Your BMR is only the resting floor. This adds an activity multiplier to give your total daily energy expenditure — plus cutting and bulking targets built from it.
What each level actually means in practice.
| Level | Multiplier | Typical week |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | ×1.2 | Desk job, no deliberate exercise |
| Lightly active | ×1.375 | Light exercise 1–3 days |
| Moderately active | ×1.55 | Moderate exercise 3–5 days |
| Very active | ×1.725 | Hard exercise 6–7 days |
| Athlete | ×1.9 | Twice-daily training, or training plus physical work |
BMR (basal metabolic rate) is what your body burns at complete rest just to stay alive — breathing, circulation, cell repair. TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is BMR multiplied by an activity factor, so it also covers walking around, working, and training. BMR is the floor; TDEE is the realistic daily total, and it's the number you actually plan calorie intake against.
Sedentary (×1.2) is a desk job with little deliberate exercise. Lightly active (×1.375) is light exercise 1–3 days a week. Moderately active (×1.55) is moderate exercise 3–5 days a week. Very active (×1.725) is hard exercise 6–7 days a week. Athlete (×1.9) is twice-daily training or physical labour on top of training. Most people overestimate — if you're unsure between two levels, the lower one is usually closer.
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which has generally outperformed the older Harris-Benedict equation in validation studies against measured resting energy expenditure. For men it's (10 × kg) + (6.25 × cm) − (5 × age) + 5; for women the final term is −161 instead of +5. That BMR is then multiplied by your activity factor to reach TDEE.
It's a population-average estimate, typically within about 10% for most people but capable of being further off at the extremes of body composition. The equation doesn't know your muscle mass, and the activity multiplier is a broad band rather than a measurement. Treat the number as a starting point: track your weight over 2–3 weeks and adjust up or down based on what actually happens on the scale.
A deficit of roughly 15–25% below TDEE is a common cutting range, and a surplus of about 10–20% above TDEE is a common lean-bulking range — both shown above. Since roughly 7,700 calories is often cited as equating to one kilogram of body mass, a 500-calorie daily deficit works out to somewhere near 0.45 kg a week in theory, though real-world results vary with water weight, adherence, and metabolic adaptation.
Worked example: a 30-year-old man, 80 kg and 180 cm, has a BMR of (10×80) + (6.25×180) − (5×30) + 5 = 1,780 calories. At the moderately active multiplier of ×1.55 that's a TDEE of about 2,759 calories — so roughly 979 calories a day come from activity rather than resting metabolism. A standard 20% cut puts him near 2,207 a day, and a 15% lean bulk near 3,173.
Want the resting number on its own, or a macro split to go with this target? Use the Calorie / BMR Calculator and the Macro Calculator. To check how much a specific workout adds, try the Calories Burned Calculator, size your daily protein with the Protein Calculator, or check where your weight sits with the BMI Calculator. Training for a distance rather than a weight? The Pace Calculator converts between pace, time and distance. Once you have a calorie target, the Fat Intake Calculator turns it into daily grams of fat within the recommended 20–35% range. The equations behind this take weight in kilograms, so convert first with the pounds to kilograms converter if your scale reads in pounds.