Maintenance Calorie Calculator
Find exactly how many calories your body needs each day to stay at its current weight, with a full macros breakdown and per-meal guide.
🔥 What is a Maintenance Calorie Calculator?
Maintenance calories are the total number of calories your body needs each day to keep your current weight perfectly stable. Eating exactly at this level means no fat is gained and no fat is burned: the energy in equals the energy out. Your maintenance calorie level is also called your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), and it is the single most important number in any nutrition plan.
This calculator finds your maintenance calories in two steps. First, it calculates your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which estimates the calories your body burns at complete rest to keep your heart beating, lungs breathing, and organs functioning. Then it multiplies your BMR by an activity factor that accounts for everything you do on top of resting: walking, exercising, standing at work, and all other daily movement. The product of BMR and the activity factor is your TDEE, or maintenance calorie level.
Knowing your maintenance calories is the foundation of every nutrition goal. To lose fat, you eat below your TDEE and create a calorie deficit. To gain muscle, you eat above your TDEE and create a calorie surplus. To simply maintain your current weight, you match your intake to your TDEE. Without this number, any diet plan is built on guesswork. A person who needs 2,400 kcal per day and eats 2,000 kcal thinking it is maintenance will slowly lose weight. A person eating 2,800 kcal will slowly gain fat without understanding why.
The Mifflin-St Jeor formula, developed in 1990, is the most widely validated BMR equation for general adults and is the current recommendation of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. It accounts for body weight, height, age, and biological sex. The result is a personalised estimate accurate to within plus or minus 10 percent for most adults, making it the best available formula for population-level calorie planning without a metabolic lab test. This calculator also breaks your maintenance calories into a recommended macronutrient split, per-meal guide, and weekly calorie budget to help you turn the number into a practical eating plan.
📐 Formula
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation (1990) is cited in: Mifflin MD et al., "A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1990. The activity multipliers are standard Harris-Benedict activity factors as published and validated for use with any BMR formula.
To convert TDEE into macros at maintenance: protein at 25% of calories divided by 4 kcal/g, carbohydrates at 45% divided by 4 kcal/g, and fat at 30% divided by 9 kcal/g. These proportions align with USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans for a balanced maintenance diet.
📖 How to Use This Calculator
Steps
💡 Example Calculations
Example 1 - Moderately Active 30-Year-Old Man
Male, 30 years old, 75 kg, 178 cm, moderately active (gym 4 days/week)
Example 2 - Sedentary 45-Year-Old Woman
Female, 45 years old, 62 kg, 163 cm, sedentary (desk job, minimal exercise)
Example 3 - Very Active 25-Year-Old Man
Male, 25 years old, 85 kg, 183 cm, very active (competitive athlete training daily)
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
🔗 Related Calculators
How do I calculate my maintenance calories?
Maintenance calories equal your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) multiplied by an activity factor. BMR is calculated using the Mifflin-St Jeor formula: 10 times weight in kg, plus 6.25 times height in cm, minus 5 times age, plus 5 for men or minus 161 for women. Multiply the result by 1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for lightly active, 1.55 for moderately active, 1.725 for very active, or 1.9 for extra active to get your TDEE.
What is the difference between BMR and maintenance calories?
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the calories your body burns at complete rest to keep organs functioning. Maintenance calories (TDEE) include BMR plus all activity: exercise, walking, standing, and daily movement. TDEE is always higher than BMR. Most adults have a TDEE 20 to 80 percent above their BMR depending on activity level.
How accurate is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation for maintenance calories?
The Mifflin-St Jeor formula, published in 1990, is the most validated BMR formula for general adults and is recommended by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. It estimates BMR within plus or minus 10 percent of measured metabolic rate for most people. The activity multiplier adds more uncertainty since people tend to overestimate their activity level.
How many calories should a woman eat to maintain her weight?
A sedentary 35-year-old woman at 65 kg and 165 cm has a BMR of about 1,427 kcal and a maintenance TDEE of about 1,712 kcal per day. A moderately active woman of the same stats would have a TDEE of about 2,212 kcal per day. The range across all activity levels for average adult women is roughly 1,600 to 2,600 kcal per day.
How many calories should a man eat to maintain his weight?
A sedentary 35-year-old man at 80 kg and 178 cm has a BMR of about 1,838 kcal and a maintenance TDEE of about 2,206 kcal per day. At a moderately active level the same man needs about 2,849 kcal per day. The typical range for adult men across activity levels is roughly 2,000 to 3,500 kcal per day.
What activity level should I choose for the most accurate result?
Sedentary covers desk jobs and minimal movement. Lightly Active covers office work plus 1 to 3 days of exercise per week. Moderately Active fits 3 to 5 days of moderate exercise per week. Very Active applies to hard training 6 to 7 days per week. Extra Active means both a physically demanding job and daily hard training. When uncertain, pick one level below your instinct since activity is commonly overestimated.
Do maintenance calories decrease as you age?
Yes. BMR decreases by roughly 1 to 2 percent per decade after age 30 due to gradual muscle loss and metabolic changes. A 55-year-old has a meaningfully lower BMR than a 25-year-old at the same weight and height. This is one reason body composition tends to shift with age even when eating the same amount. Resistance training helps preserve muscle mass and slow the BMR decline.
What macros should I eat at maintenance calories?
A balanced maintenance split is approximately 25 percent protein (4 kcal per gram), 45 percent carbohydrates (4 kcal per gram), and 30 percent fat (9 kcal per gram). For a person with a TDEE of 2,400 kcal, this means roughly 150 g protein, 270 g carbs, and 80 g fat per day. Protein should be at least 1.4 g per kg of body weight to preserve muscle mass.
How often should I recalculate my maintenance calories?
Recalculate whenever your weight changes by 3 to 5 kg, your activity level changes significantly, or every 4 to 6 weeks if you are tracking closely. Weight loss reduces BMR because there is less tissue to maintain, while muscle gain slightly increases it. Using stale maintenance figures after a significant weight change leads to unintentional surpluses or deficits.
What happens if I eat exactly at my maintenance calories every day?
Eating precisely at your TDEE should result in stable body weight over time. In practice, small day-to-day fluctuations in weight (0.5 to 2 kg) are normal due to water retention, glycogen levels, and digestive contents. A true trend of stable weight averaged over two to three weeks is the real indicator that you are eating at maintenance. Daily fluctuations do not indicate fat gain or loss.
Is my weekly calorie budget more important than my daily target?
The total weekly calorie intake determines body composition trends, not the daily split. Eating 2,500 kcal per day on five days and 1,800 kcal on two rest days totals the same weekly budget as eating exactly 2,357 kcal every day. Flexible approaches that match the weekly budget while varying daily intake are equally effective as strict daily tracking for most healthy adults.