Find out how many calories your body needs to maintain your current weight. This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation to estimate your basal metabolic rate (BMR), then multiplies it by your physical activity level to give your daily maintenance calories — plus a healthy breakdown of carbs, fats, and protein.
The maintenance calorie calculator tells you how many calories you need to eat each day to keep your weight exactly where it is — not losing and not gaining. This number, often called your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE, is the single most useful figure in nutrition planning, because every weight goal starts from it. Eat at your maintenance level and your weight holds steady; eat below it and you lose; eat above it and you gain. Enter your sex, height, weight, age, and activity level, and the calculator returns your maintenance calories along with a balanced breakdown of carbohydrates, fat, and protein.
This page explains exactly how the calculation works, the science behind the formula, worked examples you can reproduce, how to turn your maintenance number into a weight-loss or weight-gain plan, and answers to the questions people ask most about maintenance calories.
Your maintenance calories are the amount of energy your body burns in a typical day, covering everything from keeping your heart beating and your brain running to walking, working, and exercising. If you consistently eat that same amount, your body has exactly the fuel it needs and your weight stays stable. The figure combines two parts: your basal metabolic rate (the calories you would burn at complete rest, just staying alive) and the extra energy you spend moving through your day. Because activity varies enormously from person to person, maintenance calories differ widely even between people of the same size — which is why a personalized calculation beats any one-size-fits-all number.
The calculator works in two steps. First it estimates your basal metabolic rate (BMR) using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, widely regarded as the most accurate simple BMR formula for the general population. The equation differs only by a constant between the sexes:
Men: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(y) + 5
Women: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(y) − 161
Second, it multiplies your BMR by a physical activity level (PAL) factor to account for movement and exercise, giving your daily maintenance calories:
Maintenance calories = BMR × activity factor (PAL)
The activity factors used here are:
| Activity level | Factor |
|---|---|
| I do not exercise (little or no activity) | 1.2 |
| I exercise regularly (1–3 times a week) | 1.4 |
| I have a physical job or train hard daily | 2.0 |
| I am a professional athlete | 2.4 |
Take Lisa, a 25-year-old woman who is 168 cm tall, weighs 62 kg, and exercises regularly (activity factor 1.4). First her BMR:
BMR = 10 × 62 + 6.25 × 168 − 5 × 25 − 161 = 620 + 1050 − 125 − 161 = 1384 kcal/day
Then her maintenance calories:
Maintenance = 1384 × 1.4 = 1937.6 kcal/day
So Lisa needs about 1,938 calories a day to maintain her weight. These are the calculator's default values, so you can press Calculate to see the full result, including the macronutrient breakdown, and then enter your own details.
Your basal metabolic rate is the energy your body uses just to stay alive at complete rest — powering your organs, maintaining body temperature, and repairing cells. It typically accounts for 60–75% of the calories you burn each day, which is why it forms the base of the maintenance calculation. BMR rises with more body mass (especially muscle) and greater height, and falls gradually with age. Men usually have a higher BMR than women of the same size because they tend to carry more muscle, which is exactly what the +5 versus −161 constant in the Mifflin-St Jeor equation reflects. Knowing your BMR helps you understand that even before you move a muscle, your body is burning a substantial number of calories every day.
Maintaining weight is not only about total calories — the balance of nutrients matters for health, energy, and body composition. The calculator splits your maintenance calories into a balanced distribution of 60% carbohydrates, 27.5% fat, and 12.5% protein, then converts each into grams. Carbohydrates and protein each provide 4 calories per gram, while fat provides 9 calories per gram, so the same percentage of calories translates into very different gram amounts. Carbohydrates are your body's primary fuel, fats support hormones and the absorption of certain vitamins, and protein preserves and builds muscle. This breakdown is a sensible general-purpose starting point; athletes, people building muscle, or those following specific diets may shift the ratios — for example raising protein — to suit their goals.
Once you know your maintenance number, changing your weight is a matter of adjusting intake around it. Because roughly 7,700 calories equal one kilogram of body fat (about 3,500 per pound), a steady daily gap adds up predictably over time:
Avoid very large deficits: cutting too hard can cost you muscle, slow your metabolism, and leave you feeling drained. Gradual, consistent changes almost always win.
