BMR is the energy your body uses just to stay alive at complete rest. TDEE is everything you burn in a real day, including movement. TDEE is built on top of BMR — and it's TDEE you use for calorie planning.
BMR: the baseline
Your Basal Metabolic Rate is what you'd burn lying still all day — powering your heart, brain, breathing and cell repair. It's the floor. For most people it's the single largest chunk of daily energy use, often 60–70% of the total.
TDEE: the full picture
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure takes your BMR and multiplies it by an activity factor to account for everything else:
- Everyday movement and exercise
- The energy cost of digesting food
- Fidgeting and non-exercise activity
| Activity level | Rough multiplier on BMR |
|---|---|
| Sedentary (desk job, little exercise) | × 1.2 |
| Lightly active (1–3 days/week) | × 1.375 |
| Moderately active (3–5 days/week) | × 1.55 |
| Very active (6–7 days/week) | × 1.725 |
| Extremely active (physical job + training) | × 1.9 |
How they work together
Calculate your BMR first (the Mifflin-St Jeor equation is the standard), then apply your activity multiplier to get TDEE, then add or subtract calories for your goal. Our BMR calculator does the first step and explains how to take it to TDEE.
This article is general information, not financial, tax, or medical advice. See our disclaimer.