What is tdee and why should you care about it?
TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure, which is the number of calories your body burns in a day, including rest, movement, and exercise.
Basically, your body burns energy in four ways, that are:
1. Basal metabolic rate (BMR)
We all need energy to live! And that required amount of calories is actually known as BMR. Vital organs, like the lungs, heart, and brain, consume around 60 to 80% of your TDEE to keep you functioning even when you are sleeping.
2. Thermic effect of food (TEF)
Even your digestive system consumes energy as soon as you start eating. Your body invests around 10% of your TDEE to yield energy from food. Obviously, it changes according to the food you eat. Like proteins take higher TEF, while carbs and fats consume much less.
3. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT)
That’s the energy you utilize during your daily life activities (other than exercise), like walking, cooking, driving, etc. This takes around 15% of your daily energy needs.
4. Exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT)
Now that’s the energy you require to perform any exercise. It definitely depends on the level and the duration of the activity, but it estimates around 5% of your TDEE.
By combining these components and analyzing your metrics, our tool delivers an accurate estimate of your real-world calorie needs.
How the TDEE calculator measures accurate energy consumption
This TDEE calculator online takes your body metrics and estimates how much energy your body might be consuming in BMR, TEF, NEAT, and EAT. Those are,
1. Age
Your energy consumption changes with age. Because of the hormonal changes, loss of muscle mass, decreased physical activity, and more body fat.
2. Gender
Generally, men have a higher BMR than women. That’s because men typically have larger bodies and more muscle mass, which requires more energy to maintain.
3. Height
Larger bodies have more surface area for heat loss and more tissues to maintain. These factors naturally require more energy, hence a higher BMR.
4. Weight
Heavier individuals have larger organs, more muscles to burn calories, and definitely more cells to feed. So, they usually have higher BMRs than lighter individuals of the same age, height, and gender.
When this maintenance calorie calculator knows how much your basal metabolic rate is, then it just needs to know your activity levels and add that energy consumption to your BMR.
The formulas our tdee calculator uses for accurate calculations
Our BMR calculator uses the best and most accurate formulas to calculate your BMR. And not only one, but 5 of them.
- Mifflin-St. Jeor equation
- Harris Benedict equation
- Katch-McArdle formula
- Cunningham formula
- Oxford Equation
All these equations generate almost similar results. But the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation is the most famous one because it does not require your body fat percentage.
The next step is to calculate the calories you spend on physical activities and add that to your BMR. For that, our TDEE calculator multiplies your BMR by the following multipliers according to your daily physical activities. And we get the results.
- Sedentary (desk job, no exercise): ×1.2
- Lightly Active (1–3 days/week light exercise): ×1.375
- Moderately Active (3–5 days/week): ×1.55
- Very Active (6–7 days/week hard exercise): ×1.725
- Extremely Active (intense training or physical job): ×1.9
Smart weight management with our daily calorie calculator
TDEE calculations of this tool help you know where you are in your fitness goals and what you have to do from now on.
TDEE calculator to lose weight
When you know how much energy you consume each day, you just have to eat less than that. Your body will consume reserved energy, and you will eventually lose weight.
Maintain weight with accurate TDEE calculations
If your energy intake and consumption match each other, you will maintain your weight. So, if you know these numbers, it is easy for you to maintain your weight as you like.
TDEE calculator for weight gain or muscle building
If you consistently eat more than what you consume according to our TDEE calculator, then you will eventually gain weight. But this one is a bit tricky. You need to manage the components of your diet. Eating more protein will get you more muscle mass, while eating carbs and fat will increase your body fat.
So you can also use this TDEE calculator for bodybuilding by just managing your diet and regular exercise.
Frequently asked questions
1. TDEE vs BMR: What matters more for losing weight?
Measuring TDEE is definitely better. It tells you how much energy your body requires for your lifestyle. So you can increase or decrease your energy intake according to your goals. BMR, on the other hand, is just the calories you burn without any physical activity. Knowing this does not help that much with your fitness goals.
2. Does eating less than your TDEE guarantee weight loss?
That’s definitely not the only factor, but it is the most important factor. If you eat less and create a calorie deficit, your body will start consuming fat. But if you exercise regularly, sleep properly, and keep yourself hydrated, you will lose weight faster and in a healthier way.
3. How is a TDEE calculator different from a metabolism calculator?
A metabolism calculator focuses only on your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), the calories your body burns at rest. Whereas a TDEE calculator finds your total daily energy expenditure, including physical activity, digestion, and non-exercise movements. It’s a broader and more realistic number of your daily needs.
4. What is a calorie deficit, and how does it help in weight loss?
A calorie deficit occurs when you consume fewer calories than you burn. In this situation, your body starts taking energy from your stored body fat, which results in weight loss.
First, find out your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Then, consume fewer calories than that on a daily basis. This will create a calorie deficit.
