TDEE Calculator
Estimate total daily energy expenditure from four resting-metabolic-rate equations, with the spread between them, a BMR/TEF/exercise/NEAT breakdown, an uncertainty band, every activity level, and a check against your own logged weeks. Browser-only.
Results
TDEE and maintenance calories: the same number
TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure, the energy your body uses across a whole day. Because that is what you spend, it is also what you would have to eat to hold your weight steady: maintenance calories and TDEE are two names for one figure, and this free TDEE calculator reports it before any goal is applied.
The estimate takes two steps. A resting metabolic rate comes first, from height, weight, age and sex. An activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9 then scales it to a whole day. The page prints the resting rate and the factor separately, so you can see which half is doing the work. For that figure on its own, without the component breakdown or the goal ladder, the maintenance calorie calculator reports it directly.
If you want the intake target rather than the expenditure figure, the calorie calculator applies a goal and a safety floor to this same maintenance number. If you want the resting rate on its own, the BMR calculator reports it without any activity assumption at all.
What this calculator adds
TDEE is more than one unexplained integer here. The route shows the selected resting-rate equation, the disagreement between all equations your data supports, the uncertainty band, the activity-band table, the component breakdown, and a goal ladder that reuses the published minimum-intake floor instead of silently implying every deficit is safe.
Activity bands and the multiplier
The multiplier is the largest single source of error in the result, which is why the page shows the one it used and the total every other band would have produced. If you sit between two bands, the lower one is the safer starting point.
| Band | Multiplier | Describes |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1.2 | Little or no exercise; a desk job |
| Lightly active | 1.375 | Light exercise 1 to 3 days a week |
| Moderately active | 1.55 | Moderate exercise 3 to 5 days a week |
| Very active | 1.725 | Hard exercise 6 to 7 days a week |
| Extra active | 1.9 | Very hard exercise, training twice a day, or a physical job |
Where the calories go
The component view splits the same total four ways. Resting metabolic rate is the largest share. The thermic effect of food is the energy spent digesting what you eat, taken here as 10 per cent of intake. Exercise activity is deliberate training. Non-exercise activity, often called NEAT, is everything else you do while awake, and it varies between people far more than the other three.
Under the activity-multiplier method the four components are back-derived from the total, with exercise held at zero because a single band cannot separate formal training from the rest of the day. Under the component method they are the inputs, and the total is their sum. Either way the components always add up to the TDEE shown.
Using TDEE to lose or gain weight
A goal is a fixed daily change to maintenance, which is what turns this into a TDEE weight loss calculator without changing the underlying figure:
| Goal | Effect |
|---|---|
| Maintain weight | No change to maintenance |
| Mild weight loss | 250 kcal a day below maintenance |
| Weight loss | 500 kcal a day below maintenance |
| Extreme weight loss | 1,000 kcal a day below maintenance |
| Mild weight gain | 250 kcal a day above maintenance |
| Weight gain | 500 kcal a day above maintenance |
No row is reported below the published minimum daily intake of 1,500 kcal for men and 1,200 kcal for women, and the floor never raises a target above maintenance. Where a goal would fall through the floor, the ladder shows the target that can actually be served and the rate that target really delivers, rather than the rate the goal is named for.
Why the page shows disagreement
The resting-rate equations do not measure the same thing, so they should not be averaged into a fake consensus. When you supply body fat percentage, the page keeps the sex-height-weight equations beside the body-composition equations so you can see the spread instead of having it hidden from you.
Sources and limitations
Sources reviewed 27 August 2026. This is an educational estimate for healthy adults, not medical or dietary advice. The uncertainty band covers resting-rate prediction error only; activity assumptions can be wrong by more than that. The optional logged-period section is only as good as the intake and weight data you enter.
Frequently asked questions
What is TDEE?
TDEE means total daily energy expenditure: the energy your body uses in a day after combining resting metabolism, movement, exercise and the thermic effect of food.
Is TDEE the same as maintenance calories?
Yes. Total daily energy expenditure is the energy you use across a whole day, so eating that amount is what holds your weight steady. Maintenance calories is the everyday name for the same figure, and it is the number this calculator reports before any goal is applied.
How is the TDEE figure built?
A resting metabolic rate from height, weight, age and sex, multiplied by an activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9. The page shows both the resting rate and the factor it used rather than folding them into one figure, and the component view splits the same total into resting rate, thermic effect, exercise and everyday movement.
What is the difference between BMR and TDEE?
BMR or RMR is the energy your body uses at rest. TDEE is that resting rate plus everything else in a day: the thermic effect of food, formal exercise, and the movement that is neither. TDEE is always the larger of the two, and it is the one that corresponds to maintenance.
Can I use TDEE to lose weight?
Yes, by eating below it. The goal ladder on this page subtracts 250, 500 or 1,000 kcal a day from maintenance and reports the target each produces. No row is ever reported below the published minimum intake of 1,500 kcal a day for men or 1,200 for women, so an aggressive goal can return a smaller deficit than its name implies.
How accurate is a TDEE calculator?
The uncertainty band on the result covers prediction error in the resting-rate equation only, at roughly 10 per cent either way. Error in the activity assumption sits on top of that and cannot be quantified here, because only you know how much you actually move. Treat the figure as a starting point and correct it against what your weight does over several weeks.