TDEE & Macro Calculator

Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) — also known as your Maintenance Calories — is the estimated number of calories your body burns each day. It represents the amount of food you could eat while maintaining your current weight. Your TDEE is made up of four components: • Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – Calories your body burns simply to keep you alive. Breathing, pumping blood, regulating body temperature, and keeping your organs functioning all require energy. • Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) – Calories burned digesting, absorbing, and processing the food you eat. • Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT) – Calories burned through intentional exercise such as strength training, running, or cycling. • Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) – Calories burned through everyday movement such as walking, standing, cleaning, working, shopping, fidgeting, and other daily activities. Together these four components determine your estimated Maintenance Calories (TDEE).

Protein requirements are more closely related to your Lean Body Mass (LBM) than your total body weight. Your lean body mass includes everything that isn't body fat — your muscles, bones, organs, connective tissue, and body water. To estimate your lean body mass, we use the Boer Formula, a well-established predictive equation used in nutrition and healthcare. We then calculate your minimum daily protein target as: Estimated Lean Body Mass × 1 gram This provides a practical, science-based protein recommendation that supports muscle retention, recovery, satiety, and long-term success while remaining realistic for most people.

Walking is one of the simplest, safest, and most sustainable habits you can build. Unlike many forms of high-intensity cardio, walking is low impact, easy to recover from, and accessible to almost everyone regardless of age or fitness level. Our goal isn't simply to burn more calories. Our goal is to establish a consistent baseline of daily movement. By encouraging every client to maintain a daily step goal, we create a predictable starting point for estimating calorie needs and avoid overestimating how active someone really is. Walking also has another major advantage: it creates very little fatigue compared to more demanding forms of cardiovascular exercise. Because it's so easy to recover from, it's a habit most people can perform day after day without negatively affecting their strength training or daily life. Many people are surprised to learn that walking a mile and running a mile often burn a similar number of calories. The biggest difference isn't necessarily the calories—it's the time it takes to cover that distance. Running is simply a faster way to expend that energy. Some people also find that long or high-intensity cardio sessions leave them extremely hungry or fatigued, making it harder to stick to their nutrition plan. Walking tends to avoid many of those issues, making it easier to stay consistent over months and years. This doesn't mean cardio is bad. Far from it. Cardiovascular training is fantastic for improving heart health, endurance, athletic performance, and overall fitness. We simply believe that walking should be your foundation, with additional cardio added when it serves a specific purpose. At Get Up & Start, we don't chase the fastest possible results—we chase the results you'll still have five years from now. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare. The hare was faster. The tortoise crossed the finish line first. We believe sustainable habits will almost always beat unsustainable intensity. Consistency almost always beats intensity.

Many people believe they have a "slow metabolism," but for most healthy individuals, resting metabolic rate doesn't vary nearly as much as people think. Certain medical conditions, medications, and hormonal disorders can absolutely influence metabolism and should always be discussed with your healthcare provider. However, for most people, the biggest factors affecting calorie expenditure are: • Lean body mass • Daily movement (NEAT) • Exercise • Overall body size If your weight isn't changing as expected, it doesn't necessarily mean your metabolism is "broken." It usually means your calorie intake or maintenance calories need to be adjusted. That's why we recommend monitoring your average weekly body weight and making small calorie adjustments when necessary.

No online calculator can perfectly predict your maintenance calories. These numbers should be viewed as a starting point, not an absolute answer. Follow your calculated calories consistently for 2–3 weeks, monitor your average weekly body weight, and then make adjustments if necessary. The most accurate calorie target is the one based on your real-world results.

Meal plans often work only as long as you're following them. Our goal isn't to teach you how to eat one specific menu. Our goal is to teach you how to make informed food choices anywhere — at home, in restaurants, on vacation, or during the holidays. When you understand calories, protein, and portion sizes, you gain the flexibility to enjoy the foods you love while still making progress.

Carbohydrates are not the enemy. After your minimum protein and fat needs are met, we allocate the remaining calories to carbohydrates because they help fuel training, support recovery, and make your diet more enjoyable. No single food causes weight gain on its own. Long-term calorie balance is what ultimately determines whether you gain, lose, or maintain weight.

Start by following the calorie and macro targets provided by the calculator as consistently as possible. Don't worry about daily fluctuations on the scale. Instead, monitor your average weekly body weight over the course of 2–3 weeks. If you're not progressing as expected, adjust your calories by approximately 100–200 calories per day and continue monitoring. Successful weight loss is about making small, consistent adjustments over time — not chasing perfection every day.