TDEE — Total Daily Energy Expenditure — is the total number of calories your body burns in a day. It's the single most useful number in nutrition because it tells you exactly how much to eat to lose fat, gain muscle, or stay the same weight. Here's what it is and how to use it.
What TDEE Actually Means
Your body burns calories constantly — to breathe, pump blood, maintain body temperature, digest food, and move. TDEE is the sum of all of this across a full day.
It has four components:
- BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) — calories burned at rest just to keep you alive. Typically 60–70% of TDEE.
- NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) — calories burned through everyday movement: walking, fidgeting, standing, housework. Highly variable between individuals.
- EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) — calories burned during deliberate exercise.
- TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) — calories burned digesting food. Typically 10% of total intake; protein has the highest TEF at 20–30%.
Add these up and you get your TDEE. Eat at TDEE and your weight stays stable. Eat below it and you lose weight. Eat above it and you gain weight.
How TDEE Is Calculated
The most widely used formula is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which calculates your BMR from height, weight, age, and sex, then multiplies it by an activity multiplier.
BMR calculation:
- Men: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5
- Women: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161
Activity multipliers:
- Sedentary (desk job, little exercise): BMR × 1.2
- Lightly active (1–3 days exercise/week): BMR × 1.375
- Moderately active (3–5 days exercise/week): BMR × 1.55
- Very active (6–7 days hard exercise): BMR × 1.725
- Extra active (physical job + daily exercise): BMR × 1.9
Rather than do this manually, use our TDEE calculator — it calculates your number in seconds and shows you calorie targets for weight loss, muscle gain, and maintenance.
TDEE vs BMR: What's the Difference?
BMR is what you'd burn lying completely still in a temperature-controlled room for 24 hours — the absolute minimum. TDEE is what you actually burn in real life, accounting for all your activity. The gap between them is usually 20–50%, which is why eating at BMR would cause most people to lose weight even without exercise.
For practical diet planning, always use TDEE. BMR is just the calculation input, not the target.
How to Use TDEE for Weight Loss
To lose weight, you need a calorie deficit — eating less than your TDEE. The standard recommendation is a deficit of 300–500 calories per day, which produces 0.3–0.5kg of fat loss per week (the maths: 3,500 calories ≈ 500g of fat).
Practical approach:
- Calculate your TDEE
- Subtract 400–500 calories for a moderate deficit
- Set that as your daily calorie target
- Hit a protein target of 1.6–2g per kg bodyweight to preserve muscle while losing fat
For example: TDEE of 2,400 → calorie target of 1,950 → 0.4kg fat loss per week on average.
Larger deficits (700–1,000 calories) cause faster weight loss but increase muscle loss, hunger, and compliance failure. The moderate deficit approach is slower but most people can actually sustain it.
How to Use TDEE for Muscle Gain
Building muscle requires a calorie surplus — eating more than TDEE. A surplus of 200–300 calories above TDEE is enough for muscle growth while minimising fat gain. This is called a "lean bulk."
Eating significantly above TDEE (500+ calories surplus) adds muscle no faster but adds considerably more fat, which then requires a cut later to remove. For most natural lifters, the lean bulk approach is more efficient overall.
TDEE Isn't Fixed — It Changes
A common mistake: treating TDEE as a permanent number. It isn't. As your weight changes, your TDEE changes too — lighter people burn fewer calories. If you lose 10kg, your TDEE drops by roughly 100–150 calories, and your calorie target needs to be recalculated.
The practical implication: if your weight loss plateaus after several weeks, your TDEE has likely dropped to match your intake. Recalculate with your new weight and adjust your target.
TDEE and Meal Planning
Knowing your TDEE makes meal planning specific rather than guesswork. Once you have your daily calorie target, you can plan meals that hit it consistently. PrepSmart uses your TDEE to generate a full 7-day meal plan that hits your calorie target, meets your protein goal, and stays within your weekly food budget.
To get started: calculate your TDEE here — it takes 60 seconds and gives you your maintenance calories, weight loss target, and muscle gain target in one go. From there, you can generate a personalised meal plan matched to your specific numbers.
Quick TDEE Reference Table
Approximate TDEE ranges for common profiles:
- Sedentary woman, 65kg, 30 years old: ~1,700–1,900 kcal/day
- Moderately active woman, 65kg, 30 years old: ~2,100–2,300 kcal/day
- Sedentary man, 80kg, 30 years old: ~2,100–2,300 kcal/day
- Moderately active man, 80kg, 30 years old: ~2,600–2,900 kcal/day
- Very active man, 90kg, 25 years old: ~3,200–3,500 kcal/day
These are rough estimates only. Your actual TDEE depends on your exact measurements and activity level. Use the TDEE calculator for a precise figure.