Calorie Calculator — Daily Calorie Needs (TDEE)
Find your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) — the exact number of calories your body needs each day based on your age, sex, weight, height, and activity level. Use it to set targets for weight loss, maintenance, or muscle gain.
🔥 Calculate Your Daily Calorie Needs
What Is TDEE and Why Does It Matter?
TDEE — Total Daily Energy Expenditure — is the total number of calories your body burns in 24 hours. It combines your Basal Metabolic Rate (the calories needed to keep you alive at rest) with the additional energy burned through movement, exercise, and digesting food.
TDEE is the single most important number in any weight management plan. Eat below it consistently and you lose weight. Eat at it and you maintain. Eat above it and you gain. Everything else — macro ratios, meal timing, food choices — matters far less than this baseline energy balance.
How the Calculation Works: Mifflin-St Jeor Formula
This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the most validated BMR formula available. A 2005 study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found it predicted resting metabolic rate within 10% for approximately 82% of people — significantly more accurate than the older Harris-Benedict formula still used on many sites.
The formula is:
- Men: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5
- Women: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161
BMR is then multiplied by an activity factor (1.2 to 1.9) to get TDEE. This activity multiplier is the least precise part of any TDEE calculation — most people underestimate their sedentary time and overestimate their activity level, which leads to overestimating TDEE and wondering why the scale isn't moving.
Activity Level Guide — Choosing the Right Multiplier
| Activity Level | Multiplier | What It Actually Means |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | × 1.2 | Desk job, driving everywhere, fewer than 5,000 steps/day, no structured exercise |
| Lightly Active | × 1.375 | 1–3 days/week of light exercise (walking, yoga, easy cycling), otherwise inactive |
| Moderately Active | × 1.55 | 3–5 days/week of genuine exercise (gym, running, sports), otherwise fairly inactive |
| Very Active | × 1.725 | Hard training 6–7 days/week, or physically active job plus regular exercise |
| Extremely Active | × 1.9 | Physical labourer, twice-daily training, competitive athlete in season |
If unsure, choose one level lower than you think. Most people are more sedentary than they believe. It's better to slightly underestimate TDEE, see results, and adjust up than to overshoot and wonder why the plan isn't working.
Setting Calorie Targets for Your Goal
Weight Loss — The Calorie Deficit
To lose body fat, you need to eat fewer calories than your TDEE. Each 7,700 calorie deficit produces approximately 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of fat loss. A daily deficit of 500 calories yields roughly 0.5 kg per week — a sustainable pace that preserves muscle mass and keeps energy stable.
A 1,000 calorie/day deficit (1 kg per week loss) is aggressive and manageable for people with higher TDEEs, but can cause muscle loss, fatigue, and metabolic adaptation in lighter individuals. The general safe floor is 1,200 calories/day for women and 1,500 calories/day for men — going below these without medical supervision risks nutrient deficiencies and muscle catabolism.
Weight Maintenance
Eating at your TDEE maintains current weight. In practice, aim to stay within ±100 calories of your target over weekly averages — daily variation is normal and doesn't matter. What matters is the 7-day average.
Muscle Gain (Lean Bulk)
Building muscle requires a calorie surplus. However, the body can only build muscle tissue so fast — for most natural trainees, 0.5–1 kg of muscle per month is the realistic ceiling. A modest surplus of 200–350 calories above TDEE maximises muscle gain while minimising unnecessary fat accumulation. Larger surpluses mostly add fat, not muscle.
TDEE Reference Table by Age and Sex
Approximate maintenance calories for moderately active adults at average heights:
| Age | Male (75 kg, 178 cm) | Female (62 kg, 165 cm) |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 2,742 kcal | 2,237 kcal |
| 25 | 2,703 kcal | 2,199 kcal |
| 30 | 2,665 kcal | 2,161 kcal |
| 35 | 2,626 kcal | 2,122 kcal |
| 40 | 2,588 kcal | 2,084 kcal |
| 45 | 2,549 kcal | 2,045 kcal |
| 50 | 2,511 kcal | 2,007 kcal |
| 55 | 2,472 kcal | 1,969 kcal |
| 60 | 2,434 kcal | 1,930 kcal |
Why Your TDEE Changes Over Time
TDEE is not a fixed number. Several factors cause it to shift, and understanding them prevents frustrating plateaus:
Metabolic adaptation during dieting
When you eat in a sustained calorie deficit, your body adapts by reducing energy expenditure — a process sometimes called "adaptive thermogenesis." After 8–12 weeks of dieting, TDEE can be 10–15% lower than your calculator predicts. This is why weight loss often stalls despite no change in diet. The solution is a 1–2 week diet break at maintenance calories, which partially resets adaptive thermogenesis before resuming the deficit.
Body weight changes
As you lose weight, your TDEE decreases because a lighter body burns fewer calories. Recalculate every 5–10 kg of weight change to keep your targets accurate.
Age
TDEE typically decreases by about 1–2% per decade from age 30 onward, primarily due to loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia). Resistance training substantially slows this decline by preserving muscle tissue.
Macronutrients and Calorie Density
Once you know your calorie target, understanding macronutrient calorie density helps you plan meals. Protein and carbohydrates each contain 4 calories per gram. Fat contains 9 calories per gram — more than double. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram with minimal nutritional value. This is why reducing fat and alcohol intake is an efficient way to reduce calorie intake without reducing food volume as dramatically. However, dietary fat is essential — the goal is appropriate quantity, not elimination.
Protein is the most important macronutrient to prioritise when in a calorie deficit. It has the highest thermic effect (your body burns ~25–30% of protein calories just digesting it), and adequate protein intake — typically 1.6–2.2g per kg of body weight per day — is what separates muscle-preserving diets from muscle-wasting ones. A high-protein approach within your calorie target maximises fat loss while maintaining lean mass.