Free tool
TDEE calculator
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is roughly how many calories you burn in a day. Enter your details and you get your BMR, your maintenance calories, and sensible targets for losing fat or building muscle. No sign-up, nothing stored.
What the numbers mean
BMR — your Basal Metabolic Rate, the energy your body uses staying alive at complete rest. Breathing, circulation, keeping your organs running. Nobody burns only their BMR in a real day.
TDEE — BMR multiplied by an activity factor. This is your maintenance level: eat roughly this and your weight holds steady.
To lose fat — maintenance minus 500 kcal, a rate of roughly half a kilo a week. To build muscle — maintenance plus 300 kcal, a modest surplus that favours muscle over fat.
This calculator uses the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, the most widely used and generally the most accurate of the standard formulas for people without unusual body composition.
Get this bit right
Activity levels, honestly
This is where most people go wrong, and it is worth a moment. The multiplier is meant to cover your whole day, not just your workouts. If you are between two, take the lower one — overestimating activity is the single most common reason a calorie target does not produce the expected result.
| Level | Multiplier | Who this is |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | ×1.2 | Desk job, drive or sit for most of your commute, little deliberate exercise. Most office workers. |
| Light | ×1.375 | Some walking during the day, or one to three real sessions a week. |
| Moderate | ×1.55 | Genuine training three to five days a week, or a job that keeps you on your feet. |
| Active | ×1.725 | Hard training most days, or physical work. |
Use it properly
The number is a starting point.
Every TDEE formula is a population estimate applied to one person. Real expenditure varies with body composition, non-exercise movement, sleep, and how much you fidget. Treat this as an opening hypothesis rather than a fact about your metabolism.
The useful method: eat at the number for two to three weeks, track it honestly, and watch the trend on the scale. If nothing moves, adjust by 100–200 kcal and repeat. Your own data beats any equation after a fortnight.
Which requires actually logging — the part most people abandon. BetterCal exists for exactly that: describe the meal in a sentence and it is recorded.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between BMR and TDEE?
BMR is what you burn at complete rest. TDEE is BMR plus everything else you do — moving, digesting, exercising. TDEE is always the larger number, and it is the one to set your calorie target from.
How accurate is this TDEE calculator?
The Mifflin–St Jeor equation typically lands within about 10% for most people, which on a 2,000 kcal day is a couple of hundred calories either way. Use it as a starting point and correct it against two to three weeks of your own weight trend.
Should I eat below my BMR to lose weight faster?
No. Sustained eating below BMR tends to cost you muscle and energy, and it is very hard to keep up. A deficit of 300–500 kcal below TDEE is the usual sensible range. Talk to a doctor or dietitian before anything more aggressive.
Does this account for exercise I do on a given day?
The activity multiplier already averages your usual exercise in, so do not add workout calories on top — that double-counts. If you want a per-session figure, use the calories burned calculator.
Is my data stored?
No. This calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is saved.
Next step
Now the hard part: actually logging it.
BetterCal turns a full day of food into one sentence. Free to start on iPhone and Android.
