Calculate Your Maintenance Calories
Your maintenance calories equal your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) — the calories you burn each day through basal metabolic rate (BMR), activity, and digestion.
How to Calculate Maintenance Calories
- Calculate BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation
- Multiply by activity factor: 1.2 (sedentary), 1.375 (lightly active), 1.55 (moderately active), 1.725 (very active), 1.9 (extremely active)
- Result = TDEE (your maintenance calories)
To lose weight, eat below TDEE (calorie deficit). To gain weight, eat above TDEE (calorie surplus).
References
What maintenance means
Maintenance calories are the intake that matches TDEE, so body weight is roughly stable. They are not BMR. BMR is resting energy. TDEE multiplies that resting estimate by an activity factor: 1.2 sedentary, 1.375 light, 1.55 moderate, 1.725 very active, and 1.9 for a very heavy training load. Pick the factor for a typical week, not for a single hard session.
Same worked example as the TDEE and deficit pages. A 35-year-old man, 178 cm, 90 kg, factor 1.375: Mifflin-St Jeor BMR is about 1,843 kcal, and maintenance is about 2,534 kcal. Eating about 2,534 kcal is the maintain plan. Eating about 1,980 kcal is the 0.5 kg per week loss sketch on the deficit calculator, not a maintenance intake. Eating above 2,534 is a surplus, which is the weight gain calculator.
Hold the target for two to three weeks and watch the average weight, not one morning. If weight drifts up, the factor may be high or the log may be missing oil and drinks. If it drifts down, you are in a deficit. Recalculate after a real change in weight or job activity. The equation is Mifflin et al., 1990. A plain-language split of the three terms is on BMR vs RMR vs TDEE.