TDEE Calculator

Total daily energy expenditure and what each part contributes.

Calculate total daily energy expenditure from BMR and activity level, broken into resting burn, movement, exercise and the cost of digestion.

Written and maintained by Mohit PatelLast checked August 4, 2026How we build these

Units

Sex

Age

years

Height

Weight

Activity level

Count deliberate exercise only, incidental movement is already in the multiplier.

Activity multipliers are broad brackets, accurate to roughly ±15%. Incidental movement varies by hundreds of calories a day between people. Correct this estimate from two weeks of real weight data.

Maintenance calories (TDEE)

2,556 kcal

eat this to hold your current weight

Resting metabolism (BMR)1,649 kcal

Movement & exercise651 kcal

Digesting food (~10%)256 kcal

Activity multiplier×1.55

How the TDEE Calculator works

TDEE is everything you burn in a day: resting metabolism, the energy cost of digesting food, deliberate exercise, and all the incidental movement in between. It is the number that decides whether you gain, hold or lose, eat at it and weight stays put.

Also known as: total daily energy expenditure · how many calories do I burn a day · maintenance calories calculator · tdee calculator · tde calculator

The four components of daily expenditure

Total daily energy expenditure is basal metabolic rate, plus the thermic effect of food, plus exercise activity, plus non-exercise activity thermogenesis.

The thermic effect of food is the energy used digesting and absorbing what you eat, roughly 10% of intake, and it varies by macronutrient. Protein costs 20% to 30% of its own energy to process, carbohydrate 5% to 10%, and fat 0% to 3%.

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis covers everything that is not deliberate exercise: walking, fidgeting, standing, gesturing, maintaining posture. It varies enormously between individuals, by as much as 2,000 calories a day in some studies, and it is the single largest source of unexplained variation between people of similar size.

The activity multipliers, and why they mislead

The conventional multipliers run from 1.2 for sedentary through 1.375 for light activity, 1.55 for moderate, 1.725 for very active, to 1.9 for extremely active.

The descriptions attached to them are vague and people overestimate consistently. Three gym sessions a week does not make someone moderately active if the rest of the week is spent at a desk; that is closer to lightly active.

The systematic bias is towards overestimating. Someone choosing 1.55 when 1.375 is accurate on a 1,600 BMR overestimates maintenance by 280 calories, which is enough to prevent weight loss entirely on a plan that assumed a 300 calorie deficit.

Why a fitness tracker disagrees

Wearable devices estimate energy expenditure from heart rate and movement, and validation studies consistently find errors of 20% to 30% on energy burned, usually overestimating.

Step counts and heart rate are measured reasonably well; converting them to calories requires assumptions about efficiency and body composition that the device cannot know.

Which means eating back the calories a tracker says you burned is a reliable way to stall. If a tracker is used at all, it is more useful as a consistency measure, comparing today against last week, than as an absolute figure to eat against.

Adaptive thermogenesis

Total expenditure falls during sustained energy restriction by more than the loss of body mass alone accounts for. Non-exercise activity drops, often unconsciously, and metabolic efficiency improves.

The size of the effect is debated and the direction is not. Estimates commonly fall between 5% and 15% below what the new body weight predicts, and it is larger with more aggressive restriction.

The practical consequence is that a deficit that worked initially stops working, and the response should be to recalculate against current weight rather than to cut further immediately. Periodic breaks at maintenance are used by many practitioners to limit the adaptation, and the evidence for them is suggestive rather than conclusive.

Finding your actual maintenance

The reliable method needs no equation at all. Track intake carefully for two to three weeks while weighing daily, take the weekly averages, and see what happened.

Stable average weight means the average intake was maintenance. Weight change of half a kilogram a week means intake was roughly 500 calories a day away from it, in the corresponding direction.

This requires honest tracking, which is where it usually fails. Under-reporting of intake is well documented and substantial, commonly 20% or more, and it happens to people who believe they are being accurate. Weighing food rather than estimating portions removes most of it.

Where to go next

The TDEE question rarely arrives on its own. These are the ones that usually come with it:

BMR Calculator — Basal metabolic rate by three formulas, side by side.
Calorie Deficit Calculator — How big a deficit gives the rate of loss you want.
Macro Calculator — Protein, fat and carbs in grams for your goal.
BMI Calculator — Body mass index with category and healthy weight range.

Sources

NIDDK, Body Weight Planner (NIH)

Not medical advice. This calculator gives a general estimate, not medical advice. It cannot account for your individual health, medical history, or medication. Talk to a qualified healthcare professional before acting on any result.

Frequently asked questions

What are the four components of TDEE?

Basal metabolic rate, about 60-70%. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): walking, fidgeting, standing, which varies enormously between people and can differ by hundreds of calories a day. The thermic effect of food, roughly 10%. And deliberate exercise, which is usually the smallest slice despite getting the most attention.

How accurate are the activity multipliers?

They are broad brackets, and the honest answer is ±15% or so. NEAT is the main reason: two people with identical jobs and workouts can differ by 400 calories a day just in how much they move otherwise. Use the estimate as a starting point and correct it from two weeks of real weight data.

Should I add exercise calories on top of TDEE?

No, if you picked an activity multiplier that already reflects your training. Doing both double-counts. Either use a sedentary multiplier and log workouts separately, or use a multiplier that includes them, not both.

Why is my TDEE lower than the calculator says?

Usually because intake is underestimated rather than expenditure being unusual, cooking oils, drinks and untracked bites add up fast. Metabolic adaptation after a long diet is real but modest, typically 5-15%. Track carefully for two weeks before concluding your metabolism is the problem.