Maintenance Calories Calculator
Find exactly how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. Get your TDEE maintenance target across all activity levels — plus goal-based calorie targets for fat loss or muscle gain.
What Are Maintenance Calories?
Maintenance calories are the total number of calories you need to eat each day to maintain your current body weight — neither gaining nor losing. This is equivalent to your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), which includes your Basal Metabolic Rate plus all energy burned through activity and digestion.
Why Knowing Your Maintenance Calories Matters
Your maintenance calorie level is the anchor for any nutrition strategy:
- Weight loss: Eat below maintenance (typically −300 to −500 kcal/day)
- Maintain current weight: Eat exactly at maintenance
- Build muscle: Eat above maintenance (typically +200 to +400 kcal/day)
- Reverse dieting: Gradually increase to maintenance after a prolonged cut
Without knowing your maintenance level, any calorie target is just a guess. Use this calculator to establish your personal baseline.
Calculate your maintenance calories here, then eat at that level for 2–3 weeks while weighing yourself daily. If your weight stays stable, that is your true maintenance. Adjust by ±100–200 kcal based on results.
How This Calculator Works
The calculator uses a two-step process:
- Calculate BMR using your chosen formula (Mifflin-St Jeor is default — the most validated for general use)
- Multiply by your activity factor (1.2 to 2.0 depending on lifestyle) to get your daily maintenance calories
It also displays your maintenance calories across all six activity levels so you can see how your needs change if your lifestyle changes.
What If My Weight Changes?
As your body weight changes, so does your maintenance calorie level. For every kilogram you lose, your TDEE decreases by approximately 20–25 kcal/day. Recalculate your maintenance calories every 4–6 weeks during active diet or muscle-gain phases to keep your targets accurate.