What are maintenance calories?
Your maintenance calories — also called your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) — is the number of calories you need to eat each day to keep your current weight exactly the same.
Eat below this number and you lose weight. Eat above it and you gain. Know your maintenance and you're in control of your body composition.
Most people have no idea what this number is. They eat intuitively, wonder why the scale isn't moving, and blame willpower. The actual problem is simpler: they don't have the number.
How to use your maintenance calories
- Fat loss (cut): Eat 300–500 calories below maintenance. A 500-calorie deficit = roughly 1 lb of fat lost per week.
- Lean bulk: Eat 200–300 calories above maintenance. Minimizes fat gain while supporting muscle growth.
- Maintenance / recomp: Eat at your TDEE. Combined with strength training, you can slowly shift body composition without significant weight change.
- Protein matters most: Regardless of goal, hit your protein target. It preserves muscle on a cut and supports growth on a bulk.
What is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation?
This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation — the most accurate BMR formula available for most people, and the one recommended by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Men: BMR = (10 × kg) + (6.25 × cm) − (5 × age) + 5
Women: BMR = (10 × kg) + (6.25 × cm) − (5 × age) − 161
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is what you'd burn doing nothing — just keeping your heart beating and your brain running. We then multiply by an activity factor to get your TDEE.
Activity level guide
| Level | Multiplier | What it means |
|---|
| Sedentary | 1.2× | Desk job, no structured exercise |
| Lightly Active | 1.375× | Light exercise 1–3 days/week (walks, casual gym) |
| Moderately Active | 1.55× | Exercise 3–5 days/week at moderate intensity |
| Very Active | 1.725× | Hard exercise 6–7 days/week |
| Extra Active | 1.9× | Athlete, physical job, or 2× daily training |
When in doubt, pick Moderately Active and adjust based on results after 2–3 weeks of tracking.
How accurate is this?
Mifflin-St Jeor is within 10% for most people. That means if your calculated TDEE is 2,400 calories, your actual maintenance is likely between 2,160–2,640 cal.
The only way to nail your exact number is to eat at your calculated TDEE for 2–3 weeks and watch the scale. If you're gaining, you're over maintenance. If you're losing, you're under. Adjust 100–200 cal at a time.
No formula beats real-world data. Track your intake with FormPulse and let the data tell you your true maintenance.