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Calorie Calculator (TDEE)

Calculate your daily calorie needs for weight loss, maintenance or muscle gain using Mifflin-St Jeor.

Daily calorie target
2,633 kcal
Daily calorie target
2,633 kcal
Maintain current weight
BMR
1,699 kcal
TDEE (maintenance)
2,633 kcal

Suggested macros

  • 100% private

    All math runs in your browser. Nothing leaves your device.

  • Formula-verified

    Each calculator is unit-tested against authoritative sources.

  • Instant results

    Static-rendered pages. Sub-second loads on any device.

  • Works offline

    Visit once and it keeps working without an internet connection.

How to use the Calorie Calculator (TDEE)

  1. 1

    Enter your inputs

    Fill in the required fields at the top of the calorie / tdee calculator. Each input shows a default placeholder so you can see the expected format and units before you type.

  2. 2

    Adjust assumptions and options

    Use the toggles, sliders and dropdowns to tailor the calculation to your situation — currency, country, time period, advanced options and any optional fields all change the result in real time.

  3. 3

    Review the result

    The result card updates instantly as you type. Read the headline number, then check the breakdown, chart and any per-period schedule to understand how the inputs combined to produce the answer.

  4. 4

    Compare scenarios

    Change one input at a time to see how sensitive the result is to that variable. This is how you build intuition: small changes that move the answer a lot are the levers that matter.

  5. 5

    Share or save your result

    Copy the shareable link to send the exact scenario to someone else, or use your browser to print or save the page. The URL preserves every input so the recipient sees the same answer you do.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Total Daily Energy Expenditure — the calories you burn in a day from BMR, activity, NEAT and digestion (TEF). It's the maintenance level: eat this much and weight stays constant.

  • Mifflin-St Jeor (1990) is the most accurate for the general population. Katch-McArdle is best if you know your body fat percentage. Harris-Benedict (revised) is older but still widely used.

  • A safe deficit is 250-500 kcal/day for steady weight loss (~0.25-0.5 kg/week). More aggressive deficits work short-term but increase muscle loss and rebound risk.

  • Eating above TDEE to gain weight (typically muscle). 200-300 kcal/day surplus is sufficient for lean bulking. Larger surpluses produce more fat than muscle.

  • TDEE is an estimate ±10-15%. Activity multipliers may overestimate calorie burn. Tracking accuracy varies. Adjust intake based on your actual scale weight trend after 2-3 weeks.

  • Already-included activity multipliers cover typical exercise. Avoid double-counting — don't eat back tracked exercise calories on top of an activity-adjusted TDEE.

  • Sedentary: desk job, no exercise. Light: 1-3 light workouts/week. Moderate: 3-5 workouts/week. Very Active: 6-7 hard workouts/week. Extra: physical job + intense training.

  • After 8-12 weeks of deficit, a 1-2 week maintenance break can reset metabolic adaptation, restore hormones, and improve adherence. Refeeds (1-2 maintenance days/week) serve a similar role.

  • Yes — BMR drops about 1-2% per decade after age 30 due to muscle loss. Strength training mitigates this loss substantially.

  • FDA allows up to 20% margin. Restaurant counts are often less accurate. For best results, weigh foods, use a quality tracker and adjust based on real outcomes.

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