Use the Legion TDEE Calculator to calculate your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)—an estimate of how many calories you burn each day based on your age, sex, body weight, height, and activity level.
What Is TDEE?
TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure, is the total number of calories your body burns every 24 hours.
There are four main components of TDEE:
- Basal metabolic rate (BMR): BMR is the number of calories your body burns performing basic vital functions, such as breathing, pumping blood around your body, and maintaining brain function. It accounts for around 70% of TDEE.
- Thermic effect of food (TEF): TEF is the number of calories you burn digesting food. On average, TEF accounts for around 10% of your TDEE, though this can vary depending on the types of food you eat. For instance, protein has a TEF of ~20–30%, carbs have a TEF of ~5–10%, and fat has a TEF of ~0–3%.
- Exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT): EAT is the number of calories you burn doing formal exercise. For most people, EAT contributes approximately 5% to TDEE.
- Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): NEAT is the number of calories you burn from any physical activity that isn’t formal exercise (the calories you burn going about daily activities, basically). It accounts for around 15% of TDEE for most people.
How to Calculate TDEE
The easiest way to calculate your TDEE is to use the total daily energy expenditure calculator above.
However, if you want to crunch the number yourself, start by calculating your BMR.
There are several equations for this, but I suggest the Mifflin-St Jeor equation:
For men: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) + 5
For women: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 age (years) – 161
I favor the Mifflin-St Jeor equation over other formulas, like the Harris-Benedict or Katch-McArdle equations, as it generates accurate results without requiring much math or your body fat percentage.
The next step is accounting for the additional energy expenditure by applying activity multipliers. To do this, multiply your BMR by the multiplier below that best describes your activity level:
- Sedentary: 1.2
- Lightly Active: 1.375
- Moderately Active: 1.550
- Very Active: 1.725
- Extra Active: 1.9
These multipliers feature in most TDEE calculators and have undoubtedly helped many people with maintaining, gaining, and losing weight. However, based on my experience assisting tens of thousands of people, these multipliers often overestimate your energy expenditure.
In other words, if you use the above multipliers, you’ll probably place yourself in too small of a calorie deficit when cutting (resulting in less-than-optimal fat loss) and too large of a surplus when bulking (resulting in more-than-optimal fat gain).
Therefore, I recommend using lower activity multipliers.
Here’s how I do it:
Those multipliers should give you a more accurate starting point, and they’re what we built into the Legion TDEE Calculator.
How to Use Our TDEE Calculator to Lose, Gain, or Maintain Weight
People primarily use the information provided by a TDEE calculator to lose weight, gain muscle, or maintain their physique.
They do this by manipulating their calorie intake based on the following three premises:
- Eating less than your TDEE drives fat loss: You’ll lose weight if you consistently eat fewer calories than your TDEE. Research shows that eating 20–25% fewer calories than your TDEE promotes fast fat loss while minimizing the downsides of dieting, like muscle loss, excessive hunger, and fatigue.
- Eating more than your TDEE causes weight gain: If you consistently eat more than your TDEE, you’ll gain weight both in the form of body fat and lean body mass (primarily muscle). Research shows that to maximize muscle gain while minimizing fat gain, you should eat 5–10% more than your TDEE.
- Matching your caloric intake to your TDEE aids weight maintenance: Eating the same number of calories as you burn helps you maintain your weight. Maintaining your weight is a good option for those who have reached their goal physique and no longer want to bulk or cut.
Can You Increase Your TDEE for Weight Loss?
Yes, making certain lifestyle changes can raise your TDEE, which can make fat loss easier by increasing the number of calories you burn each day.
Exercise
Cardio and strength training increase your energy expenditure both during and after your workouts. Strength training also builds muscle, which raises your resting metabolic rate and increases how many calories you burn when you’re not moving.
To maximize your TDEE, research suggests combining cardio and strength training is more effective than doing either alone.
Diet
To increase your TDEE through diet, eat more protein. This helps in two ways:
- It promotes muscle growth (when combined with strength training), which is important for raising your resting metabolic rate.
- It “costs” more calories to digest than carbs or fat.
Aim to get 30–40% of your daily calories from protein-rich foods like chicken, beef, seafood, eggs, or Skyr.
Lifestyle
Increasing your daily movement outside of formal workouts can also meaningfully boost your TDEE.
This includes anything from taking the stairs instead of the elevator, to pacing around the kitchen while dinner cooks, to walking to the next bus stop instead of waiting around.
TDEE vs. BMR: Are They the Same for Weight Loss?
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and BMR (basal metabolic rate) aren’t the same, but they are related.
BMR is the number of calories your body needs to perform basic life-sustaining functions like breathing and circulation at rest. TDEE, on the other hand, includes BMR plus the calories burned through physical activity and the digestion of food.
For weight loss, TDEE is a more useful measure as it accounts for your overall daily activities, not just the energy spent at rest.
If you want to calculate your TDEE to support your weight loss goals, enter your details into the TDEE calculator above, and it’ll tell you exactly how many calories you should eat each day to start losing fat.
FAQ #1: What is the best TDEE calculator?
If you don’t know your body fat percentage, TDEE calculators that use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation are best. This equation tends to produce the most accurate TDEE calculator results.
If you know your body fat percentage, using a calorie expenditure calculator that utilizes the Katch-McArdle equation is the most accurate.
TDEE calculators that use the Harris-Benedict equation aren’t as accurate as those that use the Mifflin-St Jeor and Katch-McArdle equations, but we provided it in our TDEE calculator because it’s a well-known and popular formula.
FAQ #2: Should I eat my TDEE to lose weight?
No. Your TDEE is how many calories you need to maintain your weight. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your TDEE.
You can learn how many calories that is for you by entering your details into the free TDEE calculator above. Or, to learn more about how to diet and exercise for fat loss, check out this article:
The Complete Guide to Safely and Healthily Losing Weight Fast
FAQ #3: How do you use your TDEE to lose weight?
To lose weight, you’ll need to eat fewer calories than your TDEE. Research shows a good calorie target for weight loss is 75% of your TDEE (25% below your TDEE). For most people, this comes out to 10–12 calories per pound of body weight per day.
This is enough to lose weight quickly (about 1–2 pounds per week) without causing excessive hunger or cravings or disrupting your performance in the gym. To learn more about how to use your TDEE to lose weight, use the TDEE calculator above.
Scientific References +
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