Run your numbers
The calculator.
BMR, TDEE and BMI, in pounds or kilograms, with what each one actually means. They are estimates to plan from, not a verdict on you.
Start with the arithmetic.
The three numbers worth knowing before you change anything: BMRBasal Metabolic Rate. The energy your body spends at complete rest just staying alive: breathing, circulating blood, running your brain and organs. For most people it is roughly 60 to 70 percent of everything they burn in a day. Estimated here with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation., TDEETotal Daily Energy Expenditure. Your BMR plus everything else: walking, training, digesting food, and the fidgeting you never notice. This is the number a calorie target is built from, and the one that falls as you lose weight. and BMIBody Mass Index. Weight divided by height squared. It was built to describe populations, not individuals, and it knows nothing about body composition. Muscle weighs more than fat for its size, so lean, muscular people routinely read as overweight. Useful as a rough marker, useless as a verdict.. They are estimates, not a verdict.
- BMR
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- TDEE
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- BMI
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What you burn doing nothing at all.
Everything burned in a normal day. This is the number that matters.
Height against weight. It cannot tell muscle from fat, so read it loosely.
Eating at this number and the scale still won’t budge? You didn’t fail the math. Your body quietly turns down what it burns when you diet for a while, and the plateau chart on this page shows exactly how.
The plateau
Why long-term dieting stops working.
The arithmetic says one thing. Your body does another. Drag the deficit and watch how metabolic adaptation splits the two apart.
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An illustration of metabolic adaptation, not a prediction. Nothing here is medical advice.