How to Calculate Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)

To calculate your TDEE, open the TDEE Calculator, enter your sex, age, weight and height, and pick your activity level. The tool finds your BMR (calories burned at rest) with the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, then multiplies it by an activity factor to get your TDEE — the total calories you burn in a day, including exercise and daily movement.

What TDEE actually measures

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It's your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate — what your body burns just staying alive) plus everything on top of that: walking, exercise, fidgeting, digesting food. Multiplying BMR by an activity factor approximates all of that extra burn without having to measure it directly.

Knowing your TDEE is the starting point for setting a calorie target. Eating around your TDEE maintains your current weight; eating below it creates the deficit needed to lose weight, and eating above it supports weight gain.

How to calculate TDEE with Toolbench

1. Open the TDEE Calculator.
2. Choose Units: Metric (kg, cm) or Imperial (lb, in).
3. Select Sex (Female or Male) — the BMR formula adds a different constant for each.
4. Enter your Age, Weight and Height.
5. Pick your Activity level, from Sedentary to Extra active.
6. Optionally enter Body fat % if you know it — this switches the calculation to a more accurate formula for lean or very muscular people.

The result shows your TDEE at the top, with your BMR and the calorie total at every activity level underneath, so you can see how much activity alone changes the number.

A real worked example

For a 30-year-old woman, 70 kg, 170 cm tall, with a Light activity level (1–3 days/week of exercise):

Metric	Result
BMR (at rest)	1,452 kcal/day
Sedentary	1,742 kcal
Light (her TDEE)	1,996 kcal
Moderate	2,250 kcal
Very active	2,504 kcal
Extra active	2,758 kcal

Her BMI here works out to 24.2, which the tool labels "Healthy." Notice how much the final number swings just by changing the activity level — going from Sedentary to Extra active adds over 1,000 kcal/day to the estimate, which is why picking an honest activity level matters more than getting the weight entry exact to the gram.

Two ways the tool estimates BMR

Formula	Used when	Why it's different
Mifflin–St Jeor	Body fat % is left blank (or 0)	Standard formula using weight, height, age and sex
Katch–McArdle	You enter a Body fat %	Uses lean body mass instead of total weight, which is more accurate for lean or very muscular people, since muscle burns more calories than fat

If you know your body fat percentage from a scan or caliper, entering it gives a more personalized BMR than the standard formula, which treats everyone at the same weight as metabolically identical regardless of body composition.

The five activity levels

Level	Description
Sedentary	Little or no exercise
Light	Exercise 1–3 days/week
Moderate	Exercise 3–5 days/week
Very active	Exercise 6–7 days/week
Extra active	Physical job plus training

Most people overestimate their activity level. If you sit at a desk and exercise a few times a week, Light or Moderate is usually a more honest fit than Very active.

Common mistakes when estimating TDEE

• Picking too high an activity level. This is the single biggest source of error — it's easy to overestimate how active a "normal" week really is.
• Ignoring body fat % when you have it. If you've had a DEXA scan or used calipers, enter the number — Katch–McArdle corrects for body composition that weight alone can't capture.
• Treating the result as exact. TDEE from any formula is an estimate. Use it as a starting point, then adjust up or down based on how your actual weight trend responds over a few weeks.
• Forgetting it's a moving target. TDEE changes as your weight, age and activity level change, so it's worth recalculating every so often rather than setting a number once and never revisiting it.

TDEE vs. the Calorie Calculator

Toolbench also has a Calorie Calculator that uses the same BMR and activity-factor math but goes a step further: it shows ready-made targets for mild, moderate and extreme weight loss or gain (for example, roughly 500 kcal/day below maintenance for about 0.5 kg / 1 lb of weekly loss). Use the TDEE Calculator when you want the maintenance number and the BMI/BMR breakdown; use the Calorie Calculator when you want deficit or surplus targets already calculated for you.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between BMR and TDEE?

BMR is the calories your body burns at complete rest, just to keep your organs running. TDEE adds everything else — walking, exercise, daily activity — on top of BMR, so TDEE is always a higher number than BMR.

Which BMR formula does the tool use?

Mifflin–St Jeor by default. If you enter a body fat percentage greater than 0, it switches to the Katch–McArdle formula, which uses your lean body mass instead of total weight.

Is my TDEE exact?

No — it's an estimate based on established formulas and your chosen activity level. Actual energy expenditure varies by individual, so treat the result as a starting point and adjust based on real-world weight change over time.

Is my data sent anywhere when I use the TDEE Calculator?

No. Everything is calculated in your browser from the numbers you type in; nothing is uploaded anywhere.

Does the calculator also show my BMI?

Yes. Alongside TDEE and BMR at each activity level, the tool shows your BMI and labels it Underweight, Healthy, Overweight or Obese based on standard BMI ranges.