Free tool · Nutrition
TDEE calculator: calories you burn in a day
Short answer
Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is your resting burn multiplied by how active you are. A 35-year-old woman who is 165 cm and 65 kg burns about 1,345 kcal at rest by the Mifflin–St Jeor equation; with a moderately active lifestyle (physical activity level 1.845, the middle of the 1.70–1.99 band) that comes to about 2,482 kcal a day, within a range of 2,287–2,677.
Last reviewed 28 October 20262 published sourcesNot medical advice
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Daily calories from your resting rate and lifestyle.
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How this TDEE estimate works
Step one is your resting energy expenditure from the Mifflin–St Jeor equation: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age (years), plus 5 for men or minus 161 for women. It was derived from 498 healthy adults aged 19–78 (Mifflin et al., 1990).
Step two multiplies that by a physical activity level (PAL), the ratio of total energy expenditure to basal metabolic rate. The 2001 FAO/WHO/UNU expert consultation set three lifestyle bands that adults can sustain long term, from 1.40 to 2.40 (FAO/WHO/UNU, 2004). The headline figure uses the middle of your band; the range uses its two edges.
| Person | Sedentary or light | Active or moderately active | Vigorously active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woman, 35, 160 cm, 55 kg | 1,876 | 2,240 | 2,671 |
| Woman, 35, 168 cm, 70 kg | 2,185 | 2,609 | 3,111 |
| Man, 35, 175 cm, 75 kg | 2,586 | 3,088 | 3,682 |
| Man, 35, 183 cm, 90 kg | 2,895 | 3,457 | 4,122 |
Using your TDEE
Eating close to your TDEE should hold your weight roughly steady; eating below it leads to weight loss over time and above it to gain. Because every input carries error, treat the number as a starting point and adjust it from what your weight actually does over a few weeks.
To turn calories into protein, carbohydrate and fat, use the macro calculator. For protein alone, the protein calculator works from body weight. The resting part on its own is in the BMR calculator.
Match what you eat to what you burn
Snap, say or type a meal in Reps and it tracks calories, protein, carbs and fat against your day, next to the workouts your Apple Watch records.
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Common questions
How is TDEE calculated?
TDEE is basal (resting) energy expenditure multiplied by a physical activity level, or PAL. This calculator estimates the resting part with the Mifflin–St Jeor equation and uses the FAO/WHO/UNU PAL bands: 1.40–1.69 for a sedentary or light lifestyle, 1.70–1.99 for an active or moderately active one and 2.00–2.40 for a vigorously active one.
Which activity level should I pick?
FAO/WHO/UNU describe a desk job with a car commute and no regular exercise as sedentary or light. Adding about an hour of moderate-to-vigorous exercise a day, such as running, cycling or sport, moves a typical office worker from a PAL of about 1.55 to about 1.75, which is the moderately active band. Vigorously active means strenuous work or training for several hours every day.
How accurate is a TDEE calculator?
It is an estimate for an average person with your age, sex, height and weight. Body composition, genetics and how much you move outside workouts all shift the real number. Track your weight over two to four weeks at a steady intake and adjust: if weight is stable, that intake is close to your actual TDEE.
Sources
Figures on this page were checked against these publications on 28 October 2026.
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, Scott BJ, Daugherty SA, Koh YO. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1990;51(2):241–247. doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/51.2.241
- FAO, WHO, UNU. Human energy requirements: report of a Joint FAO/WHO/UNU Expert Consultation, Rome, 17–24 October 2001. FAO Food and Nutrition Technical Report Series 1; 2004. Chapter 5, Table 5.3. www.fao.org/4/y5686e/y5686e07.htm
More nutrition tools
- Protein calculatorDaily protein in grams for muscle gain, from the meta-analysis breakpoint and the ISSN range.
- BMR calculatorResting calorie burn from two published equations, compared side by side.
- Macro calculatorGrams of protein, carbs and fat for your calories, inside the official reference ranges.
- Water intake calculatorDaily water from the reference intakes, plus your own sweat rate from a weigh-in.