Total daily energy expenditure or tdee for short, is how many calories you expend in a day including all activity. This is why the free keto calculator needs to know how active you are and defines those activity levels. Sedentary: Very little exercise and a desk job. Lightly Active: Less than 20 minutes of not strenuous exercise per day. Moderately Active: Somewhat active job and over three hours of moderate exercise (such as cycling, jogging or brisk walking) a week. Very Active: Very active day job or intense exercise over 40 minutes a day most days of the week.
Creating a calorie deficit
In general though, to lose weight you need to consume less calories (create a calorie deficit) than your body needs. To gain, you’ll need to consume more calories than you need; a calorie surplus. To maintain, you’ll need to consume roughly the amount of calories you expend on a daily basis.
This calculator has a default calorie deficit for weight loss of 20 percent and a default calorie surplus for weight gain of 15 percent. Twenty percent deficit is aggressive and allows for the quickest weight loss but may be hard to maintain for a long period.
To set goals that allow you to gain or lose more slowly, which is more sustainable, use the custom setting for the calculator. About 10 percent is a healthy and sustainable goal.