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TDEE Calculator

Total Daily Energy Expenditure with fitness-goal targets and macro grams.

This calculator estimates your TDEE, then turns it into a practical fitness target: pick cutting, maintaining, or bulking, and get a daily calorie goal plus protein, carbs, and fat in grams. Bookmark the page after your first calculation — your inputs are saved into the URL, so the bookmark restores your numbers next visit.

Enter your details

Result

Enter your values and tap Calculate.

How to use this calculator

Fill in your sex, age, height, weight, activity level, and pick a goal. The calculator returns BMR, TDEE, your goal calories, an expected weekly weight change, and a macro breakdown in grams.

Treat these as starting points. Real-world results depend on adherence, training, sleep, and individual physiology. Track your weight trend over 2–4 weeks and adjust intake if your trajectory does not match the projection.

How to use the TDEE Calculator

Enter your sex, age, height, weight, and activity level. Pick a fitness goal — cut, maintain, or bulk. The calculator returns BMR, TDEE, target daily calories, expected weekly weight change, and grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

Example workflow

A 30-year-old male, 175 cm, 75 kg, moderately active, picking the cutting goal will see a target around 20% below TDEE with protein scaled to lean tissue preservation. A bulking selection adds about 10% above TDEE with carbs increased to fuel training.

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Frequently asked questions

What is TDEE?

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the total number of calories your body burns in a typical day, including resting metabolism, the energy cost of digestion, daily movement, and exercise. Eating below your TDEE creates a deficit; eating above creates a surplus.

How does this differ from the Calorie Calculator?

The Calorie Calculator gives a quick maintenance estimate. This TDEE calculator goes further: it adds a fitness goal selector (cut, maintain, bulk), suggests a daily calorie target for your goal, breaks down macronutrient grams (protein, carbs, fat), and projects how fast you should expect weight to change at that intake.

Which formula does this calculator use?

Mifflin-St Jeor for Basal Metabolic Rate, then a standard activity multiplier (1.2 sedentary through 1.9 very active) to get TDEE. The deficit and surplus values follow common fitness recommendations: ~20% below TDEE for fat loss and ~10% above for lean bulking.

How are macros calculated?

Protein scales with body weight (around 1.6–2.2 g per kg depending on goal), fat is set to about 25% of total calories, and carbohydrates fill the rest. These are starting points — adjust based on training response, satiety, and individual preference.

Does my saved progress get sent to a server?

No. Your inputs live only in the URL of this page. When you bookmark the page, you save your data locally to your own device. Nothing is uploaded, stored on a server, or tracked.

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People also ask

What is the difference between TDEE and BMR?

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the calories your body burns at complete rest — breathing, circulation, cell repair. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) multiplies BMR by an activity factor to account for movement, exercise, and thermogenesis. TDEE is the number you actually need to match or beat for weight management; BMR is just the floor.

Why does TDEE change over time?

TDEE decreases as you lose weight (less mass to maintain), as you age (muscle loss and hormonal shifts reduce metabolic rate), and through metabolic adaptation during prolonged caloric restriction. Gaining lean muscle mass through resistance training is one of the few reliable ways to increase resting metabolic rate and slow the decline in TDEE over time.

How accurate are TDEE calculators?

Population-level TDEE formulas are accurate within 10–15% for most people. Individual variation in metabolic rate — driven by genetics, gut microbiome, hormone levels, and body composition — means your actual TDEE could be meaningfully higher or lower. Track intake and weight for 3–4 weeks and calculate your real TDEE empirically from the data: if you ate 2,200 cal/day and weight held steady, your actual TDEE is approximately 2,200.

Real-world scenarios

Adjusting TDEE after significant weight loss

After losing 30 lbs, recalculate your TDEE — it will be lower than when you started because there is less body mass to maintain. Many people hit a plateau because they're still eating at the deficit that matched their original, higher TDEE. Re-entering your current stats into the calculator will show the updated maintenance level and help you set an appropriate new deficit.

Choosing the right activity multiplier

Most people overestimate their activity level. "Moderately active" (1.55×) is appropriate for 3–5 genuine 45-minute workouts per week with a sedentary job — not walking between meetings or occasional gym visits. If unsure, start with "lightly active" (1.375×) and adjust upward only if your tracked intake substantially exceeds the estimate while weight holds steady.

Using TDEE for a lean bulk

A lean bulk targets a 200–300 calorie surplus above TDEE — enough to support muscle growth while minimizing fat gain. At 3,000 TDEE, eat 3,200–3,300 cal/day with high protein (0.8–1g/lb of body weight) and consistent resistance training. Gains slower than 0.5 lb/week may suggest the surplus is too small; faster than 1 lb/week likely means too much fat accumulation.