Maintenance Calorie Calculator

Calculate your daily maintenance calories using Mifflin-St Jeor BMR and activity multiplier, with practical weight loss and gain targets.

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2,759
kcal/day (BMR 1,780 × 1.55)
Practical range: 2,483–3,035 kcal
Weight loss
2,259
kcal/day (−500)
Weight gain
3,059
kcal/day (+300)

Maintenance calories are a population-level estimate. Real needs vary with body composition, metabolic health, and activity accuracy. Track body weight over 2–4 weeks to calibrate your true maintenance.

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Health — Nutrition

Maintenance Calorie Calculator

Your maintenance calories are the amount of energy your body needs each day to stay at its current weight. Knowing this number is the starting point for any nutrition goal — whether you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or simply fuel consistent performance.

How maintenance calories are calculated

This calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation to estimate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — the calories burned at complete rest. The BMR is then multiplied by an activity factor based on your typical weekly exercise to give Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), which represents your maintenance level.

A practical range of ±10% is shown around your maintenance figure, reflecting the natural day-to-day variation in energy needs and the inherent imprecision of population-level equations when applied to individuals.

Frequently asked questions

How accurate is a maintenance calorie estimate?

Population equations like Mifflin-St Jeor are accurate to within ±10–15% for most people, but individual metabolic rates vary. The best approach is to treat this as a starting estimate and track body weight over 2–4 weeks to calibrate your true maintenance.

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