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Coach Sheet

Glossary entry — nutrition

Total Daily Energy Expenditure TDEE

Total calories your body burns in a 24-hour cycle including movement, digestion, and exercise. Calculated as BMR × activity multiplier. 

TDEE = BMR × Activity Multiplier

What TDEE means

TDEE is the calories your body burns in a typical day, including everything: BMR (60-75% of the total), digestion (5-10%), structured exercise (5-15%), and unstructured movement (10-30%).

The breakdown:

TDEE = BMR + TEF + EAT + NEAT

The activity multiplier in the standard TDEE formula bundles TEF + EAT + NEAT into one number.

The formula

TDEE = BMR × Activity Multiplier
MultiplierActivity levelReal description
1.20SedentaryDesk job, no training
1.375Light1-3 sessions/week
1.55Moderate3-5 sessions/week
1.725Active6-7 sessions/week
1.90Very activeTwice/day, or physical job + training

Worked example

A 28-year-old male at 178 cm, 68 kg, training 4 days/week (moderate):

BMR  = 10×68 + 6.25×178 − 5×28 + 5 = 1658 kcal
TDEE = 1658 × 1.55                  = 2570 kcal

That 2,570 figure is the maintenance budget. From there:

  • Cut (-20%): 2,056 kcal. Projects ~0.5 kg/week loss
  • Surplus (+10%): 2,827 kcal. Projects ~0.25 kg/week gain

A common mistake: double-counting exercise

The activity multiplier already includes structured training. Trainees who use both:

  • A TDEE calculator with activity multiplier 1.55, and
  • MyFitnessPal logging individual workout calories

… end up double-counting exercise and undershooting their daily target. The typical resolution:

  • If you use multiplier 1.55 (moderate), don’t manually log exercise calories. Eat to your TDEE-derived target.
  • If you log exercise calories manually, set multiplier to 1.20 (sedentary) so the multiplier doesn’t include training, then add logged exercise calories to your daily budget.

Pick one approach. Don’t run both.

Why TDEE varies day to day

Your TDEE on Tuesday isn’t the same as your TDEE on Sunday. Variance comes from:

  • Training load (a 2-hour session burns more than a 45-minute one)
  • Step count (NEAT can swing 200-500 kcal day to day)
  • Sleep quality (poor sleep depresses NEAT next day by 100-300 kcal)
  • Food composition (high-protein meal has higher TEF than high-fat)

Programmed prescriptions use weekly average TDEE, not daily. If a client has a TDEE of 2,570 on average, their week has some 2,800 days and some 2,300 days. They eat to the average, not to each individual day.

When TDEE estimates fail

Sedentary clients with high NEAT. A “sedentary” client (no structured training) might still hit 12,000 steps daily because they walk a lot. Multiplier 1.20 underestimates them. Either bump to 1.30 manually or measure step count and use a custom multiplier.

Trained athletes with high TEF. An advanced lifter eating 1.8-2.2 g/kg protein has elevated TEF. The standard multiplier doesn’t capture this; bump multiplier or use a Katch-McArdle BMR.

Recovering from injury or illness. TDEE drops temporarily when training pauses. Either reduce calories proportionally or accept temporary surplus until activity returns.

How TDEE drives macro prescriptions

The macros calculator takes TDEE and a goal multiplier, then anchors protein and fat to body weight, with carbs filling the residual:

Daily calories = TDEE × goal_multiplier  (0.8 cut, 1.0 maintain, 1.10 surplus)
Protein_g      = body_weight_kg × 1.6-2.2
Fat_g          = body_weight_kg × 0.6-1.0
Carb_kcal      = Daily calories − protein_kcal − fat_kcal

This puts carbs in the variable position because their need scales with training volume, not body composition.

In Coach Sheet

The Profile tab feeds Age, Sex, Height, Weight, Activity Level into BMR (Mifflin-St Jeor) and TDEE (multiplier from a dropdown). Quick Stats displays TDEE plus three macro variants (maintenance, cut, surplus). When weight changes, the chain recomputes: BMR → TDEE → macros, all in real time, all formulas visible in hover tooltips.

Sources

  1. [1]
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