Your maintenance number is not fixed for life. It shifts as your body and habits change. Losing weight lowers it, because a smaller body burns fewer calories — which is why the amount that once helped you lose weight eventually becomes your new maintenance and progress stalls. Building muscle raises it slightly, since muscle is more metabolically active than fat. Aging gradually reduces it, and changes in your activity — a new job, a training block, an injury — move it up or down. For this reason it is worth recalculating your maintenance calories every few weeks during a weight change, or whenever your routine shifts significantly, so your targets stay accurate.
Like all calorie formulas, this one gives a well-grounded estimate rather than a precise measurement. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is accurate for most people, but individual metabolism varies with genetics, body composition, hormones, and health conditions, so two people with identical inputs can have somewhat different real needs. Activity multipliers are necessarily broad categories, and it is easy to overestimate how active you are. Treat the result as a smart starting point: use it to set your intake, then let a few weeks of real-world weight data fine-tune your numbers. If you have a medical condition or are unsure, consult a doctor or registered dietitian, as this tool is for general information and is not medical advice.
These three terms are closely related and often used loosely, so it helps to pin them down. Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the energy you burn at complete rest, doing nothing at all. Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is everything you burn across a full day once activity is added — movement, exercise, digestion, and fidgeting all count. Your maintenance calories are simply your TDEE expressed as the amount you should eat to hold your weight steady; the two numbers are effectively the same thing viewed from different angles. In other words, BMR is the foundation, activity is added on top to reach TDEE, and TDEE is the calorie level that maintains your current weight. This calculator walks through all three: it computes your BMR first, applies your activity factor to reach your TDEE, and presents that as your daily maintenance target. Understanding the chain makes it clear why raising your activity level raises your maintenance calories, and why a larger or more muscular body needs more energy to sustain itself.
Choosing the right activity level is the step where estimates most often go wrong, so it is worth thinking honestly about a typical week. The lowest level — little or no exercise — suits people with desk jobs who do not train and spend most of the day sitting. The "exercise regularly" level fits those who work out a few times a week but are otherwise not especially active. The "physical job or hard daily training" level is for people whose work keeps them on their feet and moving for hours, such as builders, movers, and farmers, or who train intensely almost every day. The professional-athlete level is reserved for those whose entire day revolves around training and competition, often with multiple sessions. Most people overestimate their activity, so when you are between two levels, it is usually safer to pick the lower one and adjust upward only if your weight starts to drop unexpectedly. Remember that non-exercise movement — walking, standing, chores, and general restlessness — can add up to a surprising number of calories and genuinely shifts which level fits you best.
A few recurring errors throw people's numbers off. The most common is overestimating activity, which inflates the maintenance figure and stalls weight loss. Another is forgetting to update the number after losing or gaining weight, since a changed body has changed needs. Many people also underestimate how much they actually eat, because untracked snacks, drinks, cooking oils, and generous portions add up quickly — which is why the scale, not the calculator, is the ultimate referee. It is equally a mistake to treat the calculated number as an exact, unchangeable law; it is a well-founded starting estimate meant to be refined with real data. Finally, chasing extreme deficits in the hope of faster results usually backfires, costing muscle and energy while making the plan impossible to sustain. Sidestepping these pitfalls — be honest about activity, recalculate periodically, track intake accurately, and adjust gradually — turns a good estimate into a plan that actually works.
Estimate your BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiply by an activity factor (1.2 to 2.4). For example, a BMR of 1384 with a factor of 1.4 gives 1,938 maintenance calories per day.
BMR is the energy you burn at complete rest. Maintenance calories (TDEE) add the energy from daily activity and exercise, so they are always higher than BMR.
Eat below your maintenance level. A deficit of about 500 calories a day produces roughly 0.5 kg (1 lb) of weight loss per week for most people.
Yes. A smaller body burns fewer calories, so your maintenance number falls as you lose weight. Recalculate every few weeks to keep your targets accurate.
Men typically carry more muscle, which burns more energy, so their BMR is higher. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation reflects this with a +5 constant for men versus −161 for women.
Not at all. Eating at maintenance keeps your weight stable, which is ideal once you have reached a goal weight or when you simply want to hold steady while focusing on health and performance.
This Maintenance Calorie Calculator is provided for general informational and educational purposes and gives an estimate based on the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and standard activity multipliers. It is not medical or nutritional advice. Individual calorie needs vary, and you should consult a qualified health professional before making significant changes to your diet.