Deficit

TDEE Calculator (Cunningham Equation + PAL + TEF)

Use this if you want your maintenance calories: the number you'd eat to hold your weight. Planning a fat-loss cut instead? The lean body mass calculator turns these same numbers into a protein target and a deficit. The math here uses Cunningham BMR (lean mass, not total weight), a calibrated activity multiplier, and the thermic effect of food, which most online calculators leave out.

Calculate Your TDEE

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Estimates only. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before acting on these numbers for medical reasons.

Below: what TDEE means, how the math gets there, and why our numbers look slightly lower than the generic calculators you've used before.

What is TDEE?

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure: the number of calories your body burns in a 24-hour period when you factor in everything, including resting metabolism, physical activity, and the energy cost of digesting food.

For practical use, your TDEE is your maintenance calorie level. Eat at TDEE and weight stays the same. Eat below and you cut. Eat above and you bulk. Every nutrition plan starts from this number.

TDEE vs BMR

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is what you'd burn lying motionless in bed all day, just keeping your organs running. TDEE is BMR plus the calories burned by movement, exercise, and digestion. Your BMR is roughly 60 to 70% of your TDEE for most people.

TDEE vs RMR

BMR and RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) are almost identical, and both measure resting calorie burn. The technical difference is that BMR is measured immediately after waking after 12 hours fasted, while RMR is measured under less strict conditions. In real-world calculators they're treated as the same number. The Cunningham equation technically returns RMR; we treat it as BMR for simplicity.

TDEE vs "maintenance calories"

Same number, different name. "Maintenance calories" is the everyday gym phrase; "TDEE" is the technical one. If you've been told to "eat at maintenance," you're being told to eat at your TDEE.

How does Deficit calculate your TDEE?

Three multiplicative components, explained in full with sources on the how Deficit works page: 

TDEE = BMR × PAL × TEF

Each lever has a specific job and a specific defensible range. The full breakdown:

BMR: Cunningham equation (uses lean mass)

Most TDEE calculators use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which factors in total weight, height, age, and sex. Deficit uses the Cunningham equation instead, which uses lean body mass directly: 

BMR = 500 + 22 × LBM(kg)

Why: muscle burns calories at rest, fat doesn't. Two people of the same weight, height, age, and sex can have substantially different metabolic rates if their body composition differs. Cunningham captures that. Mifflin-St Jeor doesn't. For a deeper comparison with worked examples, see the lean body mass calculator or the Cunningham equation for athletes.

PAL: physical activity level (1.10 to 1.40)

PAL is the multiplier on top of BMR that accounts for movement and exercise. Deficit uses four buckets, calibrated for the Cunningham base:

Tier PAL Description Step range (rough)
Sedentary1.10Desk job, no training< 5,000/day
Lightly Active1.201 to 2 sessions/week5,000 to 8,000/day
Moderately Active1.303 to 4 sessions/week8,000 to 12,000/day
Very Active1.405+ sessions/week12,000+/day

You'll notice these are lower than the 1.2 / 1.375 / 1.55 / 1.725 / 1.9 you see on most online calculators. That's deliberate. See the next section.

TEF: thermic effect of food (1.08 to 1.15)

Digestion itself burns calories. Protein costs more to process than carbs, and carbs cost more than fats. Whole foods cost more than ultra-processed equivalents. TEF captures this as a small but real multiplier:

Diet style TEF What it means
Convenience 1.08 Mostly takeout, delivery, ready-made meals
Home Cooked 1.10 Whole foods with lean protein and vegetables
Performance Focused 1.15 Very high protein and fiber

Most online TDEE calculators ignore TEF entirely. They implicitly assume 1.0. For someone eating about 150 g of protein a day, that's an 8 to 15% under-estimate of TDEE.

Why are Deficit's PAL values lower than other calculators?

Most calculators pair Mifflin-St Jeor BMR with generic PAL multipliers in the 1.2 to 1.9 range. Deficit's calculator uses a tighter 1.10 to 1.40 range. That's not a bug; it's calibration.

Cunningham gives a BMR roughly 10% higher than Mifflin-St Jeor for typical body composition. So the activity multiplier has to come down proportionally. Otherwise TDEE inflates by about 10% and you eat too much in maintenance, too little relative to a deficit (because the deficit slides off a too-high base).

The math works out. The TDEE prediction lines up with what a Mifflin × generic-PAL combo would return, but built on a more accurate body-composition-aware foundation.

