How to Calculate Your Maintenance Calories
By CoachAk · · 4 min read
Every nutrition plan starts from one number: your maintenance calories, the amount you can eat each day without gaining or losing weight. Fat loss means eating below it. Muscle gain means eating a little above it. Get this number badly wrong and nothing else in the plan works.
The good news is that you do not need a lab to find it. You need a formula to start and two or three weeks of honest data to finish.
The short answer
- Estimate your maintenance with a formula or calculator.
- Eat that amount consistently for two to three weeks, tracking your intake and weighing yourself every morning.
- Adjust the estimate based on what your weekly average weight actually did.
Step 1 gets you close. Step 3 gets you the real number.
Step 1: Estimate it
Your daily energy use (often called TDEE, total daily energy expenditure) is made up of:
- Resting energy use: what your body burns to stay alive. This is the biggest part.
- Daily movement: walking, fidgeting, standing, chores. This varies hugely between people.
- Exercise: your training sessions.
- Digesting food: a small amount, higher with more protein.
Calculators estimate the resting part from your age, sex, height and weight, usually with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiply it by an activity factor:
- Men: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5
- Women: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age − 161
| Activity level | Multiply by |
|---|---|
| Mostly sitting, little walking | 1.2 |
| Lightly active, training 2 to 3 times a week | 1.375 |
| Active, training 3 to 5 times a week | 1.55 |
| Very active, training most days | 1.725 |
| Physical job and hard training | 1.9 |
Example: a 30-year-old man, 180 cm, 80 kg, training 3 to 5 times a week. Resting: 10 × 80 + 6.25 × 180 − 5 × 30 + 5 = 1,780 calories. Maintenance: 1,780 × 1.55 ≈ 2,760 calories a day.
You can skip the maths: the free macro calculator does it for you.
Why calculators are only a starting point
Formulas are built from averages. You are not an average. Two people with the same age, height and weight can have maintenance calories several hundred calories apart, mostly because of differences in daily movement. Someone who paces on phone calls and takes the stairs can burn far more than someone who sits all day, even if they train the same.
People also tend to overestimate their activity level, which pushes the estimate too high. If you are unsure between two levels, pick the lower one.
Step 2: Collect two to three weeks of data
To find your real number:
- Eat your estimated maintenance as consistently as you can, every day, including weekends.
- Track what you eat accurately. Weigh foods where you can, and include cooking oils, drinks and snacks.
- Weigh yourself every morning under the same conditions, and work out your weekly average. How to read the scale explains how.
The first few days of a new diet often bring water changes, so judge from the second week onwards.
Step 3: Adjust from the results
Compare your weekly average weights:
- Average weight stayed flat? Your estimate is close to your real maintenance.
- Average weight went down? You are eating below maintenance. Your real number is higher.
- Average weight went up? You are eating above maintenance. Your real number is lower.
To put a number on it, use the rough rule that a kilogram of body weight change represents around 7,700 calories:
Real maintenance ≈ average daily intake + (weekly weight loss in kg × 7,700 ÷ 7)
Example: you ate an average of 2,500 calories a day and your weekly average dropped by 0.3 kg. 0.3 × 7,700 ÷ 7 ≈ 330. Your real maintenance is roughly 2,500 + 330 = 2,830 calories.
If you gained weight, subtract instead of adding. This is an estimate too, but it is based on your body rather than an average.
Maintenance changes over time
Your maintenance is not fixed. It goes down as you lose weight (a smaller body burns less, and people often move less when dieting without realising) and up as you gain weight. Your step count, job and training also shift it. Re-check it every few months, or whenever your weight starts drifting unexpectedly.
What to do with the number
- To lose fat: eat below maintenance, aiming to lose about 0.5 to 1% of your body weight a week. See how to lose fat without losing muscle.
- To build muscle: eat a small surplus, about 5 to 10% above maintenance. See how fast to gain weight on a lean bulk.
- To recompose: eat at or slightly below maintenance. See body recomposition.
Where coaching helps
Finding maintenance is the first job of any coaching plan, and it never really stops: the number moves as your body changes. With one-to-one coaching from CoachAk, you log your weight and send a weekly check-in covering nutrition adherence, steps, sleep and more. Your coach uses those trends to keep your calorie targets matched to your real maintenance, not a formula's guess.
If you would rather not do the maths every few weeks, apply for coaching.
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