TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the total calories your body burns in 24 hours. It is the sum of four parts: basal metabolic rate (BMR), non-exercise activity (NEAT), exercise (EAT) and the thermic effect of food (TEF). To estimate it, calculate BMR with the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, then multiply by an activity factor from 1.2 to 1.9.
Key takeaways
- TDEE is BMR plus movement plus digestion, and for most adults BMR alone is about 60–70% of it.
- The standard estimate is BMR × an activity factor (1.2 sedentary to 1.9 athlete); for our example woman that gives 1,444 × 1.55 = 2,239 kcal/day.
- Non-exercise activity (NEAT) varies far more between people than formal exercise does, which is why two people with the same stats can have different TDEEs.
- TDEE falls as you lose weight and tends to fall with age, so a number you calculated a year ago may be out of date.
If you want the number first, the TDEE calculator gives it in a few seconds. This guide explains what the number is made of, how it is calculated and why it changes. It is part of the TDEE section, which covers formulas, accuracy and adaptive TDEE.
What does TDEE stand for?
TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure: all the energy your body uses in a 24-hour day, measured in kilocalories (kcal, usually called “calories”). Energy balance is the idea that your weight trend follows the gap between calories eaten and TDEE. Eat roughly your TDEE and weight holds steady; eat less and you lose; eat more and you gain.
What are the four components of TDEE?
TDEE has four parts. Only two of them are easy to change on purpose.
| Component | What it is | Typical share of TDEE |
|---|---|---|
| BMR (basal metabolic rate) | Energy to keep you alive at rest: organs, breathing, circulation, temperature | About 60–70% |
| TEF (thermic effect of food) | Energy used to digest, absorb and store food | About 10% of the calories you eat (Westerterp, 2004) |
| NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) | Walking, standing, fidgeting, chores, typing, everything that is not planned exercise | Highly variable, often the biggest swing factor (Levine, 2002) |
| EAT (exercise activity thermogenesis) | Deliberate workouts and sport | Typically a small share, often under 10% for recreational exercisers |
Two people of the same size and weight can differ by several hundred calories a day because of NEAT alone (Levine, 2002). That is the main reason a formula can only give an estimate. For more on this component, see our guide to NEAT.
How do you calculate TDEE?
The standard method has two steps.
- Estimate BMR. The Mifflin–St Jeor equation is the usual choice because it came closest to measured resting energy in a systematic review of predictive equations (Mifflin et al., 1990; Frankenfield et al., 2005).
- Multiply by an activity factor. The factor stands in for NEAT, EAT and the extra cost of food.
BMR (men) = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5 BMR (women) = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age − 161 TDEE = BMR × activity factor
| Activity level | Description | Factor |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Desk job, little or no exercise | 1.2 |
| Light | Light exercise 1–3 days/week | 1.375 |
| Moderate | Moderate exercise 3–5 days/week | 1.55 |
| Active | Hard exercise 6–7 days/week | 1.725 |
| Athlete | Twice-daily training or physical job | 1.9 |
If you know your body fat, lean-mass equations are an alternative, described in our formula comparison.
Worked example: a 35-year-old woman
She is 5′5″ (165.1 cm), weighs 165 lb (74.84 kg) and exercises three to five days a week.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Weight term | 10 × 74.84 | 748 |
| Height term | 6.25 × 165.1 | 1,032 |
| Age term | −5 × 35 | −175 |
| Sex constant | women | −161 |
| BMR | 748 + 1,032 − 175 − 161 | 1,444 kcal |
| TDEE | 1,444 × 1.55 | 2,239 kcal |
Her TDEE is about 2,239 kcal/day. Roughly 224 kcal of that (10%) is the cost of digesting her food, and about 571 kcal is movement and workouts combined. The same calculation for a 30-year-old man at 5′10″ (177.8 cm) and 190 lb (86.2 kg) gives a BMR of 1,828 and a TDEE of 2,834 kcal at the same activity level.
Notice the range across activity levels for her: 1,733 (sedentary), 1,986 (light), 2,239 (moderate), 2,491 (active) and 2,744 kcal (athlete). The choice of factor matters more than the choice of equation, and it is the part people overestimate most often.
How does TDEE change with weight, age and activity?
Weight. Heavier bodies burn more, so TDEE drops as you lose. For our example woman at moderate activity, TDEE is 2,379 kcal at 185 lb, 2,309 at 175, 2,239 at 165, 2,168 at 155 and 2,098 at 145. That is roughly 70 kcal per 10 lb. This is a big reason fat loss slows over time (Hall et al., 2011).
Age. Large datasets show that, adjusted for body size, expenditure is fairly stable through most of adulthood and declines in later life (Pontzer et al., 2021). Mifflin–St Jeor builds in a gentle decline of 5 kcal per year of BMR. For the same woman that works out to 2,316 kcal at 25, 2,239 at 35, 2,161 at 45, 2,084 at 55 and 2,006 at 65. Treat that as a rough guide rather than a fixed fact.
Activity. Moving from sedentary to moderate adds about 500 kcal for her. Most of it usually comes from everyday movement, not from the gym.
Muscle. More lean mass raises BMR slightly. Do not expect large jumps; extra muscle adds a modest number of calories.
How do I use my TDEE?
- To maintain: eat near TDEE and track your weight trend for 2–4 weeks.
- To lose fat: subtract 10–20%. Our TDEE for weight loss guide shows how to pick the percentage.
- To gain muscle: add 5–10%.
Frequently asked questions
What is my TDEE?
Your TDEE is your estimated daily calorie burn. Enter your sex, age, height, weight and activity level into the TDEE calculator for an instant number. For a typical 35-year-old woman at 165 lb and moderately active it is about 2,239 kcal/day; the real figure for you can differ by a few hundred calories.
What is a good TDEE?
There is no good or bad TDEE; it mostly reflects body size, lean mass, age and how much you move. Adult women commonly land around 1,800–2,400 kcal/day and men around 2,200–3,200 kcal/day, but a bigger or more active person will be above those ranges.
Is TDEE the same as maintenance calories?
Yes, for practical purposes. Maintenance calories are the intake at which your weight stays stable over weeks, which by definition equals your TDEE. Weight fluctuates day to day with water, so maintenance is judged from the trend. See TDEE vs maintenance calories.
How do I calculate TDEE without a calculator?
Compute BMR with Mifflin–St Jeor: 10 × weight in kg + 6.25 × height in cm − 5 × age, then +5 for men or −161 for women. Multiply by 1.2, 1.375, 1.55, 1.725 or 1.9 depending on how active you are. Pick the lower factor if you are unsure.
Does TDEE include the calories burned by exercise?
Yes. TDEE covers everything: resting metabolism, daily movement, workouts and digestion. If you use an activity factor, it already accounts for typical exercise, so do not add workout calories on top or you will count them twice.
How often should I recalculate my TDEE?
Recalculate after every 5–10 lb (2–5 kg) of weight change, after a big change in activity, or any time your scale trend stops matching your plan. An adaptive TDEE approach recalculates continuously from your logged data.
References
- Levine JA (2002). Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 16(4):679–702.
- Westerterp KR (2004). Diet induced thermogenesis. Nutrition & Metabolism 1:5.
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, Scott BJ, Daugherty SA, Koh YO (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 51(2):241–247.
- Frankenfield D, Roth-Yousey L, Compher C (2005). Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105(5):775–789.
- Pontzer H, Yamada Y, Sagayama H, et al. (2021). Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science 373(6556):808–812.
- Hall KD, Sacks G, Chandramohan D, et al. (2011). Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance on bodyweight. The Lancet 378(9793):826–837.