Find your daily maintenance calories, plus targets for cutting or bulking.
| Goal | Daily Calories |
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TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is an estimate of the total calories your body uses in 24 hours, combining your resting metabolism (BMR), digestion, and all daily activity. It's the approximate number you'd need to eat at to maintain your current weight — the baseline for any cutting or bulking plan.
This calculator follows three steps: first, it calculates your BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. Second, it multiplies that number by your selected activity multiplier to estimate your TDEE. Third, it shows calorie targets above and below that maintenance number for cutting, bulking, and maintenance.
Men: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5
Women: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age − 161
Most people overestimate their activity level. A desk job with a few weekly gym sessions is usually Lightly to Moderately Active, not Very Active.
A calorie deficit of around 300-500 per day is a commonly used starting point for fat loss, and a surplus of roughly 250-400 is a common starting point for lean muscle gain. These are starting points, not fixed rules — monitor your actual weight trend over 2-3 weeks and adjust gradually, since no formula accounts for individual metabolic variation perfectly.
Research comparing prediction equations to measured metabolic rate has generally found Mifflin-St Jeor performs at least as well as, and often better than, the older Harris-Benedict equation (1919, revised 1984), particularly in overweight individuals where Harris-Benedict tends to overestimate. This is a key reason Mifflin-St Jeor is widely recommended today, though individual results still vary from person to person.
BMR is calories burned at complete rest. TDEE is an estimate built by multiplying BMR by an activity factor.
Studies generally find it performs well compared to older equations like Harris-Benedict, which tends to overestimate, especially in overweight individuals. No equation is exact for everyone.
Around 300-500 calories below maintenance is a common starting point — adjust based on your actual weight trend.
Most desk-job lifters fall into Lightly or Moderately Active — people often overestimate how active they really are.