Total Daily Energy Expenditure - what you actually burn in a day.
These are general estimates generated from published formulas, not a medical prescription — not reviewed by a doctor or registered dietitian.
Every number on this page — calorie targets, macro splits, and any suggested meal plan — is produced by formulas (Mifflin-St Jeor for basal metabolic rate, standard activity multipliers) or, for AI-generated meal plans, by a language model applying those same formulas. For meal-plan pages specifically: the carbohydrate figure for each meal is calculated by difference — total calories minus protein and fat calories, divided by 4 — rather than measured or estimated independently, so it should be read as an arithmetic balance, not an independent nutritional analysis of the dish. None of it is individualized medical or nutritional advice, and none of it has been reviewed by a registered dietitian, physician, or other licensed healthcare professional.
Always consult a doctor or registered dietitian before starting a new diet, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a diagnosed medical condition, take prescription medication, or have a history of disordered eating.
As a matter of real safety engineering, not just a disclaimer: Mealyno never recommends a calorie target below your calculated Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — the minimum energy your body needs at complete rest. Even our most aggressive weight-loss setting is clamped at that floor.
Calorie and BMR estimates use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation (Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990).
Generated: September 2026
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the total number of calories your body burns in a full day, combining your Basal Metabolic Rate (the energy spent just staying alive) with everything on top of that: digestion, daily movement, and exercise. TDEE - not BMR - is the number you should compare your food intake against when you are trying to lose, maintain, or gain weight, because it reflects your actual life, not just your resting physiology.
This calculator starts from the Mifflin-St Jeor BMR equation, then applies one of five standard activity multipliers, from sedentary (little to no structured exercise) up to very active (a physically demanding job combined with hard training). This five-bucket model is the same one used by most TDEE tools online, and it is a reasonable first estimate - but it is also where most calculators stop, and where they start to drift from reality for anyone whose day does not fit neatly into one bucket.
The differentiator here, and the same logic that powers Mealyno's in-app daily targets, is that this calculator also accepts your average daily step count and your weekly workout frequency, duration and intensity as optional extra inputs. Rather than folding a vague guess about "how active you are" into a single dropdown, it shows you separately how much additional energy your logged steps and workouts represent on top of your activity-level TDEE - useful if you track steps on a phone or watch and want a truer picture without switching your whole activity bracket up a level.
TDEE is not static: it moves as your weight, age and activity change, so it is worth recalculating every few months, especially after a significant weight change. Once you have a TDEE figure you trust, the calorie calculator below turns it into a concrete daily target for your specific goal - a deficit for weight loss, a surplus for muscle gain, or maintenance - with the same BMR-floor safety check applied throughout.