How the TDEE Calculator works

Your calorie needs in plain language — and the science behind every number.

TDEE

Total Daily Energy Expenditure is every calorie you burn in a day. Eat this much and your weight stays about the same.

TDEE = BMR × activity factor

BMR

Basal Metabolic Rate is what your body burns at complete rest — breathing, circulation, keeping warm. It's usually 60–70% of your TDEE.

Mifflin-St Jeor

The default BMR formula, and one of the most accurate for most people. It uses weight, height, age and sex.

10 × kg + 6.25 × cm − 5 × age + 5 (men) / − 161 (women)

Katch-McArdle

Used when you enter your body fat %. It's based on lean mass, so it suits very lean or muscular people better.

370 + 21.6 × lean body mass (kg)

Activity factor

Your BMR is multiplied by how active you are: from 1.2 for a desk job up to 1.9 for athletes training twice a day.

Goals & pace

About 7,700 kcal equals 1 kg of body fat, so losing 0.5 kg a week means eating roughly 550 kcal less per day. Your target never drops below about 1,200 kcal (women) or 1,500 kcal (men). Muscle is built far more slowly, so “Build muscle” uses small surpluses of 0.1–0.5 kg a week.

BMI

Weight relative to height. A handy screening number, but it can't tell muscle from fat. We use the Asian cut-offs followed by the Philippine DOH: normal 18.5–22.9, overweight 23–24.9 and obese from 25 — lower than the international 25 and 30, because health risks start rising at lower BMIs in Asian adults.

BMI = kg ÷ m²

Ideal weight

We show the range across four classic formulas — Hamwi, Devine, Robinson and Miller — rather than one exact number.

Macros

Your calories split into protein and carbs (4 kcal per gram) and fat (9 kcal per gram). Protein is set from your body weight (1.6–2.0 g per kg depending on your goal); the remaining calories are split between fat and carbs by the diet style you pick: Balanced, Low Carb or High Carb.

Ready to find your number?

It takes about a minute, and your details stay on your device.

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