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TDEE Calculator

Health

Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) based on your BMR and activity level. Find your maintenance calories for weight loss or muscle gain.

Reviewed by the thecalcu.com team · Last updated July 9, 2026

Gender
Age
yrs
1580
Weight
kg
30200
Height
cm
100250
Activity Level

TDEE — Maintenance Calories

0
BMR (kcal/day)
0
Weight Loss (−500 kcal)
0
Weight Gain (+500 kcal)
0

What is a TDEE?

A TDEE Calculator computes your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, the complete number of calories your body burns every day across all activities: sleeping, walking, digesting food, exercising, and working. TDEE is the single most important number in nutrition and fitness, because it defines the calorie level at which your weight is stable.

TDEE is calculated by multiplying your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), the calories burned at rest, by an activity multiplier that accounts for your lifestyle. This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation for BMR and the standard Harris-Benedict activity multipliers (1.2 to 1.9), giving you:

  • Maintenance calories (TDEE), eat this to stay at your current weight
  • Weight loss target (TDEE − 500 kcal), moderate deficit for ~0.5 kg/week loss
  • Weight gain target (TDEE + 500 kcal), moderate surplus for lean muscle gain

For Indian users, this is especially relevant given India's high prevalence of sedentary work patterns, calorie-dense traditional diets, and the rapidly growing fitness culture in cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Delhi.

Pair with the BMR Calculator to understand your metabolic baseline, and the Calorie Calculator for meal-level planning.

Why Use a TDEE Calculator?

Most people fail at diet goals not because of willpower but because of arithmetic, they don't know how many calories they need. Without TDEE, you're guessing:

  • Eating "healthy" without a calorie framework often means eating at maintenance, not at a deficit, so the scale doesn't move
  • Copying a friend's 1,600 kcal diet when your own TDEE is 2,400 kcal creates too large a deficit, causing muscle loss and metabolic slowdown
  • Following a "2,000 kcal standard" that doesn't match your body's actual burn

A 30-year-old woman in Bengaluru (60 kg, 163 cm, office job, gym 4 days/week) has TDEE ≈ 2,160 kcal/day, her weight loss target is 1,660 kcal/day, not a generic 1,200 kcal crash diet.

Who Should Use This Calculator?

People trying to lose weight who need a personalised calorie deficit target rather than a generic 1,200/1,500 kcal plan.

People trying to build muscle who need a calorie surplus calibrated to their body and activity level, not a blanket "eat more" instruction.

Fitness coaches and gym trainers across India who need a quick client-specific calorie target before writing meal plans.

Competitive athletes who need to adjust intake precisely around training blocks, bulking, cutting, and maintenance phases all require accurate TDEE.

People with metabolic concerns (PCOS, hypothyroidism, insulin resistance) who need a baseline to compare against clinician-measured metabolic rates. See the BMI Calculator and Body Fat Calculator for complementary health metrics.

What Does the TDEE Result Tell You?

BMR shows your calorie burn at complete rest, your metabolic floor. Never eat significantly below this number.

TDEE (Maintenance) is your actual daily burn, the equilibrium point where weight is stable. This is the most actionable number.

Weight Loss Target (TDEE − 500), a 500 kcal/day deficit leads to approximately 0.5 kg of fat loss per week (3,500 kcal deficit ≈ 0.45 kg of fat). This is the pace recommended by most nutrition guidelines.

Weight Gain Target (TDEE + 500), a 500 kcal/day surplus supports lean muscle gain. Larger surpluses are appropriate only for beginners; experienced lifters limit surplus to 200–300 kcal to minimise fat gain.

The bar chart shows the relationship between your BMR, maintenance, and diet targets at a glance.

How to use this TDEE calculator

  1. Select your Gender, this affects the BMR constant in the Mifflin formula.
  2. Enter your Age, Weight (kg), and Height (cm) using sliders or input fields.
  3. Choose your Activity Level honestly, most people overestimate activity. If you're unsure, pick one level lower than you think.
  4. The TDEE (Maintenance Calories) result is your primary output, this is your daily calorie target to maintain weight.
  5. Note the Weight Loss target (TDEE − 500) as your diet calorie ceiling.
  6. Note the Weight Gain target (TDEE + 500) as your muscle-building calorie target.
  7. Recalculate every 4–6 weeks or whenever your weight changes by more than 3–4 kg.

Formula & Methodology

Step 1, BMR (Mifflin-St Jeor, 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

Step 2, Activity Multipliers:

| Activity Level | Multiplier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | 1.2 | Desk job, no exercise |
| Lightly Active | 1.375 | Light exercise 1–3 days/week |
| Moderately Active | 1.55 | Moderate exercise 3–5 days/week |
| Very Active | 1.725 | Hard exercise 6–7 days/week |
| Extremely Active | 1.9 | Physical job + intense daily training |

Step 3, TDEE = BMR × Activity Multiplier

Worked example, 28-year-old woman in Pune, 58 kg, 161 cm, gym 4 days/week (moderately active):
BMR  = (10 × 58) + (6.25 × 161) − (5 × 28) − 161      = 580 + 1006.25 − 140 − 161      = 1,285.25 kcal/day ≈ 1,285 kcal/day  TDEE = 1,285 × 1.55 = 1,992 kcal/day  Weight loss target: 1,992 − 500 = 1,492 kcal/day Weight gain target: 1,992 + 500 = 2,492 kcal/day

