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What is BMR and TDEE?

Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the amount of energy (in calories) that your body expends (or uses up) in order to perform basic, life-sustaining functions whilst you're at rest. These basal functions include circulation, breathing, cell production, nutrient processing, protein synthesis and ion transport.

Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the amount of energy (in calories) your body expends (or uses up) per day, which is made up of your BMR plus your activity level. Your activity level is any other activity such as standing, walking, hugging, working, exercising, etc.

This calculator will work out both your BMR and your TDEE and give you three calorie ranges depending on your goal.

The first range is your TDEE minus 10-20%

The second range is your TDEE maintenance range.

The third range is your TDEE plus a surplus of 10-20%

If all this sounds confusing or you're new to the concept of knowing how many daily calories your body needs in a day then this calorie range is really all you need to start working toward your goal (no need to read any further).

If you want to learn more about the science behind it, read on and learn about your BMR and TDEE. This will be useful for you to understand when other calorie calculators give you both a BMR number and a TDEE, instead of a simple calorie range as above. When using other calculators, you may have to add or take away your own 10% based on your goals.

How It Works

Your TDEE is found by multiplying your BMI by a factor corresponding to your physical activity level. You should use the guide below when asked to choose your activity level opposite.

Activity Level:

• Sedentary lifestyle (little or no exercise) BMR × 1.2 
• Lightly active lifestyle (light exercise or sports 1-2 days/week) BMR × 1.375
• Moderately active lifestyle (moderate exercise or sports 2-3 days/week) BMR × 1.55
• Very active lifestyle (hard exercise or sports 4-5 days/week) BMR × 1.725
• Extremely active lifestyle (very hard exercise, physical job or sports 6-7 days/week) BMR × 1.9

If you're not sure which activity level to choose, always go for a lower number. That's because most people overestimate how much they exercise, and if you want to lose body fat, it's safer to assume that you are not as active as you'd expect yourself to be.

The result is your TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure (Calories/day). It is the daily calorie intake recommended for maintaining your current weight.

*Please bear with us as the calculator currently only measures in centimetres (cm) and pounds (lbs).

Before using the data obtained using this calculator, please consult with a doctor.

So What Do I do with this TDEE number?

Good question! - I knew I liked you! Simply, you can use your TDEE to

LOSE,

GAIN or

MAINTAIN

your current body shape/weight. However, the importance of knowing about your TDEE goes way beyond a desire to lose, gain or maintain body composition. It can be about establishing your ENERGY requirements: finding out whether you currently consume enough energy in the form of calories or too few. Eating at your TDEE helps you to maintain ENERGY BALANCE, which when maintained, can help your body in its attempt to restore naturally occurring biological processes that were thrown out of whack due to imbalance. These vital processes include but are not limited to the effective functioning of the body systems (especially the digestive and endocrine systems which play a vital role in hormone activity) and supports better cognitive functioning and better health and happiness all round. Further, the types of nutrients that we consume are important, yes but consuming ENOUGH nutrients is paramount to maintaining our energy levels, and supporting our mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing.

Use your TDEE to LOSE Body Fat:

Eat a calorie deficit of 10% of your TDEE to slowly reduce body fat:

(e.g if TDEE = 2000 calories, a 10% deficit would be 1800 calories or TDEE x 0.9).

Reducing calories by 10% is a less aggressive approach compared with reducing calories by 20% or even 30%.

It will take longer to shred body fat with a 10% deficit. (For instance, all things being equal, by reducing your calorie deficit from 20 to 10 percent, you’re halving the amount of fat you’ll lose each week and doubling the amount of time it’ll take to finish).

However there is less chance of falling off the wagon at 10% deficit compared with 20% or 30% due to life commotion, dietary slip-ups, scheduling chaos etc. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you're not as lean as what you want to be after a short period of time and you're already on low calories, you really have nowhere left to go and this is what we DON'T want. You'll find yourself back to square one: having lost too much, too quickly and before you know it, you've just completed yet another yo-yo diet! You can only go so low for so long without harming your mental, physical and metabolic wellbeing. Sound familiar?

Use your TDEE to GAIN Muscle:

Eat a calorie surplus of 10% of your TDEE for a lean bulk: 

(e.g if TDEE = 2000 calories, a 10% surplus would be 2200 calories or TDEE x 1.1).

You're likely to gain just as much muscle eating a surplus of 10% more than your TDEE as you would by eating 20% or 30% more but you'll gain a lot less body fat (or fluff, as we like to refer to it).

A calorie surplus boosts muscle protein synthesis (muscle growth), increases anabolic and decreases catabolic hormone levels, and improves workout performance.

All of that adds up to significantly better muscle and strength gains, a better shape and more energy over time.

Do you want to know what the best thing is about having more muscle (and no, I don't mean looking like a burly bodybuilder - unless of course that's your goal! I mean that shapely, lean and 'toned' aesthetic). The best thing is that muscle burns more calories than fat because muscle is living tissue that require a constant supply of energy (food) to keep them alive. They are calorie hungry. The more muscles you have, the more you can eat. The more you eat, the more you will speed up your metabolism and the faster your metabolism, the more body fat you will burn. You are simply winning at life if you have muscle!

Use your TDEE to MAINTAIN your current body fat/weight:

Eat at your TDEE (your maintenance calories).

Finding out your TDEE may leave you floored for one of two reasons. Either you realise that you've been consuming too many calories or you've been consuming too few.

If shedding body fat is less of a priority than gaining more energy and feeling less fatigued, then eating at your TDEE could be the key to you finally having the strength to get through your day. Eating at your TDEE keeps you in energy balance and when you have energy balance, your body is a more effective machine!