How to Calculate TDEE: Master Your Energy

Trying to figure out how many calories you need to lose or gain weight? Start by estimating your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. 

Since you’re reading this, you probably want to build mass or get leaner. As you might know, hypertrophy requires a caloric surplus, meaning that you need to take in more calories than you burn. Fat loss, on the other hand, requires a calorie deficit. 

Either way, it’s necessary to determine the number of calories you should eat to achieve your goals. 

To do that, you must calculate TDEE. This number indicates how many calories you burn every day and depends on several factors, including your age, sex, weight, height, activity level and more. 

To put it simply, this is your calorie maintenance level. Anything below or above your TDEE will cause changes in body weight and body composition. 

If let’s say, you’re looking to build mass, you must slightly increase your calorie intake above maintenance levels. For fat loss, you’ll do the opposite. 

Knowing is half the battle. Read on to learn how to calculate TDEE so that you can create a diet and meal plan that aligns with your goals! 

The Scoop on Calories

To understand your TDEE, you must first have a clear idea of what calories are and why they matter. 

A calorie is a unit of energy. What you see on food packaging are kilocalories (kcal). One kilocalorie equals 1,000 calories and represents the amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of 1 liter of water by 1 degree Celsius. 

Your body uses calories in the form of heat to produce energy. The total number of calories you expend each day is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), or metabolic rate. 

We’re not talking just about the calories used during exercise or physical activity in general. The human body also needs energy for breathing, digestion, and other biological functions. Even laughing burns calories! 

The calories in your diet come from protein, fats, and carbs — the three macronutrients. Protein and carbohydrates supply 4 calories per gram. Dietary fat provides 9 calories per gram. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, but it’s not a macronutrient because your body doesn’t need it for survival. 

Every cell and tissue in your body requires energy to function optimally. The key is to balance the energy derived from food with that expended throughout the day. If you take in more calories than you burn, you’ll end up gaining weight. 

Eating too Few Calories

Eating too few calories is just as harmful as it may lead to malnutrition. Extreme diets are not just ineffective, but they may also slow down your metabolism and raise the stress hormone cortisol levels. As a result, your body will enter starvation mode and hold on to every calorie, making fat loss difficult. 

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day for adult men and 1,600 to 2,400 calories per day for women. These numbers are not set in stone, though. 

Athletes have higher energy requirements than the average person. Powerlifters, for instance, consume 5,000 to 10,000 calories (and even more) per day to get the energy needed to lift hundreds of pounds. 

What Are Empty Calories?

While it’s true that all calories can be used for energy, they are not equal. Two different foods with the same caloric value can affect your body in different ways. 

Let’s take olive oil, for example. One tablespoon provides 119 calories, according to the USDA. These come mostly from monounsaturated fats. 

As the American Heart Association notes, monounsaturated fats promote cardiovascular health and improve blood lipids. Olive oil also contains small amounts of polyunsaturated fats, which are just as beneficial. 

Palm oil, by comparison, has 120 calories per tablespoon. Unlike olive oil, its calories are derived from saturated fats. It does contain a tiny amount of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, but too little to make a difference. 

Partially hydrogenated palm oil, which can be found in processed foods, is even worse because of its high trans fat content. When consumed in excess, saturated and trans fats may clog your arteries and lead to heart disease. 

What about carbs?

The same goes for carbohydrates. As you already know, there are “good” carbs and “bad” carbs. Although both types have the same caloric value, they affect your blood sugar and insulin levels differently. 

Ice cream, for example, is high in added sugar, which goes straight to your bloodstream, causing blood glucose spikes followed by crashes. 

Whole grains, on the other hand, contain fiber and complex carbs. Fiber slows down sugar absorption into your system and prevents blood glucose spikes. Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest and break down than simple carbs, providing steady energy throughout the day. 

To sum up, empty calories typically come from added sugar and trans fats and have little or no nutritional value. 

Candies, soft drinks, pastries, margarine, shortening, cookies, and alcoholic beverages contain empty calories. Some do provide small amounts of vitamins and minerals, but there are better ways to get these nutrients in your diet.

Key Factors That Influence Your TDEE

Now that you know more about calories, you may wonder how to calculate TDEE. To do that, you must know how many calories you expend at rest as well during digestion and physical activity. 

The number of calories burned at rest represents your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Next comes food-induced thermogenesis, or the thermic effect of food (TEF). 

The third factor is your level of physical activity, which accounts for a large part of your total energy expenditure. 

TDEE is the sum of these factors. Below we’re going to break them down so you get a better idea of how to determine your energy requirements. Let’s get into it! 

What Is Basal Metabolic Rate? 

Basal metabolic rate is the minimum amount of energy required by your body to maintain essential functions at rest. It accounts for 65 to 75% of total energy expenditure, according to the Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. This number decreases with age and differs between men and women. 

As noted in the above review, women tend to have a lower basal metabolic rate than men. Researchers attribute this fact to the differences in lean mass between sexes. The more muscle you have, the higher your BMR. 

Your age, sex, and body composition are not the only factors that influence this number. Your BMR also depends on the following variables:

• Body size
• Genetics
• Hormone levels
• Physical activity
• Diet
• Overall health
• Environmental temperature
• The use of dietary supplements

For example, if you’re ill or struggling with an infection, your BMR may increase because your body has to work harder to build new tissues and fight disease. 

The BMR also goes up when it’s extremely cold or hot outside. In this case, your body will burn more energy to keep your temperature within normal limits. 

Crash diets are notorious for their impact on metabolism. Extreme dieting and starvation cause your body to store calories and use less energy. At the same time, they cause muscle loss, which may further decrease your BMR. 

