TDEE Calculator
Estimate your Basal Metabolic Rate and Total Daily Energy Expenditure from age, sex, weight, height and activity level. See maintenance calories, cutting and bulking targets, BMI and TDEE at every activity level. Runs locally in your browser.
About this tool
This TDEE calculator estimates two numbers that anchor almost every diet and training plan: your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — the energy your body burns at complete rest — and your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) — that BMR scaled up by how active you are. Enter your age, sex, weight and height (in metric or imperial units), pick an activity level, and optionally choose a BMR formula and whether to see results in Calories or kilojoules. Everything runs locally in your browser; nothing you type is uploaded.
It returns your BMR, your TDEE at the chosen activity level, the activity multiplier used, your BMI and its category, calorie goals for cutting, maintaining and bulking, and your TDEE at all five activity levels so you can see how much movement changes the number.
Three standard equations are supported. Mifflin-St Jeor (the default and most accurate for
most people today) and the revised Harris-Benedict both use age, sex, weight and height.
Katch-McArdle instead uses your lean body mass derived from a body-fat percentage, so it
ignores age, sex and height. TDEE is always BMR × activity multiplier, where the multipliers are
1.2 (sedentary), 1.375 (light), 1.55 (moderate), 1.725 (very active) and 1.9 (extra active).
Example
Enter age 30, sex male, weight 70, height 175, units metric, activity moderate, formula mifflin_st_jeor:
{
"bmr": 1649.0,
"tdee": 2556.0,
"activity": "moderate",
"activity_multiplier": 1.55,
"formula": "mifflin_st_jeor",
"energy_unit": "calories",
"bmi": 22.9,
"bmi_category": "normal",
"goals": {
"mild_loss": 2306.0,
"loss": 2056.0,
"extreme_loss": 1556.0,
"maintain": 2556.0,
"mild_gain": 2806.0,
"gain": 3056.0
},
"tdee_by_activity": [ ... ],
"summary": "BMR 1649 kcal (mifflin-st-jeor); TDEE 2556 kcal/day at moderate activity (×1.55)"
}
Mifflin-St Jeor gives BMR = 10×70 + 6.25×175 − 5×30 + 5 = 1649 kcal, and moderate activity
lifts that to 1649 × 1.55 = 2556 kcal/day. To lose about half a kilo (one pound) a week, eat
around the loss target of 2056 kcal; to gain, aim near the gain target of 3056.
Limits & notes
- Every field is optional and falls back to a sensible default (age 30, male, 70 kg, 175 cm, moderate activity, Mifflin-St Jeor, metric, Calories).
- With imperial units, enter weight in pounds and height in total inches (e.g. 5'10" = 70). BMI is reported for every formula.
- The activity multipliers (1.2–1.9) and goal offsets (±250, ±500, −1000 kcal/day) are the widely used industry conventions; goal targets are floored at 0 and are estimates for planning, not medical advice. Very low calorie targets are not automatically safe.
- Macronutrient (protein/carb/fat) splits are not included — there is no single standard ratio; use the calorie targets with your own preferred split.
- These are population averages with a typical error of a few percent; individual metabolism varies. Track your weight for a couple of weeks and adjust.
FAQ
What's the difference between BMR and TDEE?
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the energy your body burns just to stay alive at complete rest — breathing, circulation, cell repair — with no activity at all. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is your whole-day burn: BMR plus everything you do — walking, exercise, digesting food, fidgeting. This tool estimates TDEE by multiplying BMR by an activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9. Your maintenance calories are your TDEE.
Which BMR formula should I choose?
Mifflin-St Jeor is the default and is generally the most accurate for the modern general population, so use it unless you have a reason not to. Harris-Benedict (the revised 1984 version) is an older equation that tends to read a little higher. Katch-McArdle can be more accurate if you know your body-fat percentage, because it works from lean body mass and ignores age, sex and height — useful for lean or very muscular people. If you don't know your body fat, stick with Mifflin-St Jeor.
How do I pick the right activity level?
Match it to a typical week, and be honest — most people overestimate. Sedentary (×1.2) is a desk job with little or no exercise; light (×1.375) adds 1–3 easy workouts; moderate (×1.55) is 3–5 solid sessions; very active (×1.725) is 6–7 hard sessions; extra active (×1.9) is twice-a-day training or heavy physical labour. The tool shows your TDEE at all five levels so you can compare. If your weight isn't moving as expected after two weeks, step the level down.
How are the cutting and bulking targets calculated?
They are fixed daily offsets from your TDEE: mild loss is −250 kcal, loss is −500 kcal (about 0.5 kg / 1 lb per week), extreme loss is −1000 kcal (about 1 kg / 2 lb per week), and the two gain targets add +250 and +500 kcal. Roughly 7,700 kcal ≈ 1 kg of body fat, which is where those weekly estimates come from. They're planning starting points, not guarantees — real results depend on adherence, water weight and individual metabolism, and very aggressive deficits aren't safe for everyone.
Can I get results in kilojoules instead of Calories?
Yes — set Energy unit to Kilojoules and every energy figure (BMR, TDEE, all goals and the per-level TDEE) is converted using 1 kcal = 4.184 kJ. Note that "Calories" on nutrition labels means kilocalories (kcal), which is what this tool uses by default.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser via WebAssembly. Nothing you enter is uploaded, logged or stored — reload the page and it's gone.
Developer & Automation Access
Run it from the terminal
Same engine as this page, headless — via the gizza CLI:
gizza tool tdee-calculator 'age=30'New to the CLI? Get gizza →
Open it by URL
Pre-fill and auto-run this tool with query parameters — the names match the API/CLI:
https://gizza.ai/tools/tdee-calculator/?age=30&sex=male&weight=70&height=175&units=metric&activity=moderate&formula=mifflin_st_jeor&body_fat=20&energy_unit=caloriesMachine-readable descriptor: tool.json — title + parameters JSON Schema for agents.