TDEE calculator that measures your actual day
Most calculators ask you to pick an activity level and multiply. This one builds your daily burn from the parts: your resting rate from four published equations, your job, your steps, and every workout you do, each scored with its value from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities.
Fill in five short steps. Your daily burn, the equations behind it and targets for every goal appear here.
– kcal/day
Estimated TDEE · activity level (PAL) –
Calories for your goal
| Goal | kcal/day | Protein · fat · carbs (g) |
|---|
Resting burn (BMR)
What the number means
Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is the energy your body uses across a whole day. The largest share is your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the cost of keeping you alive at rest: heart, brain, breathing, temperature. For most adults it is 55 to 70% of the total. Everything you do while awake sits on top of that, and digesting food adds roughly another tenth.
The figure in the dial is a daily average. Training days burn more and rest days less, but your body weight responds to the average over weeks, which is why the calculator spreads your weekly workouts across seven days.
How the calculator builds your TDEE
1. Resting burn from more than one equation
No single BMR equation fits everyone, so the calculator averages them. Mifflin-St Jeor (1990) and the Roza and Shizgal revision of Harris-Benedict (1984) work from weight, height, age and sex. If you know your body-fat percentage, Katch-McArdle and Cunningham join in; they work from lean mass, which matters for very muscular or very lean people the first two tend to misjudge. The results list every value so you can see the spread.
2. Activity scaled to your own body
A MET is a multiple of resting energy use: an activity at 4 METs costs four times what sitting still does. The textbook shortcut treats 1 MET as 1 calorie per kilogram per hour, which overstates the burn for many women, older adults and anyone heavier. Here, 1 MET equals your own BMR per hour, and only the part above rest is added, so nothing is counted twice.
3. Work, steps and the rest of the day
Your job is scored by type over a whole shift, breaks included. Steps are converted with the walking equation used by the American College of Sports Medicine, about half a calorie per kilogram for every kilometre on top of rest. Waking hours that are neither work, walking nor exercise are counted as light activity at home. If your job keeps you on your feet, the calculator assumes some of your steps happen at work and does not count them twice.
4. Workouts from the 2024 Compendium
Each workout uses the MET value from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, the reference list researchers use to turn activities into energy. Running at 10 minutes per mile is 9.3 METs; weight training with several exercises in the 8 to 15 rep range is 3.5. Pick the closest match, then the minutes and the sessions per week.
The full method, with every constant, is on the how it works page.
Why there is no "activity level" dropdown
Classic calculators multiply BMR by a factor from 1.2 for sedentary to about 1.9 for very active. The trouble is the labels. Someone with a desk job who lifts three times a week and someone who stocks shelves all day with no training can both pick "moderately active" and get the same number, even though the warehouse worker may burn several hundred calories more. Building the day from its parts removes that guesswork, and when your routine changes you change one input rather than guessing a new label.
From TDEE to a daily target
The goals table turns your TDEE into targets. For fat loss, a deficit of 10 to 20% is the range most people can hold; the 25% option is there for short phases. For muscle gain, a surplus of around 7% keeps fat gain low. Protein is set at about 2 grams per kilogram in a deficit and 1.8 otherwise, fat at roughly a quarter of calories, and carbohydrate fills the rest. The macro calculator lets you change those splits, and the calorie calculator works backwards from a goal weight and a date.
A target only helps if you hit it, and that takes logging what you eat. Our guide to the best calorie tracking apps compares nine of them on how well they work with a TDEE target.
More calculators
Questions about TDEE
What is TDEE?
Total daily energy expenditure: every calorie you burn in a day. It is your resting burn (BMR) plus the cost of moving, working, exercising and digesting food. Eat at your TDEE and your weight holds steady on average; eat under it and you lose, over it and you gain.
How accurate is a TDEE calculator?
Any calculator gives an estimate. Resting-rate equations land within about 10% of a measured value for most adults, and the activity part adds its own error. Treat the result as a starting point: eat to it for two or three weeks, watch your average weight, and move the target by 100 to 200 calories if the trend does not match what you expected.
Why does this calculator ask about my job and steps instead of an activity level?
Because the usual "lightly active" or "very active" choices put very different days into one box. A desk worker who runs five times a week and a nurse who never trains can both call themselves active, yet they burn energy in completely different ways. Asking for work type, steps and each workout lets the calculator add up your actual day.
Which BMR formula does TDEE Meter use?
It averages Mifflin-St Jeor and the revised Harris-Benedict equation. If you enter a body-fat percentage, it also adds Katch-McArdle and Cunningham, which work from lean mass, and averages all four. Each value is shown in the results so you can see how close they are.
Should I eat back the calories from exercise?
Not separately. Your workouts are already inside the TDEE figure, averaged across the week, so the daily target already includes them. Adding exercise calories on top would count them twice.
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
A deficit of about 10 to 20% under your TDEE is a sensible range for most people: enough to see progress on the scale within a few weeks without making training or daily life miserable. The goals table in the results shows exact numbers for slow, steady and faster fat loss.
Does TDEE change as I lose weight?
Yes. A lighter body burns less at rest and less when it moves, so recalculate after every 4 to 5 kg (about 10 lb) lost, or whenever your job, steps or training change.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculator runs in your browser. Your last inputs are kept on your own device so the page remembers them next time; nothing is sent to a server.