Certain supplements boost your energy expenditure at rest. For this reason, caffeine, green tea extract, and other stimulants are widely used in fat burners. 

Old School Labs’ Vintage Burn, for instance, contains caffeine, green coffee bean extract, green tea extract, and other natural ingredients that kick-start your metabolism and suppress appetite.

Calculate Your BMR 

According to the Khan Academy, the average BMR of American men is 6,950 Joules (1,661 calories) per day. American women, on the other hand, have a BMR of 6,250 Joules (1,493 calories). 

As you would expect, these numbers vary based on the factors listed above. Bodybuilders, for example, have a significantly higher BMR compared to the average person. 

There are several ways to calculate your BMR. 

A popular option is the Harris-Benedict Equation, but it’s not entirely accurate because it doesn’t take lean body mass into consideration. You may use an online calculator to estimate your basal metabolic rate with this formula. 

Generally, manual BMR calculations are not 100% accurate. The only way to find out exactly how many calories you burn at rest is to get tested in a clinic equipped with state-of-art equipment. Online calculators, though, are a good starting point. 

Once you know your BMR, you can determine how much energy you expend in a day. From there, you can figure out the number of calories you needed to get leaner, build mass, or maintain your weight. 

What Is Food-Induced Thermogenesis?

Another factor that influences your TDEE is the thermic effect of food (TEF), or the increase in metabolic rate following a meal. 

TEF accounts for about 10% of your daily energy intake. And no, it has nothing to do with “negative” calories or the grapefruit diet. 

Each of the three macronutrients takes more or less energy to digest and break down. The TEF of protein, for example, is 20 to 30%. This means your body will only absorb 70 to 80% of the calories in high-protein foods, such as fish or lean meat. 

Carbs, on the other hand, have a TEF of 5 to 10%. So if you eat one cup of brown rice, which has 218 calories, you’ll absorb only 196 to 207 of those calories. The rest of them will be used for digestion. 

The TEF of dietary fat is 0 to 3%. However, it’s important to note that certain foods rich in fat have a much higher TEF than it was thought. 

For example, only 25% of the calories in almonds and 5% of the calories in pistachios are absorbed into your body. 

Journal of Nutrition Study

According to a 2016 study published in the Journal of Nutrition, the metabolizable energy of walnuts is 5 to 21% lower than predicted. Furthermore, nut consumption promotes the excretion of fecal fat, which may aid in weight loss. Nut butters don’t have this effect. 

Dieters and athletes can leverage the thermic effect of food to get leaner and keep the pounds off. Protein has the highest TEF. Therefore, a diet based largely on protein-rich foods may facilitate fat loss and elevate your metabolism. 

The thermic effect of food also depends on genetics, physical activity level, meal size, and food quality. 

Processed foods, for instance, have a significantly lower TEF compared to their whole counterparts. Additionally, large meals result in a greater increase in energy expenditure than smaller meals because they take longer to digest.

Consider Your Activity Level 

A third factor that influences TDEE is your physical activity level. The definition of “physical activity” goes beyond exercise. 

Some household tasks burn just as many calories as one hour of jogging or weight training. Social and occupational activities increase your energy expenditure as well. Individuals with physical jobs, for example, torch more calories throughout the day than office workers. 

To calculate TDEE, you must first determine how active you are. The American Council on Exercise (ACE Fitness) classifies physical activity levels into five categories:

• Sedentary 
• Lightly active
• Moderately active 
• Very active 
• Extremely active 

Each level of physical activity is assigned a number that needs to be multiplied by BMR. These numbers are subject to debate, though. 

Different experts and health organizations use different formulas to determine one’s activity level, BMR and energy expenditure. 

And this brings us to the next point…

How to Calculate TDEE — Find Out How Many Calories You Burn 

In addition to the factors listed above, several other variables influence total energy expenditure. 

Genetics, excess post-exercise oxygen consumption and non-exercise activity thermogenesis are just a few to mention. For this reason, it’s difficult to get an exact number when it comes to your TDEE.

ACE Fitness recommends the following formula to calculate TDEE in both men and women: 

TDEE = RMR (resting metabolic rate) + TEF + NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) + EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) + Exercise 

As discussed earlier, you can only estimate your basal metabolic rate. A more accurate measure is RMR, or resting metabolic rate. Again, you need special equipment, such as the BodyGem, to get an exact number. 

NEAT & EPOC

The same goes for other variables, like NEAT and EPOC. These numbers vary from one individual to another, points out the American Council on Exercise. 

However, if you have a rough estimate of your BMR or RMR, you can multiply it by your activity score to calculate TDEE. For example, sedentary individuals will multiply their BMR by 1.2 to determine total daily energy expenditure. A moderately active person will multiply BMR by 1.55. 

A more convenient option is to use a TDEE calculator. The results aren’t 100% accurate, but at least you’ll get an estimate of your energy expenditure. Try this online calculator or a different one.

Eat and Train for Your Goals 

As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into your daily energy expenditure. Unless you have access to cutting-edge equipment, it’s difficult to accurately calculate TDEE. 

The best thing you can do is to estimate your BMR and activity level — and then use an online calculator to determine how many calories you burn throughout the day. 

Use this number as a starting point to increase or reduce your caloric intake based on what you’re trying to achieve. 

If let’s say, you want to get leaner, cut 300 to 500 calories a day and pay more attention to portion sizes. Incorporate HIIT and tabata into your workouts to increase fat burning. Consider the key rules of workout nutrition when planning your meals, whether you’re cutting or bulking up. 

Do you know how many calories you burn in a day? Perhaps you want to recommend a TDEE calculator? Share your thoughts below!