Maintenance Calorie Calculator
The calories your body burns now, shown per day, per week and per meal.
| BMR | 1,718 kcal/day |
|---|---|
| Maintenance calories | 2,662 kcal/day activity: Moderately active |
| Per week | 18,635 kcal |
| Per meal (3 meals) | 887 kcal |
| Your weight stays the same at | 2,662 kcal/day +/- 200 kcal is normal day-to-day noise |
Resting energy for these inputs is 1,718 kcal; move the sliders above for your own figures.
What maintenance calories mean
Maintenance calories are the intake at which your weight stays stable over weeks rather than days. Eat consistently at that number and the energy you store equals the energy you burn, so fat mass and lean mass hold roughly steady. It is the reference point everything else is built on: a deficit is a percentage below it, a surplus a percentage above it.
Two things are easy to get wrong. The first is that maintenance is a band, not a single number. Day-to-day burn moves by 100 to 300 kcal with steps, sleep, stress and digestion, so a range of plus or minus 200 kcal produces the same result over a month. The second is that maintenance changes as you change: losing 7 kg lowers it by roughly 150 to 250 kcal a day, which is why the target that worked last spring no longer holds.
| Change in body weight | Rough change in maintenance | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| -5 kg (-11 lb) | about 100 to 200 kcal lower | less tissue to keep alive, less cost to move |
| -10 kg (-22 lb) | about 200 to 350 kcal lower | the same effect, compounded |
| +5 kg of mostly muscle | about 100 to 150 kcal higher | muscle costs energy at rest |
| +5 kg of mostly fat | about 60 to 100 kcal higher | fat is metabolically quieter |
How the maintenance figure is calculated
The calculator uses Mifflin-St Jeor for resting energy and multiplies it by an activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9. Resting energy is 10 x weight in kilograms + 6.25 x height in centimetres - 5 x age, plus 5 for men and minus 161 for women. The activity factor covers everything else: digestion, walking, housework, training and fidgeting.
Because the factor is the least precise input, treat the result as a starting estimate and expect to adjust it. Someone who trains four times a week but sits at a desk for ten hours a day is usually closer to 'lightly active' than 'very active', and the difference between those two choices is more than 500 kcal a day at this body size.
Reading your maintenance result
The table shows the daily number first, then the same figure expressed per week and per meal. The weekly view is the useful one for planning: 2,662 kcal a day is 18,634 kcal a week, and that weekly total is what actually determines whether your weight moves. A single high day does not matter if the week balances.
The per-meal figures are a rough planning aid, not a rule. Three equal meals of about 890 kcal is one way to hit the number, but most people find two larger meals and a snack easier to sustain. What matters is the total, plus enough protein spread across the day to protect muscle.
| View | Example at 2,662 kcal | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Per day | 2,662 kcal | daily planning, comparing with a deficit |
| Per week | 18,634 kcal | deciding whether a heavy weekend actually mattered |
| Per meal, 3 meals | about 887 kcal | simple plate planning |
| Per meal, 4 meals | about 666 kcal | smaller, more frequent eating |
How to find your true maintenance by experiment
The equation gives you a starting point; two weeks of data gives you the real answer. Eat the estimated number every day, weigh yourself every morning under the same conditions, and compare the average of the first seven days with the average of the second seven. Flat averages mean you found maintenance.
If the average fell, your true maintenance is higher than the estimate - add 100 to 200 kcal and repeat. If it rose, the estimate was too high; subtract the same amount. Two or three rounds of this converge quickly, and the resulting number is far more useful than any equation, because it includes your actual job, your actual steps and your actual training.
- Weigh in first thing, after the bathroom, before eating or drinking.
- Log intake on ordinary days, including weekends and drinks.
- Compare seven-day averages, never two single days.
- Change one variable at a time, then wait two weeks before judging.
Why maintenance drifts over time
The most common reason is that you changed. Lose 8 kg and maintenance drops meaningfully, partly because there is less tissue to maintain and partly because moving a lighter body costs fewer calories. The second reason is adaptation in daily movement: during a diet, people unconsciously sit more, take fewer steps and fidget less, which can quietly remove 200 to 400 kcal of daily burn without any deliberate decision.
The third reason is measurement. Portions get estimated more loosely once the novelty of tracking wears off, weekend days drift upward, and the food that used to be weighed is eyeballed. None of these are moral failures; they are predictable, which is why re-measuring maintenance every few months beats assuming the old number still applies.
Mistakes that make maintenance look broken
People rarely gain or lose weight at maintenance because the arithmetic is wrong. More often the measurement is: a bathroom scale that moves two kilograms with hydration, a food log that misses oil and drinks, or a training week that was unusually heavy in one of the two comparison weeks.
A useful rule of thumb is that a real change in fat mass of one kilogram shows up as roughly a one-kilogram change in a seven-day average. Anything faster is water, and anything slower may just be noise. Keep the target stable for a month before deciding it does not work.
- Judging maintenance on daily weights instead of weekly averages.
- Changing intake and training volume in the same fortnight.
- Under-logging cooking oil, dressings, drinks and weekend meals.
- Assuming the number from six months ago still applies.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find my real maintenance calories?
Eat the estimate for two weeks and weigh yourself every morning. If the average of week two matches week one, that intake is your maintenance. If not, adjust by 100 to 200 kcal and repeat.
Should I eat back exercise calories?
No. The activity factor already averages your training week, so adding a session on top counts the same work twice. Only adjust for genuinely exceptional days such as a long hike or a race.
Does maintenance change as I lose weight?
Yes, and it is worth recalculating every 5 to 7 kg. A lighter body burns less at rest and costs less to move, so the old target gradually becomes a surplus.
Why did I gain weight on maintenance calories?
Usually measurement rather than metabolism: underestimated intake, underestimated weekend days, or a drop in daily steps. Check a two-week average before changing the number.
How accurate is a maintenance estimate?
Within roughly 10% for most healthy adults, which at 2,600 kcal is about 260 kcal a day. That is why the number is a starting point to be refined with your own weigh-ins.
Can I maintain on fewer calories by moving more?
Yes - maintenance is the balance between intake and burn, so adding 3,000 daily steps and training twice a week lets you eat meaningfully more at the same weight.
Sources
- Mifflin MD et al., A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy adults (1990)
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans
- NIH: Weight management
Formulas and thresholds are taken from the sources above. They are a starting point for adults, not a diagnosis.
Last reviewed September 12, 2026. How we calculate · Editorial policy