BMR / TDEE
Daily calorie needs from age, sex, weight, height, and activity level.
Energy your body uses with zero movement. Never eat below this for long.
Calories you'd burn on an average day. Eat this to maintain weight, less to lose, more to gain.
About this calculator
BMR is the energy your body burns at rest just to keep you alive — breathing, circulation, cell maintenance. TDEE adds the calories you burn through movement, training, and digestion. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation (1990) is the most accurate of the popular BMR formulas for non-athletes; the activity multipliers come from the classic Harris-Benedict tradition. Use BMR as your floor, TDEE as the budget for a maintenance day.
Common questions
Why Mifflin-St Jeor and not Harris-Benedict?
Mifflin-St Jeor (1990) is a refined version of Harris-Benedict (1919). It uses the same inputs but was validated on a larger, more diverse sample and is consistently more accurate for non-athletes — typically within ±10% of measured BMR.
What activity level should I pick?
Be honest about steady-state movement, not best weeks. Most desk workers who train 3 times a week land at 'moderately active'. If you sit all day and only train on weekends, 'lightly active' is closer to truth. Overestimating activity is the most common reason TDEE-based diets stall.
Should I eat exactly my TDEE?
TDEE is an estimate, not a prescription. Use it as a starting point for two weeks, weigh yourself, and adjust by ±100–200 kcal/day based on what you see. The formula doesn't know your individual metabolic quirks, NEAT, or sleep quality.