TDEE Calculator
Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is how many calories you burn per day. Enter your details to get your maintenance calories plus cut and bulk targets, calculated with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.
Your results
| Aggressive fat loss | 2259 kcal/day |
| Fat loss | 2459 kcal/day |
| Maintenance | 2759 kcal/day |
| Lean bulk | 3009 kcal/day |
| Bulk | 3259 kcal/day |
How it works
- 1We calculate your BMR (calories burned at rest) with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the most accurate formula for most people.
- 2Your BMR is multiplied by an activity factor (1.2 sedentary up to 1.9 for athletes) to get TDEE.
- 3From TDEE we derive practical targets: a 300-500 kcal deficit to lose fat, maintenance, or a 250-500 kcal surplus to build muscle.
Frequently asked questions
What is TDEE?
TDEE is the total number of calories you burn in a day, including your resting metabolism, digestion, daily movement, and exercise. It is the number to eat around to maintain your weight.
How accurate is a TDEE calculator?
The Mifflin-St Jeor estimate is within about 10% for most people. Use it as a starting point, then adjust based on real weight change over 2-3 weeks.
How many calories below TDEE to lose fat?
A deficit of 300-500 calories per day is the sweet spot: fast enough to see progress while preserving muscle. That is roughly 0.25-0.5 kg of fat loss per week.
Using the result
What the numbers are
An estimate for an average person with your stats. Formulas like Mifflin-St Jeor are accurate to roughly plus or minus ten percent for most people, which is close enough to start and never close enough to argue with the scale.
How to use them
Eat at the calculated intake for two to three weeks and weigh yourself consistently. If the trend is not moving the way you want, adjust the intake by a few hundred calories rather than recalculating from scratch.
When to stop guessing
If you have been adjusting for months without progress, the missing piece is usually programming and accountability rather than a better number. That is what a coach on Trainera does.
What this calculator cannot know
Every formula here works from height, weight, age, sex and activity, which is most of the picture and not all of it. It does not know your training history, your medication, your thyroid, how well you sleep, how much you actually move outside training, or how honestly you log food. Treat the output as a starting estimate: pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, competitive athletes at very low body fat and anyone managing a medical condition should get a number from a doctor or dietitian instead of from a form. Nothing here is medical advice.
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Turn these numbers into a real plan
Train on your own with Trainera's free workout and diet tracker, or get matched with a certified personal trainer who builds your plan around these numbers.