Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure and personalized macros for your fitness goal.
Enter your age, sex, weight, and height, then select your typical weekly activity level. Choose a goal — from aggressive fat loss to aggressive bulking — and adjust the macro sliders to your preferred split. Hit "Calculate" to instantly see your TDEE, goal calories, and exact daily macro targets in grams.
Your TDEE is the single most important number in nutrition. It tells you exactly how many calories your body burns in a day, accounting for everything from your resting metabolism to how much you move. Without knowing your TDEE, you're essentially guessing — and most people guess wrong by 300–600 calories per day.
Consider a 35-year-old moderately active man at 185 lbs: his TDEE might be around 2,750 calories. If he wants to lose 1 lb per week, he needs to eat around 2,250 calories — not the generic "2,000 calorie diet" that doesn't fit his body. Undereating by too much can cause muscle loss and metabolic adaptation; overeating even by 100 calories a day leads to 10 lbs of fat gain per year.
The macro breakdown matters because 2,500 calories of pizza affects your body very differently than 2,500 calories built around lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats. High protein intake (at least 0.7–1g per lb of bodyweight) is especially critical for preserving muscle while in a deficit and for building new muscle while in a surplus.
This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, considered the most accurate BMR formula for most adults:
TDEE = BMR × Activity Multiplier (1.2 for sedentary → 1.9 for extra active). Goal calories are then set by adding or subtracting a caloric surplus/deficit corresponding to ±0.5 or ±1 lb of fat per week (1 lb fat ≈ 3,500 calories, so ±500 cal/day = ±1 lb/week). Macros are divided from goal calories based on your chosen percentage split, then converted: protein & carbs = 4 cal/g; fat = 9 cal/g.
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is accurate within ±10% for most people. The biggest source of error is activity level estimation — most people overestimate how active they are. Treat your TDEE as a starting point, track your weight for 2 weeks, and adjust by 100–200 calories if the scale isn't moving as expected.
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is how many calories your body burns at complete rest — just to keep your organs functioning. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) multiplies BMR by an activity factor to account for the calories you burn moving, exercising, and going about daily life. TDEE is the number you actually need for planning your diet.
This approach (calorie cycling) works for some people but is unnecessary for most. Your metabolism doesn't reset daily — weekly totals matter more than daily precision. Keeping calories consistent is simpler and equally effective. If you prefer cycling, you can eat 100–200 more on training days and 100–200 less on rest days.
Many people underestimate their calorie needs because they compare their TDEE to generic diet advice. Standard 1,200 or 1,500 calorie recommendations are designed for small, sedentary women and are inappropriate for most active adults. If your TDEE seems high, trust the math — eating significantly below it for extended periods can slow your metabolism.