For a stay at home mom, a practical starting estimate is TDEE = BMR × 1.375. If your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is 1,500 calories per day, that gives 1,500 × 1.375 = 2,062.5, or about 2,060 calories per day. Childcare can involve more movement than desk work, but the right multiplier depends on how much of your day you actually spend moving; all of these numbers are estimates.
The Basic TDEE Formula
TDEE = BMR × activity factor. BMR is an estimate of the calories your body uses at rest. The activity factor scales that number to estimate a full day that includes standing, walking, chores, childcare, and other movement.
For a mostly seated day, 1.2 is a common starting factor. For a day with regular light movement, 1.375 is a useful starting point. A day with substantially more time on your feet may fit closer to 1.55. These are broad categories, not exact measurements of what any one household task burns.
The job title alone cannot set the factor. A day spent feeding an infant while seated, driving, and working at a computer has a different movement pattern from a day spent walking a toddler to the park, carrying laundry upstairs, and standing through household tasks.
Worked Example: A Mixed Childcare Day
Suppose a 35-year-old mom weighs 80 kg and is 170 cm tall. Using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation with the female constant, her estimated BMR is (10 × 80) + (6.25 × 170) − (5 × 35) − 161 = 1,526.5 calories per day.
For a day with a mix of seated time and regular movement, multiply by 1.375: 1,526.5 × 1.375 = 2,098.9. Rounded, her estimated TDEE is about 2,100 calories per day. The rounding reflects the uncertainty in the activity factor; it would be misleading to treat 2,098.9 as an exact daily burn.
To calculate from your own age, height, weight, and activity level, run your numbers in the TDEE calculator.
What If You Are on Your Feet Most of the Day?
More on-feet hours can justify testing a higher activity factor. Using the same 1,526.5-calorie BMR, a factor of 1.55 gives 1,526.5 × 1.55 = 2,366.1, or about 2,370 calories per day. That is roughly 270 calories more than the 1.375 estimate for the same person.
The difference comes entirely from the assumed activity level, not a change in body size or resting burn. Think about the whole day: walking and standing time, seated feeding or desk time, errands, and any separate exercise. An unusually busy afternoon does not necessarily make every day a 1.55 day.
Do Chores and Childcare Count as Activity?
Yes, movement during childcare and chores contributes to the activity part of TDEE. Walking while pushing a stroller, carrying a child, climbing stairs, and cleaning all involve movement, even when none of them appears on an exercise schedule.
Avoid counting the same movement twice. If you use a 1.375 factor because your usual day already includes childcare and chores, that movement is already represented in the estimate. Adding a separate calorie figure for every routine task on top of it would raise the total without changing what happened during the day.
For days that vary widely, it can be clearer to calculate a lower-activity day and a higher-activity day separately. With a 1,500-calorie BMR, 1.2 gives 1,800, 1.375 gives about 2,060, and 1.55 gives 2,325 calories per day. That spread shows why the multiplier matters more than small differences caused by rounding your BMR.
How Does TDEE Relate to the 3,500-Calorie Rule?
The familiar 3,500 calories ≈ 1 lb relationship is rough energy arithmetic. For example, 500 calories × 7 days = 3,500 calories, approximately the energy equivalent of one pound. It is a way to compare totals, not a promise about a specific change on the scale.
TDEE is the estimated daily total used in that subtraction. If estimated TDEE is 2,100 calories and a day's intake is 1,900 calories, the arithmetic difference is 200 calories. Across seven identical days, 200 × 7 = 1,400 calories. Both the TDEE and that accumulated difference remain estimates.
Which Multiplier Should You Start With?
Start with 1.375 if your typical day mixes sitting with frequent light movement. Use 1.2 as a comparison for days that are largely seated, or 1.55 as a comparison when you spend much more of the day standing and walking. The goal is to match the factor to your usual hours, not to the busiest task you did once.
A TDEE result is a working daily calorie budget. You can spend it down across the day, while remembering that both the starting number and each activity adjustment are rounded estimates.