Maintenance
Maintenance Calorie Calculator
Find the maintenance calorie number that keeps your weight stable. The calculator below estimates your daily target and shows you how to verify it against the scale in three weeks.
Maintenance calories, also called TDEE, is the daily calorie intake at which body weight stays stable. It anchors every nutrition goal: subtract from maintenance calories to cut, add to bulk, hold to recomp. For most adults, maintenance calories fall between 1,800 and 3,200 kcal/day, depending on size, sex, age, and activity level. The number from a maintenance calorie calculator is a starting estimate; the scale over three weeks confirms or corrects it.
Your daily target
· cal/day
Enter your details and click Calculate
- BMR · cal/day at rest
- BMI ·
- Lean body mass · kg
Pick your goal
Macros at maintenance
30% protein · 40% carbs · 30% fat
Numbers are estimates. Eat at your target for 2 to 3 weeks, track weight, and adjust by ±100 cal/day if it does not match your real maintenance. See how accurate is TDEE?
Show advanced metrics 12 metrics · 7 formulas · 2D macro selector · life-stage
All metrics
Calculate above to populate the full metric table.
All 7 BMR formulas (side-by-side)
Mifflin–St Jeor · Harris–Benedict (revised) · Katch–McArdle · Cunningham · Average · Simple multiplier · Custom
TDEE across activity levels
See how much your TDEE changes between sedentary and athlete. Highlighted bar is your current selection.
Macros: 2D selector
Goal × carb-split matrix: Cut / Maintain / Bulk × Low / Moderate / High carb.
Life-stage adjustments
Luteal phase · Pregnancy (T1/T2/T3) · Breastfeeding · Perimenopause · PCOS
Why maintenance calories matter more than any other number
Every nutrition goal is defined relative to maintenance:
- Cut: maintenance minus 250 to 750 kcal/day. See the calorie deficit calculator for pace targets.
- Maintain: maintenance kcal/day.
- Bulk: maintenance plus 250 to 500 kcal/day for lean gain.
Without an accurate maintenance number, every cut and bulk target is a guess. Lock this number first, then build any plan on top of it.
Two ways to find your maintenance calories
1. Formula estimate (this calculator)
Quick and gets you within 80 percent of the real number. The calculator uses the Mifflin–St Jeor BMR equation multiplied by your activity factor. Treat the output as a starting point, not a final answer.
2. Empirical verification (the accurate method)
Eat exactly the formula estimate for three weeks. Weigh every morning fasted, after using the bathroom, before food or coffee. Compare the seven-day average from week one to the seven-day average from week three:
- Weight stable (±0.5 lb shift): formula is accurate. Lock the number.
- Lost weight: real maintenance sits higher than the formula. Add 100 to 200 kcal/day and repeat for two more weeks.
- Gained weight: real maintenance sits lower than the formula. Subtract 100 to 200 kcal/day and repeat.
After two cycles (six weeks total), your maintenance estimate calibrates to within roughly 100 kcal/day. This empirical method beats any formula because it accounts for your personal NEAT, gut absorption, and metabolic rate.
Diet break vs true maintenance calories
If you have cut for six weeks or more, returning to maintenance often produces 2 to 5 pounds of immediate weight gain. That gain is glycogen and intracellular water, not fat. Each gram of stored glycogen carries 3 to 4 grams of water (Olsson and Saltin, 1970), so refilling muscle glycogen alone explains most of the rebound. Wait 7 to 10 days at maintenance before judging whether the number is correct.
Reverse dieting back to maintenance
Reverse dieting raises calories gradually from a cut back to maintenance, typically adding 50 to 100 kcal/day per week. The metabolic-advantage claims (faster TDEE recovery, less fat regain) remain contested in the peer-reviewed literature. What is well documented: the gradual approach helps psychological adherence and reduces the binge risk that follows long deficits. Trexler et al. (2014) reviewed metabolic adaptation and concluded that gradual refeeding is reasonable but not magic.
What changes your maintenance calorie number
- Weight change: every 10 pounds lost drops maintenance by roughly 100 kcal/day.
- Age: roughly 2 percent per decade past 30, driven by lean mass loss.
- Activity shifts: a new desk job, an injury, or a new training program can swing maintenance by 300 to 500 kcal/day.
- Pregnancy and lactation: add 340 kcal/day in the second trimester and 452 kcal/day in the third (Institute of Medicine, 2002); lactation adds roughly 500 kcal/day.
- Thyroid and other endocrine changes: can shift maintenance by 10 to 40 percent in either direction.
Use your maintenance calorie number this week
Set the number from this calculator. Eat it for the next 14 days while you track weight every morning. If the 7-day average holds within 0.5 pound, the formula nailed it. If it drifts, adjust by 100 kcal/day and continue. Once you trust the number, use it as the anchor for the deficit calculator or a lean bulk. Recheck after every 10 to 15 pounds of weight change. For more on prediction limits, see how accurate is TDEE.