TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure, is the total number of calories your body burns in a day. It's your resting burn (BMR) plus the energy used to digest food and everything you do on your feet, and for most people it works out to 1.2 to 1.9 times BMR.
Eat at your TDEE and your weight holds steady. Eat below it and you lose; above it and you gain. To get your own number in a minute, use the TDEE calculator. The rest of this guide explains what goes into that number and why it's an estimate.
Key takeaways
- TDEE = BMR + digestion + all movement. It's your maintenance calories.
- BMR is the biggest part: roughly 55-70% of TDEE for most adults.
- Digestion burns about 10% of what you eat; protein costs the most to process.
- Everyday movement varies most between people, more than workouts do.
- It's an estimate. Check it against 2-3 weeks of weight data and adjust.
What is TDEE?
TDEE is the energy your body uses in 24 hours, measured in calories. It covers keeping your heart, brain and organs running, processing meals, walking to the car, typing, fidgeting and any training you do.
You'll see it called maintenance calories, because eating that amount keeps your weight stable. It's the starting point for any calorie target. Our maintenance calories guide covers that use in more detail.
The four components of TDEE
| Component | What it covers | Typical share of TDEE |
|---|---|---|
| Basal metabolic rate (BMR) | Organs and cells at complete rest | About 55-70% |
| Thermic effect of food (TEF) | Digesting, absorbing and storing food | About 10% |
| Non-exercise activity (NEAT) | Walking, standing, chores, fidgeting | Varies most between people |
| Exercise | Planned workouts and sports | 0% on rest days, more on training days |
BMR: your resting burn
BMR is what you'd burn lying still all day. Doubly labeled water studies put the average adult's TDEE at about 1.7-1.8 times resting burn, and lower for less active people (Westerterp, 2013). That means BMR covers roughly 55-70% of the day's total. Bigger bodies and more muscle push BMR up. For more on the gap between the two numbers, see BMR vs TDEE.
TEF: the cost of digesting food
Processing a meal takes energy. On a mixed diet it's about 10% of the calories you eat, within a range of 5-15% (Westerterp, 2004). Each macronutrient costs a different amount:
| Nutrient | Share of its calories used in processing |
|---|---|
| Protein | 20-30% |
| Alcohol | 10-30% |
| Carbohydrate | 5-10% |
| Fat | 0-3% |
That's one reason higher-protein diets help a little with a calorie deficit, on top of keeping you fuller.
NEAT: everyday movement
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis is the energy for everything that isn't sleeping, eating or sport: walking, standing, carrying shopping, cleaning, fidgeting. It explains most of the non-resting calories for most people (Levine, 2002). A nurse on her feet all shift and an office worker with the same body size can have very different TDEEs even if neither trains.
NEAT also shifts with diet. It tends to rise when people overeat and fall when they cut calories, often without them noticing.
Exercise
Planned workouts are often smaller than people expect. Running 30 minutes at 6 mph (9.7 km/h) is 9.3 METs in the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, about 390 calories for a 175-lb (79 kg) person. Against a TDEE of about 2,700, that's around 14% on the days you run. To see the difference between resting and active burn in practice, read active vs resting calories.
How to calculate TDEE
Most calculators, including ours, follow two steps.
Step 1: estimate BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.
- Men: (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) - (5 x age) + 5
- Women: (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) - (5 x age) - 161
Example: a 30-year-old man, 5 ft 10 in (177.8 cm), 175 lb (79.4 kg): 794 + 1,111 - 150 + 5 = 1,760 calories a day.
Step 2: multiply by an activity factor.
| Activity level | Description | Multiplier | TDEE in the example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Desk job, little or no exercise | 1.2 | 2,112 |
| Lightly active | Light exercise 1-3 days a week | 1.375 | 2,420 |
| Moderately active | Moderate exercise 3-5 days a week | 1.55 | 2,728 |
| Very active | Hard exercise 6-7 days a week | 1.725 | 3,036 |
| Extremely active | Physical job plus daily training | 1.9 | 3,344 |
The spread between sedentary and extremely active is 1,232 calories for the same man. Picking the right level matters as much as the formula. If unsure, choose the lower one.
For a woman aged 35, 5 ft 6 in (167.6 cm), 150 lb (68 kg), BMR is about 1,392 and TDEE about 1,914 at the lightly active level.
The BMR calculator does step 1, and how to calculate TDEE for weight loss walks through setting a deficit from the result.
Why TDEE estimates are off, and how to check yours
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation was built from 498 adults aged 19-78 measured in a lab (Mifflin, 1990). A 2005 review in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found it the most reliable of the common equations, predicting resting burn within 10% of the measured value in more people than the others (Frankenfield, 2005). Within 10% for most still leaves a 2,000-calorie TDEE off by 200 for some. Activity multipliers are a convention, not a measurement, so they add error on top.
To test your estimate:
- Eat at your calculated TDEE for 2-3 weeks and log it honestly.
- Weigh yourself most mornings and compare weekly averages, not single days.
- If the average is stable, your estimate is right. If it drifts up or down, move your intake by 100-200 calories and repeat.
Daily scale swings from water are normal; scale fluctuations explains why you should read the trend.
How TDEE changes over time
- Weight loss lowers it. A smaller body burns less at rest and when moving. Recalculate after every 10 lb (4.5 kg) or so. Some of the drop also comes from moving less without noticing; see metabolic adaptation.
- Age matters less than you'd think. A 2021 study that pooled doubly labeled water measurements from people aged 8 days to 95 years found energy use, adjusted for body size, stays stable from about 20 to 60 and declines after that (Pontzer, 2021).
- Activity changes it fastest. A new job, a new baby, an injury or a step-count habit can move NEAT by hundreds of calories.
Using TDEE for your goal
- Lose weight: eat below TDEE. A 500-calorie daily deficit is a common start and fits the CDC's guide of about 1-2 lb (0.5-0.9 kg) a week. Real loss slows over months as TDEE falls (Hall, 2011). The calorie deficit calculator sets the number for you.
- Maintain: eat close to TDEE and check your weekly average.
- Gain: eat above TDEE and add strength training so more of the gain is muscle.
If you have a medical condition or take medication that affects weight, talk to your doctor before a large change in intake. Once you have a target, an app makes it easier to hit: Nutrify logs meals from a photo and shows what's left against your daily calories.
Sources
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr, 1990.
- Frankenfield D, Roth-Yousey L, Compher C. Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review. J Am Diet Assoc, 2005.
- Westerterp KR. Diet induced thermogenesis. Nutr Metab, 2004.
- Westerterp KR. Physical activity and physical activity induced energy expenditure in humans: measurement, determinants, and effects. Front Physiol, 2013.
- Levine JA. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2002.
- Pontzer H, Yamada Y, Sagayama H, et al. Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science, 2021.
- Hall KD, Sacks G, Chandramohan D, et al. Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance on bodyweight. Lancet, 2011.
- 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, Running (code 12050, 9.3 METs).
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Steps for losing weight.