Practical implication: don't compare Deficit's TDEE to a generic calculator's TDEE and pick the higher one. That's a calibration mismatch, not a more accurate number. Pick one calculator and trust it end to end.

How accurate is your TDEE number?

Honest answer: any TDEE calculation is an estimate within ±10% for most people. The only way to get your real TDEE is to track calorie intake carefully for 2 to 3 weeks at stable weight and back-solve from observed weight change.

For practical use, an estimate within ±10% is enough to start. Once you're tracking, weekly weight data tells you whether the estimate was high or low, and a weekly algorithm (the Deficit app does this automatically) corrects the number based on what your body does. The first week is calibration. Every week after that is real data.

If your TDEE here surprises you (much higher or lower than expected), double-check your body fat % first. A 5 percentage point error in body fat changes LBM by about 3 kg, which moves BMR by about 70 kcal and TDEE by about 100 kcal.

What should you do with your TDEE?

Find your maintenance: eat at TDEE

The simplest application. If your goal is to hold weight (post-cut maintenance, off-season, or trying to stop tracking), eat at your TDEE for 2 to 4 weeks and watch the trend. If weight drifts up, drop about 100 kcal and re-stabilize. If it drifts down, add about 100 kcal. Within 4 weeks you'll have your real maintenance number, not the calculator's estimate.

Set up a cut: eat below TDEE

For a cutting cycle, subtract a percentage. The "If you wanted to cut" breakdown above shows three common deficits: 15%, 20%, and 25%. Lower if you're already lean (under about 12% body fat for men, about 20% for women) to protect lean mass. Higher if you have more fat to lose. The LBM calculator picks the right deficit automatically based on your sex and body fat.

Plan a bulk: eat above TDEE

For a lean bulk, add a small surplus on top of TDEE, typically 5 to 15% above maintenance. The exact number depends on training age: newer lifters can absorb a larger surplus into muscle gain, while advanced lifters waste more of it as fat. Bulking phases aren't yet supported in the Deficit app, but the math works the same way: BulkGoal = TDEE × 1.05 to TDEE × 1.15.

How do you measure body fat?

The Cunningham equation needs body fat percentage. The U.S. Navy method built into the calculator above is the best free option for home use, accurate to within ±3% with a tape measure. For skinfold support and a method-by-method accuracy breakdown, use the body fat percentage calculator.

For higher accuracy, in roughly increasing order: skinfold calipers (±3%, with practice), smart scale trends (treat the daily number as wrong but the weekly trend as useful), DEXA scan ($50 to $100, ±1%, gold standard).

For the full breakdown of methods including which scales to trust and when to spring for a DEXA, see the lean body mass calculator.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn't this TDEE calculator ask for height and age?

Because the Cunningham equation doesn't need them. Mifflin-St Jeor uses height and age as proxies for lean body mass, but if you have actual lean body mass (calculated from weight and body fat), you're using the real signal directly. The Navy estimator built into the calculator does ask for height because circumference measurements need it for normalization.

Why does my TDEE here look lower than other calculators?

Because Deficit pairs the Cunningham equation (roughly 10% higher BMR than Mifflin) with calibrated lower PAL multipliers (1.10 to 1.40 instead of 1.2 to 1.9). The net result is a similar TDEE prediction, but on a more accurate body-composition-aware base. See the calibration section above.

Should I trust my TDEE number when I start a cut?

As a starting point, yes. Within 1 to 2 weeks of consistent tracking, real-world weight data tells you whether the estimate was off. The Deficit app's weekly algorithm adjusts the goal automatically based on observed weight change. For a manual cut, weigh in daily, average weekly, and adjust calories ±100 kcal if your weight isn't moving as expected.

Is TDEE different for men and women?

The Cunningham equation itself is sex-agnostic. It uses lean mass directly. The calculator branches on sex for the U.S. Navy body fat estimator (women need a hip measurement), but the BMR and TDEE math is identical for both. If two people have the same lean mass, same activity level, and same diet style, they have the same TDEE.

Does TDEE change as I lose weight?

Yes. As lean body mass changes, BMR changes, and so does TDEE. Recalculate every 4 weeks of a cut after you've re-measured body fat. The Deficit app does this automatically using a live profile snapshot, so you don't have to think about it.

Sources

See it in the app

Deficit runs this math every week inside the app, automatically, and adjusts your targets based on what your body does. 7-day free trial.

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