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Which BMR equation does it use?: Mifflin-St Jeor, which superseded Harris-Benedict as the more accurate predictor for modern populations and is what the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends.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.