Understanding Your TDEE
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the number of calories you burn in a day. It combines your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — energy used at rest — with the calories you expend through movement and digestion. Once you know your TDEE, you can set precise calorie targets that match your goal instead of guessing.
BMR vs. TDEE
BMR accounts for essential functions like breathing, organ activity, and body temperature regulation. TDEE takes that baseline and scales it up by your real-world activity. That scaling is done with an activity multiplier — higher if you train often or work on your feet, lower if you’re mostly sedentary.
Activity Multipliers (Guide)
| Level | Typical Lifestyle | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Desk job, little structured exercise | ~1.20 |
| Lightly Active | 1–3 training sessions/week | ~1.375 |
| Moderately Active | 3–5 sessions/week or a physical job | ~1.55 |
| Very Active | 6–7 sessions/week, manual labor, or athletes | ~1.725 |
If you’re unsure, start conservative. It’s easier to increase calories than to troubleshoot a surplus that slows fat loss.
How to Use Your Result
- Maintenance: Eat near your TDEE to keep weight stable and training fueled.
- Fat Loss: Reduce intake by roughly 10–20%. Keep protein high to protect lean mass.
- Muscle Gain: Add 10–15% above TDEE and focus on progressive overload and sleep.
NEAT: Your Secret Lever
NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) is all the movement you do outside of formal training — walking, taking stairs, yard work. Small boosts in NEAT (like a 10–20 minute walk after meals) can meaningfully increase your daily burn without extra gym time.
Plateaus & Fine-Tuning
- If weight isn’t changing: Adjust intake by 5–10% and reassess for 2 weeks.
- Fatigue rising? Keep calories steady but redistribute more carbs around workouts.
- Unexpected gain/loss: First check tracking accuracy (weigh food, verify steps), then tweak calories.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Overestimating activity: Picking “very active” when you train 2–3×/week skews TDEE high.
- Changing too many variables: Adjust one thing at a time so you know what worked.
- Ignoring protein and sleep: Calories guide weight change; protein and sleep guide body composition and performance.
Next Steps
Use your TDEE with the Macros Calculator to set protein, carbs, and fats — or jump to the Protein Calculator to lock in your daily target. Revisit your numbers monthly as training, weight, or daily movement changes.
Reviewed and approved by the PhysiqueFormulas Editorial Team — October 2025.