Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the estimated number of calories your body burns in a full day. It is one of the most useful starting points for planning fat loss, weight maintenance, or lean muscle gain.
TDEE starts with your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), then adds an activity multiplier for daily movement and exercise. That means two people with the same height, weight, age, and gender can have different calorie needs if one is sedentary and the other trains often.
How TDEE Is Calculated
First, calculate BMR using a formula such as Mifflin-St Jeor. Then multiply BMR by an activity factor:
- Sedentary: BMR x 1.2
- Light activity: BMR x 1.375
- Moderate activity: BMR x 1.55
- Very active: BMR x 1.725
- Extra active: BMR x 1.9
How To Use Your Result
Your TDEE is your estimated maintenance calorie level. To lose fat, many people start around 300 to 500 calories below TDEE. To gain muscle, a smaller surplus of around 200 to 300 calories above TDEE is often more sustainable than a large surplus.
Because TDEE is an estimate, track your body weight trend, training performance, sleep, hunger, and energy for a few weeks. Then adjust your calories based on real results.
Best Next Step
Use our private TDEE tool to estimate your maintenance calories instantly. For a deeper resting metabolism baseline, compare it with the BMR Calculator too.
Use TDEE Calculator