TDEE Calculator — Daily Calories Burned

How to use TDEE Calculator

1. 1
   Enter your measurements. Age, weight and height, in metric or imperial. The equation needs all three.
2. 2
   Choose an activity level honestly. Most people place themselves one tier too high. Count sessions you actually complete, not ones you intend.
3. 3
   Use the result as a starting point. Hold the number for two to three weeks, weigh consistently, and adjust from the trend rather than from the equation.

About daily energy expenditure

Total daily energy expenditure has four components and they are wildly unequal in size. Basal metabolic rate — the cost of simply being alive — is around sixty to seventy percent of the total. The thermic effect of food is close to ten percent. Deliberate exercise is usually under ten percent for anyone who is not an athlete, which surprises people who assume a gym session dominates the day. The remainder is non-exercise activity thermogenesis: walking, standing, fidgeting, carrying things. That last component varies between individuals by several hundred calories a day and moves without anyone deciding it should, which is a large part of why two people with identical measurements can have genuinely different requirements. The equation used here, Mifflin-St Jeor, was published in 1990 and replaced the older Harris-Benedict equations because it validated better against the population it was tested on. Neither is a measurement. The honest way to use any of this is as a hypothesis to test: take the number, hold it steady for two or three weeks while weighing consistently, and let the trend correct the estimate. Your own data beats any equation, because it is the only source that knows your actual activity rather than a tier you selected from a list.

Frequently asked questions