Frequently Asked Questions

Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories your body burns in a day, accounting for all activity, from sleeping and sitting to exercise and movement. It is the most important number in any diet plan: eating below TDEE causes weight loss, eating at TDEE maintains weight, and eating above TDEE causes weight gain. Without knowing TDEE, calorie targets are guesswork.
TDEE is calculated by multiplying your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) by an activity multiplier. BMR is computed using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation based on age, gender, height, and weight. The activity multiplier ranges from 1.2 (sedentary) to 1.9 (extremely active). For example, a BMR of 1,700 kcal/day for a moderately active person gives TDEE = 1,700 × 1.55 = 2,635 kcal/day.
Choose based on your weekly exercise pattern and job type together. Sedentary (1.2): desk job with no structured exercise. Lightly active (1.375): desk job with 1–3 days of light gym or yoga. Moderately active (1.55): office job with 3–5 days of gym, cycling, or sports. Very active (1.725): physical job or 6–7 days of intense training. Extremely active (1.9): construction worker or athlete training twice daily. Most Indian office workers fall in the sedentary-to-lightly-active range.
Maintenance calories and TDEE are the same thing, the number of calories that keeps your weight stable. If you consistently eat at your TDEE, your weight will neither increase nor decrease. Eating 500 kcal/day below TDEE creates a deficit that leads to approximately 0.45 kg (roughly 500 g) of fat loss per week, since roughly 3,500 kcal of deficit corresponds to 0.45 kg of fat.
Eat 300–500 kcal/day below your TDEE for sustainable fat loss. For a moderately active Indian man with a TDEE of 2,400 kcal/day, a target of 1,900–2,100 kcal/day is appropriate. Avoid going below 1,200 kcal/day for women or 1,500 kcal/day for men, these are approximate BMR thresholds below which metabolic adaptation and muscle loss accelerate. Always pair a calorie deficit with adequate protein intake (1.6–2.2 g per kg of body weight).
Several factors increase TDEE beyond what the formula predicts: high muscle mass (muscle burns more calories than fat at rest), hot climate (thermoregulation in Indian summers adds calorie burn), and occupations with more walking or standing than assumed. Conversely, if your TDEE seems too low, you may be underestimating your weight or selecting the wrong activity level. The formula has ±15% accuracy, track your actual weight for 2–3 weeks to calibrate.
No. TDEE already includes your exercise calories through the activity multiplier. If you selected 'Moderately Active' and your TDEE is 2,400 kcal/day, that 2,400 already accounts for your 3–5 gym sessions per week. Eating additional calories on top 'because you worked out' leads to unintended surplus. The exception: if your exercise significantly exceeds your stated activity level on a given day (e.g., a long weekend trek), a small refeed makes sense.
Enter your gender, age, weight in kilograms, and height in centimetres. Then select your activity level from the dropdown, be honest rather than optimistic. The TDEE (maintenance calories) appears as the primary result. Note the weight loss and weight gain targets, which are TDEE ± 500 kcal/day. Use these as your daily calorie targets in a calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal.
Yes, TDEE changes with changes in weight, muscle mass, age, and activity level. As you lose weight, your TDEE decreases, you must recalculate every 4–5 kg of weight change to avoid hitting a plateau. As you gain muscle, your BMR (and thus TDEE) increases slightly. Recalculate your TDEE every 4–6 weeks during an active diet or training phase. This also explains why the same 1,500 kcal diet that worked initially stops working after a few months.
A typical Indian office-going professional aged 28–35, classified as sedentary to lightly active, has a TDEE of approximately 1,700–2,000 kcal/day (women) and 2,000–2,400 kcal/day (men). India's NIN recommends 1,900 kcal/day for sedentary adult women and 2,320 kcal/day for sedentary adult men (at reference body weights of 55 kg and 65 kg respectively), which aligns closely with TDEE calculations using a 1.2–1.375 activity multiplier.
The thermic effect of food (TEF) is the calories burned digesting and metabolising food, approximately 10% of total calorie intake. TDEE as calculated here does not separately include TEF, but the activity multipliers are derived from real-world data that implicitly accounts for it. In practice, TEF averages out and does not significantly change diet planning decisions. High-protein diets have a higher TEF (20–30% of protein calories), which is one reason high-protein diets support weight loss.
The Mifflin-St Jeor BMR formula is accurate within ±10% for most individuals. The activity multipliers are population averages and add further variability. Combined, TDEE estimates are typically accurate within ±15–20%, meaning a 2,400 kcal TDEE prediction could range from 1,920 to 2,880 kcal in reality. Use the calculator as a starting point, then adjust based on real-world weight change: if your weight is stable at 2,200 kcal, that is your actual TDEE regardless of what the formula says.
Also known as
total daily energy expenditureTDEEdaily calorie burn calculatormaintenance caloriesTDEE formula