TDEE Calculator

📋 What Your Result Means

For educational purposes only — not medical advice.

Your TDEE is your energy equilibrium point — eating at this level consistently will maintain your current weight. To lose fat, create a caloric deficit below this number; to gain muscle, eat above it with adequate protein.

NEAT is your hidden variable. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (fidgeting, walking, posture maintenance) can vary by 200 to 900 kcal/day between individuals of similar size (Levine et al. 1999, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5399.212). This is the single largest source of error in any TDEE estimate. The activity multipliers used here (1.2-1.9) are conventional approximations inherited from the Harris-Benedict tradition — they are not derived from Mifflin-St Jeor directly and represent population averages, not individual measurements.

Metabolic adaptation is real. During prolonged caloric restriction, your body can reduce TDEE by 5-15% beyond what weight loss alone would predict (Trexler et al. 2014, DOI: 10.1186/2193-1801-3-7). If you are dieting, recalculate every 4-6 weeks and watch for stalls.

How to calibrate your personal TDEE: Eat at the calculated level for 2-4 weeks while weighing yourself daily under consistent conditions (morning, fasted). Average each week. If your weight trends down, your true TDEE is higher — add 100-200 kcal. If weight trends up, subtract. This empirical calibration is more accurate than any equation.

Want to learn more? Read our in-depth article: How Many Calories Do You Actually Burn Per Day? →