TDEE Meaning: How to Calculate It (+How to Increase It)

Have you ever wondered about the TDEE meaning?

It’s a popular acronym that pops up in many fitness conversations, but what exactly is it?

More importantly, how does it affect your fitness and health? Would knowing it make you better able to reach your fitness goals?

Stick around to learn everything there is to know about your TDEE, what it is, how to calculate it, and how to increase it.

TDEE Meaning

TDEE, short for total daily energy expenditure, refers to the total number of calories you burn daily. It consists of four primary things: basal metabolic rate (BMR), non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT), and thermic effect of food (TEF).

In other words, TDEE refers to your metabolic rate and is an umbrella term that covers several things.

Here is a look at the components making up your total daily energy expenditure:

• Basal metabolic rate (BMR) - the energy your body expends every day, even at rest, to carry out its numerous processes
  
  
• Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) - the calories you burn daily through activities outside your dedicated exercise time: walking up a flight of stairs, carrying groceries, brushing your teeth, etc.
  
  
• Exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT) - the energy you expend during dedicated exercise time
  
  
• Thermic effect of food (TEF) - the energy your body expends to digest the foods you eat and absorb the nutrients

Contrary to what some people think (“Man, I have a slow metabolism), TDEE is a highly variable value. It can be low one day:

But high the very next day:

Yes, your BMR value remains the same from day to day, regardless of what you do. Under normal circumstances, it accounts for roughly 60 percent of your total daily energy expenditure.

Rather than tracking our TDEE from day to day, a better approach is to look at our lifestyle as a whole and come up with an average value.

How Are TDEE and BMR Different?

As discussed above, TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure and refers to all the calories your body expends to carry out its processes, move around, digest food, and more.

In contrast, BMR means basal metabolic rate and only includes the energy your body expends to carry out its internal processes. Examples of things that fall within BMR include heartbeat, respiration, brain processes, etc.

Simply put, BMR primarily covers the essential processes that occur automatically without us even thinking about them.

How to Calculate Your TDEE

There are two primary ways to calculate your BMR: by using an online calculator and by doing the calculation yourself using one of the several available formulas.

For people not interested in doing calculations manually, you can click here to access a simple calculator. Simply add the necessary personal information, and the calculator will provide a rough estimate of your daily calorie expenditure.

In case you want to do the calculation yourself, you must first get your BMR value through the following formula:

Women
BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)

Men
BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)

(Source.)

Once you have that, use the activity multiplier below to get your TDEE:

• Sedentary (little or no exercise): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
• Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
• Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
• Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
• Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

(Source.)

In either case, remember that the TDEE value is an estimate and is subject to change. For example, weight loss leads to metabolic adaptation, typically decreasing your TDEE.

Losing weight means you expend fewer calories to move around, and it can also make you more inactive simply because your body tries to conserve more energy.

How to Boost Your TDEE: 4 Effective Strategies

Boosting your TDEE is an effective way to prevent unwanted weight gain, maintain good health, and potentially improve your body composition. You can check out an article I wrote on why a higher caloric expenditure might be beneficial.

With that said, here are a few effective strategies to bump your TDEE:

• Move more throughout the day - take the stairs, go for walks, park your car farther from your destination, take the bike instead of the car, etc.
  
  
• Work out consistently - lift weights and do some form of aerobic activity several times per week.
  
  
• Build muscle - every kilogram of muscle boosts your energy expenditure. Additionally, more muscle means your body needs more calories to move around, recover after training, etc. You can also complete more demanding workouts and burn extra calories.
  
  
• Eat more protein - while this is perhaps the least impactful strategy, protein has a higher thermic effect. Consuming more of the nutrient would cause your body to burn slightly more calories to digest food and absorb nutrients.

Final Words On The Meaning of TDEE

As you can see, TDEE is not a static value that only decreases with age. It is highly variable and can fluctuate significantly from day to day.

Making an effort to keep your TDEE higher can make it easier to maintain healthy body weight, achieve a better body composition, and keep disease at bay.

A higher TDEE also makes it easier to lose weight because you can eat more food and maintain the necessary calorie deficit.