🍽️ TDEE & Macro Calculator
Calculate your daily calorie needs and macro breakdown for your fitness goal.
Your Daily Targets
Daily Calories
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Protein
1 g per lb bodyweight
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Carbs
Fills remaining calories
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Fats
0.3 g per lb bodyweight
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How TDEE and macros are calculated
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the sum of everything your body burns in a day. It starts with your basal metabolic rate (BMR) — the calories you'd burn at complete rest — which this calculator estimates with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the formula most dietitians consider the current standard. That BMR is then multiplied by an activity factor to reflect how much you move.
Setting calories for your goal
To lose fat, eat below your TDEE; this tool applies a 500-calorie deficit for a cut, roughly a pound a week. To gain, it adds 500 for a bulk. From your calorie target it sets protein at about 1 gram per pound of bodyweight, fat at 0.3 grams per pound, and fills the rest with carbohydrates. These are solid starting points — adjust based on real-world results over 2–3 weeks. To check whether your current weight is in a healthy range, try the BMI calculator, or estimate body composition with the body fat calculator.
Worked example
Take a 30-year-old man, 180 lb, 70 inches tall, training moderately (about 3–5 days a week). Mifflin-St Jeor puts his resting metabolic rate near 1,780 calories; multiplied by the moderate activity factor (1.55), his maintenance TDEE is roughly 2,760 calories. Aiming to maintain, the macro split lands around 180g protein, ~54g fat, and ~390g carbs. For a cut he'd drop to about 2,260; for a bulk, about 3,260.
Accuracy and limitations
- Predictive equations are typically accurate to within about 10% — treat the number as a starting point, then adjust based on 2–3 weeks of real weight-change data.
- The activity multiplier is the biggest source of error; most people overestimate how active they are.
- The protein/fat/carb split here is a common practical guideline, not part of the underlying equation.
Sources & references
Resting metabolic rate uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, validated as one of the more accurate predictive equations for healthy adults: Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. "A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals." Am J Clin Nutr. 1990 (PubMed).