Calorie & TDEE Calculator: How Many Calories a Day?

Find your TDEE — the calories you burn in a day — and a daily target for losing, keeping or gaining weight. It runs the same formula CaloCalo uses to set your plan.

What TDEE means

Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is everything you burn in a day: your basal metabolic rate (BMR) — the energy your body uses at rest — plus digestion, everyday movement and exercise. Eat at your TDEE and your weight holds steady. Eat below it and you lose weight. BMR vs TDEE walks through both with a worked example.

How the calculator works

BMR comes from the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, one of the most widely validated formulas for healthy adults. Men: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5. Women: the same, but − 161 at the end.
TDEE is BMR times an activity multiplier: 1.3 for 0–2 workouts a week, 1.55 for 3–5 and 1.725 for 6 or more.
Your target moves away from TDEE by your pace. A kilogram of body fat holds roughly 7,700 kcal, so losing 0.5 kg a week means eating about 550 kcal a day below TDEE. The target never goes below 1,200 kcal for women or 1,500 for men.

How many calories should I eat to lose weight?

Start from your TDEE and take away 300–800 kcal a day. That works out to roughly 0.3–0.7 kg (0.6–1.5 lb) a week, a pace most people can hold without feeling starved. Faster is possible, but the calorie floor caps it, and steep deficits tend to cost you muscle and patience. See what a calorie deficit is for how to check one week by week.

Why it’s an estimate

Formulas are accurate for a population and rougher for one person: your real burn can sit 10% either side of the number. Treat it as a starting point. Eat to it for two or three weeks, watch your weight trend rather than single weigh-ins, and adjust by 100–200 kcal if it isn’t moving the way you want. If it stalls for weeks, here is what to check before eating less.

Protein, carbs and fat

Protein is set from body weight — 1.6 g/kg to maintain, 1.8 to gain and 2.0 while losing — and kept between 15% and 35% of calories. Fat takes 25% of calories, and carbs fill the rest. The guides to how much protein per day and macros for beginners explain the numbers. For a deeper look at what you’re eating, see the calorie chart of 40 Vietnamese dishes.

Common questions

What’s the difference between BMR and TDEE?

BMR is what your body burns at complete rest: breathing, circulation, keeping warm. TDEE adds everything you do on top of that — digestion, walking, work and exercise. TDEE is the number to eat against.

How many calories do I burn a day without exercise?

Pick 0–2 workouts a week above. The calculator then multiplies your BMR by 1.3, which covers a mostly seated day with some walking.

Is 1,200 calories a day enough?

It’s the lowest target the calculator gives, and it mostly applies to smaller, less active women. If your TDEE is well above it, eating 1,200 is a bigger deficit than you need and much harder to stick to.

How do I hit the number without weighing everything?

Photograph your meals with CaloCalo. The app recognises the dish, estimates the portion and takes it off your daily target — Vietnamese food included.

Calorie calculator