It's useful to know and understand your total daily energy expenditure because it is what allows you to find your maintenance caloric intake. Knowing this allows you to make changes to your intake, in order to pursue your fat loss or muscle growth goals -- because it's from that number that you create either a deficit or a surplus from.

If we use a GPS as an analogy, this would be your starting address! You cannot get to your planned destination without first knowing your starting point.

This calculator uses our personal favorite, Mifflin St. Jeor. However, there are many useful and acceptable formulas to use for finding your TDEE and maintenance caloric intake, such as the Harris Benedict Formula or the Katch-McArdle (which does require your body fat percentage, too). 

We believe this is the most accurate formula to use, with a minimal amount of personal information and data required.

Those are simply roughly estimated starting points for you to use, if you are not after just maintaining your weight. For instance, if you wish to lose fat -- you need a calorie deficit and the deficit percentages on the left are what we would suggest using, categorized by the speed at which you'd like to lose fat at. On the right is the same thing, but based on the goal of muscle growth and weight gain.

These percentages are conservative as we know that most people don't want to, and probably shouldn't, move too quickly towards their goals, because it can be less sustainable or in the case of muscle growth, cause too much fat gain in the process. All of these should be adjusted over time, as results progress, though.

Probably not, because that is simply your maintenance level intake -- which means it is what is required in order for you to simply maintain your current bodyweight. If your goal is weight loss, you should use one of the suggested deficit targets.

A second option, for more specific guidance and support during your journey, is to apply for our Online Coaching.

They are about as accurate as you can get, without being in a lab to run extremely in depth tests. However if you've dieted over the years, there may be reasons to believe that these numbers aren't going to be as accurate as we'd like them to be (due to metabolic adaptations occurring over time - described in our Metabolic Adaptation Guide and Reverse Dieting 101 Article).

One other option, that is very accurate, is to simply weigh yourself and track your calories, every day, for 7-14 days. Once you do this, you'll be able to calculate your average intake and weight. This average is most likely your true maintenance weight and intake (we also suggest doing this in combination with a formula, for even more accuracy).