How to Calculate Your Maintenance Calories

Your maintenance calories are the amount of energy you eat that keeps your weight roughly stable over time. You can estimate them from your resting energy needs and activity, then check the estimate against your weight trend.

This is how to calculate total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. The calculation gives you a starting point, not a precise number that stays the same every day.

What goes into TDEE?

Your body uses energy at rest to support basic functions. It also uses energy to digest food and for movement, including exercise and ordinary daily activity. Together, these make up your total daily energy expenditure.

The movement part is easy to underestimate. A planned workout is only one part of your day. Time spent walking, standing, doing household tasks or sitting also matters. Your usual week is more useful for this estimate than your hardest workout.

Step 1: Estimate resting energy needs

One published method is the Mifflin–St Jeor equation. It estimates resting energy expenditure from weight, height, age and the male or female category used in the original research. It is an estimate, not a measurement of your metabolism.

Use weight in kilograms, height in centimetres and age in years:

• For the study's male category: (10 × weight) + (6.25 × height) − (5 × age) + 5.

• For the study's female category: (10 × weight) + (6.25 × height) − (5 × age) − 161.

The answer is an estimate in calories per day at rest. It does not yet include the energy used across your usual day. The equation's two categories may not describe everyone well; if neither is appropriate for you, do not treat either result as precise.

You can also use a calculator to do this arithmetic. Check what it asks for and whether its result is resting energy expenditure or a full-day estimate. Those are different numbers.

Step 2: Choose an activity factor

A physical activity level is total daily energy expenditure divided by basal energy expenditure. Basal energy expenditure is measured under stricter resting conditions than the resting expenditure estimated above. That means multiplying a Mifflin–St Jeor result by a physical activity level is a rough shortcut, not an exact application of the definition.

A Food and Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization and United Nations University report groups adult physical activity levels this way:

• 1.40–1.69: Sedentary or light activity.

• 1.70–1.99: Active or moderately active.

• 2.00–2.40: Vigorous activity.

Choose a factor based on your whole day, not just how often you exercise. If most of your day is seated, start near the lower part of the first range. If you regularly move throughout the day, a higher range may be a better starting point. Do not choose the vigorous range just because one workout feels difficult.

Multiply your estimated resting calories by the factor you chose. For example, a resting estimate of 1,400 calories per day multiplied by 1.40 gives a starting estimate of 1,960 calories per day. This example shows the arithmetic; it is not a target for you.

These factors are broad groups. They do not measure your movement, account for every difference between basal and resting expenditure, or confirm that the result is your maintenance intake.

Step 3: Check the estimate against your weight trend

Try the estimate as a starting intake and record what you eat and what happens to your weight. Weigh under similar conditions each time, such as at the same time of day, and look at the trend across several weeks rather than one reading.

If your weight is roughly stable across that period, your recorded average intake is a more useful estimate of your current maintenance intake than the equation alone. If the trend rises or falls, compare it with your food records before changing the estimate. An incomplete record or a change in daily activity can make the calculation appear wrong.

There is no need to treat each day's intake as an exact match to a single calorie number. Both intake records and estimates of energy use have limits. A weight trend helps you check the estimate, but it does not reveal an exact TDEE for any one day.

Your maintenance needs can change as your weight and activity change. Research on body-weight change shows that energy expenditure adapts over time, so an old estimate may stop matching your current weight trend. Recheck it when your routine or weight changes substantially.

If your reason for finding maintenance is to plan fat loss, establish this starting point before choosing a lower intake. A sustainable calorie deficit for fat loss explains the next decision. If your weight trend later stops changing, what to do when weight loss stalls covers how to review it without assuming the original estimate was exact.

When to see a professional

Do not rely on this calculation alone if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, an older adult with changing health or appetite, living with a medical condition or an eating disorder, or taking medication that affects appetite or weight. Ask a qualified health professional for guidance suited to your situation.