Your maintenance calories are the number of calories you burn in a day, your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Eat that much and your weight stays steady. A moderately active 30-year-old woman who is 5'4" and 143 lb needs about 2,100 calories a day; a 30-year-old man who is 5'10" and 181 lb needs about 2,770.
Those numbers come from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which a 2005 systematic review found predicts resting metabolism within 10% of the measured value in more people than other common equations. Treat yours as a starting point, then test it on the scale for two to three weeks.
Key takeaways
- Maintenance = TDEE: your resting metabolism plus everything you burn moving, exercising and digesting.
- Formula first: Mifflin-St Jeor times an activity factor (1.2 to 1.9) is the most reliable common estimate, often within about 10%.
- Then test it: eat the number for 2-3 weeks, compare weekly average weights, and adjust by 100-150 calories.
- After weight loss it is lower: each 10 kg (22 lb) lost takes 100 calories off the formula's BMR, and your body may burn a little less than predicted.
- The first-week jump is water: each gram of restocked glycogen holds about 3 g of water.
What are maintenance calories?
Your body burns energy in four ways:
- Basal metabolic rate (BMR): keeping you alive at rest. For most people this is the biggest share.
- Non-exercise activity: walking around, fidgeting, standing, chores.
- Exercise: planned workouts.
- Digestion: the energy used to process food, known as the thermic effect of food.
Add them up and you have your TDEE, which is the same thing as your maintenance calories. Eat below it and you lose weight; eat above it and you gain. Our BMR vs TDEE guide explains each part in more detail.
How to calculate your maintenance calories
Step 1: estimate BMR with Mifflin-St Jeor (weight in kg, height in cm, age in years).
- Men: 10 x weight + 6.25 x height - 5 x age + 5
- Women: 10 x weight + 6.25 x height - 5 x age - 161
A 2005 systematic review found this equation the most reliable of the four in common use, but it still misses by more than 10% for some people.
Step 2: multiply by an activity factor.
| Activity level | Description | Factor |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Desk job, little exercise | 1.2 |
| Lightly active | Exercise 1-3 days a week | 1.375 |
| Moderately active | Exercise 3-5 days a week | 1.55 |
| Very active | Hard exercise 6-7 days a week | 1.725 |
| Extra active | Hard training plus a physical job | 1.9 |
Maintenance calories: worked examples
| Person | BMR | Sedentary | Lightly active | Moderately active | Very active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woman, 30, 5'4" (163 cm), 143 lb (65 kg) | 1,358 | 1,629 | 1,867 | 2,105 | 2,342 |
| Woman, 50, 5'4" (163 cm), 154 lb (70 kg) | 1,308 | 1,569 | 1,798 | 2,027 | 2,256 |
| Man, 30, 5'10" (178 cm), 181 lb (82 kg) | 1,788 | 2,145 | 2,458 | 2,771 | 3,083 |
| Man, 50, 5'10" (178 cm), 198 lb (90 kg) | 1,768 | 2,121 | 2,430 | 2,740 | 3,049 |
It's easy to overestimate activity, so if you are unsure between two levels, start with the lower one. The TDEE calculator does the math for you.
How to find your real maintenance calories
A formula is an estimate. Your scale gives you the real number, as long as you read the weekly trend rather than single days.
- Eat your estimated number for two to three weeks. Log everything, including oils, drinks and weekends.
- Weigh yourself most mornings after the bathroom and before eating.
- Compare weekly averages, not single days. Daily weight swings with water, salt and food in your gut.
- Adjust by 100-150 calories. If the weekly average keeps falling, eat a little more; if it keeps rising, a little less. Hold each change for two weeks.
Once your average stays within a small range you are happy with, that intake is your maintenance. A 2-3 lb (1-1.5 kg) band is a practical choice, so normal swings do not trigger changes.
Maintenance calories after weight loss
When you finish a diet, your maintenance is lower than it was before, for two reasons.
You weigh less. In Mifflin-St Jeor, every 10 kg (22 lb) lost takes 100 calories off BMR. At a moderate activity factor that is about 155 calories off maintenance.
Your body pushes back. After weight loss, energy expenditure can drop further than the change in body size explains. Researchers call this adaptive thermogenesis, and it is one reason regaining weight is so common. In practice it means your real maintenance may sit a little below the formula, so testing it matters more after a diet than before one.
Why the scale jumps when you eat more
Expect the scale to go up in the first week or two after you raise calories, even at true maintenance. Your muscles restock glycogen, and each gram of glycogen is stored with about 3 g of water. More food in your gut and more salt add to it. Judge fat gain on the trend after two weeks, not on the first few weigh-ins. Our water weight guide explains the swings.
Should you reverse diet?
Reverse dieting means raising calories slowly, often 50-100 a week, until you reach maintenance. There is little controlled research showing it beats simply eating at maintenance, so pick the approach you can stick with:
- Jump to maintenance: simplest, and fine after a moderate diet. Expect the water-weight bump.
- Ramp up over a few weeks: can feel easier psychologically after a long or aggressive diet.
Both end in the same place. Our reverse dieting guide covers the slower route step by step.
Macros at maintenance
Calories decide your weight; macros shape how you feel and perform at that weight.
- Protein: 1.4-2.0 g per kg of body weight a day if you exercise (International Society of Sports Nutrition). That is 0.6-0.9 g per lb.
- Fat: 20-35% of calories.
- Carbohydrate: the rest, typically 45-65% of calories.
For the 30-year-old woman above at 2,105 calories and 65 kg: protein at 1.6 g/kg is 104 g (416 calories), fat at 30% is 632 calories (70 g), and the remaining 1,057 calories are about 264 g of carbs. The macro calculator will run these numbers for your own target.
Staying at maintenance long term
- Keep a weigh-in routine. A few mornings a week is enough to catch a trend early.
- Re-check when life changes. New job, new sport, injury or a big change in daily steps all move your TDEE.
- Age matters less than you think before 60. A large 2021 study of measured energy expenditure found that, adjusted for lean mass, it stays stable from about 20 to 60 and declines after that. In that range, how much muscle you carry matters more than your age.
- Log a week every so often. It's easy to drift once you stop tracking entirely. A one-week check-in every month or two keeps your portions honest.
If your weight stalls while you are still trying to lose, see how to break a weight loss plateau. In Nutrify, Smart Goals, once you switch it on, makes small weekly adjustments to your calorie target based on your weight trend, so your maintenance number does not go stale.
Sources
- Mifflin MD et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990.
- Frankenfield D et al. Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005.
- Rosenbaum M, Leibel RL. Adaptive thermogenesis in humans. Int J Obes. 2010.
- Fernandez-Elias VE et al. Relationship between muscle water and glycogen recovery after prolonged exercise in the heat in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2015.
- Pontzer H et al. Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science. 2021.
- Jager R et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: protein and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017.
- National Academies, Dietary Reference Intakes for energy and macronutrients (macronutrient ranges).
