts from your BMR — the energy you'd burn at complete rest, here via the Mifflin-St Jeor equation — multiplied by an activity factor. Eat around your TDEE to maintain weight; a deficit of ~500 kcal/day is a common target for losing about 0.45 kg (1 lb) per week, and a similar surplus for lean gains. These are estimates, not medical advice, and everything runs in your browser.

Related: the BMR calculator, the BMI calculator, and the body fat calculator.

Built and maintained by Meet Shah · Last updated 19 July 2026

What this tool is used for

Estimating maintenance calories from weight, height, age and activity.
Getting a starting target for a cutting or bulking phase.
Seeing how much of the total comes from activity rather than baseline.
Comparing two activity multipliers on the same body figures.
Producing a number to discuss with a coach or a dietitian.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between BMR and TDEE?: BMR is what you burn at complete rest — breathing, circulation, cell maintenance — and typically accounts for 60–70% of the total. TDEE multiplies it by an activity factor to include movement, exercise and the energy cost of digesting food.
Which BMR equation does it use?: Mifflin-St Jeor, which superseded Harris-Benedict as the more accurate predictor for modern populations and is what the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends. Both are regressions on body mass, height, age and sex — neither knows anything about your body composition.
How accurate is the result?: Within about 10% for most people, and worse at the extremes — very muscular, very obese, or elderly. It is a starting estimate, not a measurement. The reliable method is to eat at the predicted level for two or three weeks and adjust from the weight trend.
Which activity multiplier should I choose?: Almost everyone overestimates. Sedentary (1.2) genuinely means a desk job and no training; 1.55 means moderate exercise three to five days a week, not an intention to. Picking one level too high is the single most common reason a calculated deficit produces no weight change.
Why do two people with identical stats burn different amounts?: Because the equations do not see body composition, thyroid function, or non-exercise activity — fidgeting, standing, pacing — which varies by hundreds of calories a day between individuals. That variance is real and is why the estimate needs calibrating against your own results.

Common errors and gotchas

Choosing an activity multiplier that flatters a mostly sedentary week, which is the largest error source here.
Treating the estimate as measured, when individual variation is substantial.
Adjusting the target daily rather than after a couple of weeks of weight data.
Double-counting exercise by using a high multiplier and adding workout calories on top.
Using it as medical or clinical guidance rather than a starting estimate.