Calorie & TDEE Calculator

Calculate your BMR — calories burned at rest — TDEE — total daily energy expenditure including activity — and a daily calorie target for weight loss, maintenance, or gain.

How it works

  1. Enter your age, sex, height, and weight.
  2. Select your typical activity level from the dropdown.
  3. The tool calculates your Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the calories you burn per day.
  4. Use the goal presets to see the calorie targets for maintenance, a mild deficit, or a mild surplus.

The two-step method

The calculator first estimates your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the energy your body uses at rest, with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation: BMR = 10 x weight in kg + 6.25 x height in cm - 5 x age in years, then + 5 for men or - 161 for women. The equation was published by Mifflin and colleagues in 1990 (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition) and is widely used in dietetics because it has been found to predict resting energy use better than older formulas for most adults. If you enter pounds or inches, they are converted first (1 lb = 0.453592 kg, 1 in = 2.54 cm).

It then multiplies the BMR by an activity factor to estimate total daily energy expenditure (TDEE): 1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for lightly active (1 to 3 days a week), 1.55 for moderately active (3 to 5 days), 1.725 for very active (6 to 7 days) and 1.9 for extra active (a physical job or two training sessions a day). The results are rounded to the nearest calorie.

Two worked examples

A 35-year-old man who weighs 80 kg, is 180 cm tall and is moderately active: BMR = 800 + 1,125 - 175 + 5 = 1,755, and TDEE = 1,755 x 1.55 = 2,720 calories a day. The three targets are 2,220 (maintenance minus 500), 2,470 (minus 250 for a gentler pace) and 3,020 (plus 300 for gaining).

A 30-year-old woman who weighs 65 kg, is 165 cm tall and is lightly active: BMR = 650 + 1,031.25 - 150 - 161 = 1,370, and TDEE = 1,370 x 1.375 = 1,884 calories a day.

How accurate is it?

It is an estimate, not a measurement. Studies of predictive equations typically find individual errors of around 10% either way, and the biggest source of error is usually the activity factor, because people tend to overestimate how active they are. The equation also cannot see body composition: two people of the same height, weight, age and sex but different muscle mass will burn different amounts at rest.

The most reliable way to use the result is as a starting point. Eat close to the estimate for two to three weeks while weighing yourself under the same conditions, then adjust by a few hundred calories depending on whether your weight is moving the way you want. The cut and gain figures are common rules of thumb, and a 500 calorie daily deficit is often quoted as roughly half a kilogram of weight loss a week, though real-world results vary and slow down over time.

Who should not rely on it

These equations were developed for healthy adults. They are not designed for children, pregnancy or breastfeeding, or for people with medical conditions that change energy use, and they should not be used to justify very low intakes. If you have a medical condition, a history of disordered eating, or you want to lose weight quickly, speak to a doctor or registered dietitian instead.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between BMR and TDEE?

BMR is the energy your body uses at complete rest just to function. TDEE adds your activity level on top of that to estimate total daily calorie burn.

How accurate is the calorie target?

It's a starting estimate based on standard formulas like Mifflin-St Jeor — actual metabolism varies by individual, so treat it as a baseline to adjust from based on real-world results.

Sources and further reading

Formulas checked against the sources below. Last reviewed . General information only, not professional advice.