Maintenance Calorie Calculator

Maintenance calories are the number of calories you need to eat each day to keep your current weight stable. They equal your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) — the energy your body burns through resting metabolism, daily movement, exercise, and digestion combined.

Eat roughly your maintenance amount and your weight holds steady over time. Eat consistently above it and you gain weight; eat consistently below it and you lose weight. There is no magic in the number itself — it is simply the intake side of your personal energy balance.

Knowing this number matters most at two moments: while you are losing or gaining (so you know exactly where your deficit or surplus starts), and after you finish (so you can hold your new weight instead of drifting back).

Maintenance calories are calculated in two steps: estimate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), then multiply by an activity multiplier.

Step 1: Calculate BMR (Mifflin-St Jeor Equation)

The Mifflin-St Jeor equation (1990) is the most accurate predictive formula for modern populations:

• Men: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5
• Women: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161

Step 2: Apply Your Activity Multiplier

Multiply BMR by the factor that matches your typical week:

Final Formula: Maintenance Calories = BMR × Activity Multiplier

Worked Example

A 35-year-old woman who is 5'4" (163 cm) and 165 lb (75 kg): BMR = (10 × 75) + (6.25 × 163) − (5 × 35) − 161 ≈ 1,430 kcal. She exercises about four days per week, so she uses the 1.55 multiplier: 1,430 × 1.55 ≈ 2,215 kcal per day to maintain her weight.

Activity level is the biggest lever in the whole calculation — moving between adjacent levels changes your maintenance calories by roughly 10-15%, which is more than most deliberate diet changes. It is also where estimation errors happen most often, because people judge their own activity generously.

The comparison table in your results shows your maintenance calories at all five levels at once, with your selected level highlighted. Use it to sanity-check your choice:

• Desk job, no planned exercise → Sedentary, even if you feel busy
• Some walking or 1-3 workouts per week → Lightly Active
• 3-5 workouts per week or an on-your-feet job → Moderately Active
• Hard training 6-7 days per week → Very Active
• Physical job plus training, or two-a-days → Extra Active

When you are torn between two levels, choose the lower one. Overestimating activity quietly adds hundreds of calories to your target, and the difference shows up as slow, confusing weight gain.

Your results include both a daily and a weekly maintenance figure, and each is useful in different situations.

The daily number is your anchor for a normal, repeatable day — it is what you build meals around and what you compare restaurant menus against. The weekly number (daily × 7) is your planning budget: your body responds to the total you eat across the week far more than to any single day.

That is why eating at maintenance does not require hitting the same number every day. A big dinner one day and a lighter day the next can average out perfectly. If your weekly intake lands near your weekly maintenance, your weight stays stable — daily perfection is optional.

Finishing a diet or an intermittent fasting protocol is where maintenance calories matter most. The period right after a weight-loss phase is statistically the most likely time to regain — not because willpower fails, but because intake usually snaps back to old habits while the body now burns fewer calories than before.

Reverse dieting

Instead of jumping straight from a deficit to maintenance, add 50-100 kcal per week until you reach your new maintenance level. This gradual climb gives hunger hormones time to settle and makes the new intake feel normal instead of like a relapse.

Diet breaks

During longer weight-loss plans, spending 1-2 weeks eating at maintenance is a legitimate strategy — it restores training energy, reduces diet fatigue, and gives you practice at the skill you will ultimately need forever: maintaining.

Recalculate after any significant change. Weight loss lowers your BMR, so the maintenance number you calculated at 180 lb overestimates what you need at 165 lb. Curious whether fasting itself changes your metabolism? Read our evidence-based answer on intermittent fasting and metabolism.

These three terms describe related but different numbers:

• BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): calories burned at complete rest just to stay alive — breathing, circulation, cell repair. The smallest of the three.
• TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure): BMR plus all movement, exercise, and digestion. This is your full daily burn.
• Maintenance calories: the intake that matches your TDEE. Numerically the same as TDEE — the term just describes how you use it.

So "maintenance calories vs TDEE" is not a real debate — they are the same number viewed from opposite sides. BMR is genuinely different and always lower. Estimate your resting baseline with the BMR Calculator, or cross-check this page's result with the TDEE Calculator, which supports additional formula options.

Treat every result as an estimate with a roughly ±10% band, which is why your results card shows a range rather than a single guaranteed number. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is accurate for most people within that band, but individual variation is real: muscle mass, genetics, thyroid function, and past dieting history all move your true needs.

The formula is the starting point; your scale is the referee. Eat at the calculated amount for 2-3 weeks while weighing yourself under consistent conditions. Stable weight confirms your maintenance level. A slow climb means the estimate is high — trim 100-200 kcal. A slow decline means it is low — add 100-200 kcal.

This tool provides planning estimates only and is not medical advice. If you are pregnant, managing a medical condition, or have a history of disordered eating, work with a qualified professional instead of self-prescribing calorie targets.

Last updated: November 2026. Formula and activity multipliers follow the Mifflin-St Jeor publication (1990) and standard energy-expenditure practice.