TDEE Calculator — Estimate Your Daily Calories for Maintenance

How to use the TDEE calculator

1. Choose your Sex and enter your Age.
2. Pick Units: Metric (cm and kg) or Imperial (inches and pounds).
3. Enter your Height and Weight.
4. Choose your Activity level: sedentary or light (PAL 1.53), active (1.76) or vigorous (2.25). If you know your own physical activity level, choose Enter my own PAL and type it in.
5. Read your TDEE, your BMR and the activity level used. The table lists daily intakes 250 and 500 calories below and above maintenance.

What it does and when to use it

Knowing roughly how many calories you burn helps you plan meals with a purpose. You might want to keep your weight steady, lose a little, or gain muscle. This calculator gives you a sensible first number to work from.

It is most useful when you:

• Are starting to track food and need a daily target.
• Want to set a modest deficit or surplus rather than guessing.
• Need a calorie figure to split into protein, carbohydrate and fat with the Macro Calculator.
• Want to see how your needs change if you become more or less active.

It is an estimate for healthy adults, not medical advice. It does not replace advice from a doctor or dietitian, especially for medical conditions, pregnancy or eating disorders. For a quick check of weight for height, see the BMI Calculator. For protein specifically, try the Protein Intake Calculator.

How it works

The tool first estimates BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, published in 1990:

• Men: BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5
• Women: BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age − 161

It then multiplies BMR by a physical activity level (PAL). The FAO/WHO/UNU expert report Human energy requirements (2001) defines PAL as a day’s energy needs expressed as a multiple of BMR. The calculator uses the example values from the report’s Table 5.1 and the bands from its Table 5.3:

TDEE = BMR × PAL. The report says the levels free-living adults can keep up for a long time range from about 1.40 to 2.40, so the tool warns you if you enter your own value outside that range. It also notes that an hour a day of moderate to vigorous exercise, such as jogging or cycling, can lift a sedentary person to the moderately active level.

One caution: the FAO report works out BMR with its own weight-based equations, while this tool uses Mifflin-St Jeor. Activity levels are ratios to BMR, so the two can be combined, but the result is still an estimate. Imperial inputs are converted with 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg and 1 inch = 2.54 cm, the exact definitions. Everything runs in your browser.

Worked examples

A man with a desk job. Age 30, 175 cm, 70 kg. BMR = 700 + 1,093.75 − 150 + 5 = 1,648.75 kcal/day. With the sedentary or light activity level of 1.53, TDEE is 2,523 kcal/day. The table lists 2,273 kcal a day for 250 less and 2,023 for 500 less.

An active woman. Age 40, 160 cm, 60 kg. BMR = 600 + 1,000 − 200 − 161 = 1,239 kcal/day. With the active level of 1.76, TDEE is 2,181 kcal/day.

Your own activity level. The same man with a known PAL of 1.6: 1,648.75 × 1.6, so TDEE is 2,638 kcal/day.

Limits and tips

• Estimate, not medical advice. The equation was developed for healthy adults. It may fit less well for very muscular people, older adults or people with medical conditions.
• No weight-change forecast. The calorie targets are simple offsets. The 3,500-calories-per-pound rule overestimates weight loss over time (Thomas and colleagues, 2013), and the energy needed per kilogram lost depends on how much body fat you have (Hall, 2008).
• Lifestyle averages. Each activity level is an average for a whole lifestyle. If your days vary, pick the level that fits most of them.
• Weigh yourself at the same time of day and average each week, since day-to-day water changes hide the trend.
• If your weight is stable after a few weeks at the suggested maintenance figure, your real TDEE is close to it. If not, adjust in small steps.