Maintenance Calorie Calculator
Maintenance calories are the calories you burn in a day: your BMR multiplied by an activity factor from 1.2 to 1.9. A lightly active 35-year-old woman of 165 cm and 68 kg maintains her weight on about 1,890 calories a day. Enter your details and activity level to get your maintenance calories, gentle targets for losing and gaining weight, your BMI and the numbers for every activity level at once.
Maintenance calorie calculator
Activity level
| Maintenance calories | 1,950 calories/day |
| Gentle weight loss (−15%) | 1,660 calories/day · 290 below maintenance |
| Lean gain (+10%) | 2,140 calories/day |
| BMR (at complete rest) | 1,417 calories/day |
| BMI | 24.2 · healthy weight |
Maintenance at other activity levels
| Sedentary (×1.2) | 1,700 calories |
| Lightly active (×1.375) | 1,950 calories |
| Moderately active (×1.55) | 2,200 calories |
| Very active (×1.725) | 2,440 calories |
| Extra active (×1.9) | 2,690 calories |
BMR by the Mifflin–St Jeor equation. Add your body fat % to use Katch–McArdle instead. The weight-loss figure never goes below your BMR. If you're pregnant, breastfeeding or managing a medical condition, ask your doctor for a target.
How the calculator works
- BMR — calories at rest, by the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, or by Katch–McArdle if you enter your body fat % (see the BMR calculator).
- Activity factor — from ×1.2 for a desk job with no exercise to ×1.9 for a physical job plus training.
- Maintenance = BMR × activity factor, rounded to 10 calories.
- Weight loss = 15% below maintenance, but never below BMR. Lean gain = 10% above maintenance.
Maintenance calories by weight and activity
For a 35-year-old woman of 5′4″ (163 cm) and a 35-year-old man of 5′10″ (178 cm), by Mifflin–St Jeor:
| Weight | Sedentary | Lightly active | Moderately active | Very active |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woman, 130 lb | 1,520 | 1,750 | 1,970 | 2,190 |
| Woman, 150 lb | 1,630 | 1,870 | 2,110 | 2,350 |
| Woman, 170 lb | 1,740 | 2,000 | 2,250 | 2,500 |
| Woman, 190 lb | 1,850 | 2,120 | 2,390 | 2,660 |
| Man, 160 lb | 2,000 | 2,290 | 2,580 | 2,880 |
| Man, 180 lb | 2,110 | 2,420 | 2,720 | 3,030 |
| Man, 200 lb | 2,220 | 2,540 | 2,870 | 3,190 |
| Man, 220 lb | 2,330 | 2,670 | 3,010 | 3,350 |
Two things stand out. Activity moves the number more than weight does: going from sedentary to moderately active adds about 30%, more than an extra 80 lb of body weight would. And the gentle weight-loss target is modest on purpose — for the lightly active 165 cm, 68 kg woman from the example at the top it's 1,610 calories, about 280 a day below her maintenance.
Using the number in real life
Treat the result as a starting point. Eat close to it for two to three weeks, weigh yourself a few times a week at the same time of day, and look at the trend rather than single days — water and salt move the scale by a kilo or more. If the trend goes up, trim 100–200 calories; if it goes down and you wanted to maintain, add the same.
Calorie targets work best when you know what's on the plate. The food pages list calories per 100 g and per serving, and the free Calories Not Count diary counts them for you — by search, barcode, nutrition label or a photo of your dish — and suggests same-calorie healthier swaps. To split your calories into protein, carbs and fat, use the macro calculator.
FAQ
What are maintenance calories?
Maintenance calories are the number of calories you burn in a day — your basal metabolic rate plus digestion, daily movement and exercise. Eating about that many keeps your weight stable; it's also called TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).
How many calories do I need to maintain my weight?
It depends on your size, age, sex and activity. For example, a lightly active 35-year-old woman who is 165 cm (5′5″) and 68 kg (150 lb) maintains on about 1,890 calories a day; a moderately active 35-year-old man who is 178 cm (5′10″) and 82 kg (181 lb), on about 2,730.
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
A moderate deficit is easier to keep up than a crash diet. The calculator suggests about 15% below maintenance and never goes below your BMR. Weigh yourself for two to three weeks and adjust if the trend doesn't move.
How accurate is a maintenance calorie calculator?
It's an estimate: equations like Mifflin–St Jeor are usually within about 10% for most people, and activity is hard to judge. Use the number as a starting point, then adjust it by what your weight actually does over a few weeks.
What's the difference between maintenance calories and TDEE?
None — they're two names for the same number: the calories you burn in a day, and therefore the calories that keep your weight where it is. BMR is only the resting part of it.
Should I enter my body fat percentage?
Only if you know it reasonably well, from a DEXA scan or careful measurement. With body fat the calculator switches from Mifflin–St Jeor to the Katch–McArdle equation, which works from lean mass and can suit very muscular people better. A guessed body fat figure adds error rather than removing it.
Do I need to eat more on training days?
Your activity factor already averages exercise over the week. If you train very hard on some days and rest on others, you can shift some calories to training days, but the weekly total matters most.