TDEE calculator: find your maintenance calories

What is TDEE?

TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure: every calorie your body uses in a day. It is made up of your basal metabolic rate (the energy you burn at rest), plus everything you burn moving around, training and digesting food.

Your TDEE is the same thing as your maintenance calories. It is the starting point for any diet: eat below it to lose weight, above it to gain.

How this TDEE calculator works

CalBudge first estimates your BMR, then multiplies it by an activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9 based on how many gym and cardio sessions you do each week. Unlike most calculators, you can also enter your average daily steps, which nudges the factor up or down to reflect how active you are outside the gym.

Your results show your TDEE alongside your BMR, so you can see exactly where the number comes from.

How it works

1. 01
   Tell us about you

   Age, height, weight, sex and how often you train. Already know your TDEE? Skip straight to your goal.

2. 02
   Pick a goal and pace

   Cutting, bulking or maintaining, at a mild, moderate or aggressive pace.

3. 03
   Get your budget

   A daily calorie target split across your meals, with a macro estimate. Save it or copy it into your tracker.

How CalBudge calculates your calories

No black box. These are the exact formulas and numbers the calculator uses, so you can check the working.

1. Basal metabolic rate (BMR)

By default, BMR comes from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, one of the most widely used formulas for estimating resting energy needs:

If you enter your body fat percentage, CalBudge switches to the Katch-McArdle equation, which works from lean mass and tends to be more accurate for people who know their body composition:

2. Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)

Your BMR is multiplied by an activity factor between 1.2 (sedentary) and 1.9 (very active), based on your gym and cardio sessions per week. If you add your average daily steps, the factor is nudged up or down slightly to match how much you move outside the gym.

3. Your daily target

To lose or gain weight, your TDEE is adjusted by the pace you choose:

For safety, a cut never goes below 1.2 × your BMR, and no target ever goes below 1,200 calories a day. If your chosen pace would cross that line, CalBudge raises your target and tells you.

4. Macros

If you give your bodyweight, CalBudge estimates a macro split: protein at 1.8 g per kg of bodyweight, fat at 25% of your calories, and carbohydrates making up the rest.

5. Meal-by-meal split

Your daily target is divided across six eating occasions:

Skip a meal you don't eat and its calories are spread across the others in proportion to their size.

6. Time to your target weight

If you set a target weight, CalBudge estimates the timeline using roughly 7,700 calories per kilogram of body weight. Real progress varies with water weight, adherence and metabolic adaptation, so treat it as a rough guide.

Frequently asked questions