// health › Metabolism & Energy
Total Daily Energy Expenditure — your resting burn scaled up by how active you are.
TDEE = BMR × activity factor (1.2 sedentary … 1.9 extra active)
Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the full number of calories you burn in a typical day — your resting metabolism plus everything you do on top of it: walking, working, exercising, even digesting food. It is the figure that best represents how much energy you actually use day to day.
Start with your BMR — the calories burned at complete rest — then multiply by an activity factor that reflects how much you move. The factor runs from 1.2 for a mostly sedentary life up to 1.9 for someone training hard most days or doing heavy physical work. A desk worker who walks a little might sit around 1.375.
Sedentary (1.2) is little or no exercise. Light (1.375) is light activity one to three days a week. Moderate (1.55) is three to five days. Active (1.725) is hard exercise most days. Extra active (1.9) is very intense training or a physically demanding job. Pick the one that honestly matches a normal week, not your best week.
The column is stacked in two parts. The lower block is your BMR — the energy you would burn doing nothing at all. The block on top is the extra energy your activity adds. Together they make your TDEE, so you can see how much of your daily burn is simply staying alive versus how much comes from moving.
TDEE is the maintenance line — eat around it and weight tends to hold steady. It is the starting point planners use before deciding on any change. For example, a moderately active person with a 1,600 kcal BMR has a TDEE near 2,480 kcal. Remember it is an estimate from averages; real needs vary, so treat it as a guide and adjust to reality.