Key takeaways
- Everyday movement (NEAT) is the most flexible part of TDEE and the easiest to raise.
- Strength training adds calories during sessions and builds muscle that burns a little more at rest.
- At high activity levels the body partly compensates, so the extra burn is often smaller than the maths suggests.
- Sleep, enough food and diet breaks protect your TDEE more than any supplement.
On this page
- Where extra calories can come from
- 1. Walk more, all day
- 2. Break up long periods of sitting
- 3. Lift weights
- 4. Add cardio or sport you enjoy
- The catch: your body partly compensates
- 5. Eat enough protein
- 6. Don’t starve your metabolism
- 7. Sleep enough
- 8. Build a more active life
- What barely makes a difference
- Questions about raising your TDEE
Where extra calories can come from
Your TDEE has four parts: resting metabolism, digesting food, everyday movement and exercise. Resting metabolism is mostly set by your size and muscle and changes slowly. Digestion is about 10% of what you eat. That leaves movement as the part you can change this week. It is also the part that varies most between people: research on non-exercise activity has found differences of up to about 2,000 kcal a day between people of similar size.
Here is roughly what each change is worth for an average adult:
| Change | Roughly worth a day | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| 4,000 more steps | 80 to 140 kcal | Low |
| Cycling or walking to work, 20 minutes each way | 120 to 300 kcal | Medium |
| Three 45-minute weight sessions a week | About 80 to 120 kcal on average | Medium |
| Three 30-minute runs a week | About 120 to 160 kcal on average | Medium |
| More protein (15% → 30% of calories) | About 50 kcal through digestion | Low |
| 2 kg (4 to 5 lb) more muscle | About 25 kcal at rest | High, over months |
| Standing instead of sitting for 2 hours | About 20 kcal | Low |
| Drinking cold water, spicy food, “fat burners” | A few to a few dozen kcal | Low, but not worth relying on |
The ranges depend on body weight: heavier people burn more for the same activity. The steps calculator works out the walking numbers for your own height and weight.
1. Walk more, all day
At a normal pace, 1,000 steps burn roughly 30 to 60 kcal in total, of which about 20 to 40 kcal is extra compared with sitting. That doesn’t sound like much until you multiply it. Going from 4,000 to 8,000 steps a day adds about 80 to 140 kcal for most adults, or 600 to 1,000 kcal a week, without a single gym session. Walking is also easy to recover from, so it doesn’t eat into your training.
Simple ways to add steps: a 10-minute walk after each main meal (about 3,000 steps a day in total), phone calls on your feet, getting off the bus a stop early, stairs instead of lifts. Increase your daily average by about 1,000 steps each week until you reach a level you can keep.
2. Break up long periods of sitting
Standing burns only a little more than sitting. A 2018 meta-analysis put the difference at about 0.15 kcal a minute, or roughly 10 kcal an hour. Two hours a day at a standing desk is worth about 20 kcal, so don’t expect a standing desk to change your weight. Moving is what counts. Two or three minutes of walking every half hour adds up to 30 to 40 minutes of walking over a working day, worth 100 kcal or more, and research suggests it also helps blood sugar after meals.
3. Lift weights
A 45-minute strength session burns roughly 200 to 300 kcal for most people, and a little more afterwards while your body recovers. Over months it builds muscle. At rest, a kilo of muscle burns about 13 kcal a day, compared with about 4.5 for a kilo of fat. Two extra kilos of muscle is therefore worth about 25 kcal a day: real, but modest.
The bigger benefits are indirect. Muscle lets you train harder, keeps you capable of an active life as you age, and protects your resting metabolism when you diet. If you only add one form of exercise, strength training two or three times a week is a strong choice.
4. Add cardio or sport you enjoy
A 30-minute run at about 10 km/h (6 mph) burns roughly 340 kcal for a 70 kg (154 lb) person. A game of football, a swim or a bike ride can burn a similar amount. Pick what you’ll keep doing; consistency matters more than intensity.
Count these sessions in your activity level, not on top of it. If you start training more, move up a level in the calculator, then check your weight trend after two or three weeks.
The catch: your body partly compensates
Energy use doesn’t rise forever with activity. A 2016 study of over 300 adults, using the gold-standard doubly labelled water method, found that total energy use rose with physical activity at lower levels but levelled off at higher levels. The body seems to save energy elsewhere when activity is high. People who add exercise also often move a little less the rest of the day, without noticing.
So treat the numbers above as upper estimates. Going from very little movement to a moderate amount gives you the biggest return. Going from very active to extremely active gives less than the maths suggests.
5. Eat enough protein
Your body uses about 20 to 30% of protein’s calories to digest and process it, compared with 5 to 10% for carbohydrate and 0 to 3% for fat. Shifting from 15% to 30% of calories from protein on a 2,000 kcal diet raises the energy cost of digestion by roughly 50 kcal a day. Protein also keeps you fuller and protects muscle when you are in a deficit, which is the bigger win. The protein calculator gives a sensible range.
6. Don’t starve your metabolism
Very large or very long deficits lower TDEE in several ways at once: you lose weight, often muscle too, you move less, your training weakens and your body adapts to save energy. Keeping your deficit at 15 to 25% of TDEE, keeping protein high and taking a week or two at maintenance every couple of months protects your TDEE far better than any supplement can raise it.
7. Sleep enough
Sleep doesn’t raise TDEE directly, but short sleep pushes energy balance the wrong way. A 2017 meta-analysis found that people who slept less ate about 385 kcal a day more, while their energy use barely changed. Tired people also tend to move less. Seven to nine hours is a good target for most adults.
8. Build a more active life
The people with the highest TDEEs usually don’t have extreme workouts; they have active lives. A dog that needs walking, a hobby on your feet, cycling instead of driving, carrying shopping home, a job that keeps you moving. Look for one change you can keep for years rather than a burst you’ll drop in a month.
What barely makes a difference
- Cold water. Your body warms it, which costs a little energy, but only a few calories per glass.
- Spicy food and green tea. Compounds such as capsaicin and caffeine raise energy use slightly and briefly. Tens of calories at most, and less once you are used to them.
- Eating more often. The energy used to digest food depends on how much you eat in total, not how many meals you split it into.
- “Fat burner” supplements. Most have little good evidence, and some carry risks. Not worth your money.
Questions about raising your TDEE
Can you permanently increase your TDEE?
Yes, for as long as you keep the habits. More muscle, more daily movement and regular training keep your TDEE higher. Stop them and it drifts back down.
Does drinking cold water increase TDEE?
Very slightly. Warming the water costs a few calories per glass. It is good for hydration, but it won’t make a noticeable difference to your weight.
Why is my TDEE still low even though I exercise?
Exercise is often a small part of TDEE, and the body can partly compensate by moving less at other times. Daily steps, your job and your size usually matter more. Check your step count on rest days.
Does building muscle really raise your metabolism?
A little. Each kilo of muscle burns about 13 kcal a day at rest. The bigger effects are that muscle lets you train harder and protects your metabolism when you diet.
Do fat burners work?
Not in any meaningful way. Most raise energy use by only a few calories, if at all, and some contain stimulants that can be risky. Walking and lifting do far more.
Will eating six small meals boost my metabolism?
No. Digestion costs about the same in total whether you eat two meals or six. Choose the meal pattern that helps you control hunger.
How much should my TDEE go up if I start training?
Usually by 100 to 300 kcal a day on average for a few sessions a week, depending on your size and the type of training. Move up one activity level and confirm with your weight trend after two to three weeks.
Sources
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