Updated · Built and checked by the PlinzoTools team, formulas tested against published sources
Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure based on BMR and activity level.
2556 kcal/day
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories you burn in a day -- your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) plus everything else: walking, exercising, even digesting food. It's the real number to use as your calorie-maintenance baseline.
Enter your weight, height, age, sex, and activity level. Your BMR and TDEE both appear instantly.
TDEE = BMR × Activity Multiplier
Sedentary ×1.2, Light ×1.375, Moderate ×1.55, Active ×1.725, Very Active ×1.9 -- the standard Mifflin/Harris-Benedict activity scale used across sports nutrition.
TDEE is your maintenance calorie number. To lose weight, use the Calorie Deficit Calculator to eat below it; to gain, use the Calorie Surplus Calculator to eat above it; to split it into protein/carbs/fat, use the Macro Calculator.
Use a hypothetical 30-year-old man who weighs 70 kg and is 175 cm tall. His resting rate from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation is about 1,649 kcal per day. If he chooses the Moderate activity level, the tool multiplies by 1.55 and shows a TDEE of about 2,556 kcal per day. Had he chosen Sedentary instead, the multiplier of 1.2 would give roughly 1,979 kcal per day, a gap of nearly 600 kcal from the same body and the same day of life. This shows how much the activity choice matters, and why it is the input people most often get wrong.
TDEE = BMR x multiplier (1.2, 1.375, 1.55, 1.725 or 1.9)
The multipliers describe your whole week, not just your workouts. Someone who trains hard for an hour a day but sits at a desk the rest of the time is often closer to a lighter level than they expect. Think about your routine over a typical week and compare it with the choices offered in the tool's dropdown, which list their own descriptions. If you are torn between two levels, choose the lower one, follow your weight for two to three weeks, and adjust. Actual weight change is better feedback than any formula.
Treat TDEE as an estimated maintenance intake, not a guarantee. If you have tracked your food and your weight has been stable for several weeks, that average intake is a better maintenance figure than any calculator, and you can compare it with this estimate to see how far off the formula is for you. To plan weight loss or gain, take the TDEE figure to the Calorie Deficit Calculator or Calorie Surplus Calculator. The inputs to this tool are in kilograms and centimetres, with age in years, and all must be positive numbers.
The activity multipliers are broad averages, and metabolism varies with muscle mass, hormones, sleep, medication and health conditions. The estimate also does not adapt to short-term changes such as illness or a hard training block. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are considering a large change in intake, talk with a doctor or registered dietitian. This tool is educational only.
An inflated activity level overestimates TDEE, which can stall weight loss because you're actually eating at (or above) maintenance -- when in doubt, pick the more conservative level and adjust based on real-world results over a few weeks.
Yes -- as your weight, activity level, or age changes, so does TDEE; recalculate periodically, especially after meaningful weight change.
No -- it depends on your individual BMR (affected by height, age, sex, and body composition) and how active you actually are, so two people at the same weight can have different TDEEs.
No, not if you chose an activity level that already accounts for exercise. Adding them again would overstate how much you burn.
Track your intake and your average weight for two to three weeks. If your weight holds steady at a given intake, that intake is your practical maintenance level, whatever the formula said.
The result is BMR multiplied by the level, so going from 1.2 to 1.55 raises the estimate by about 29 percent of the same base.
Weight in kilograms, height in centimetres and age in years. Convert other units before entering them.
Reference: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention