How Many Calories Do You Need to Maintain Your Weight?
How many calories do you need to maintain your weight? Take your BMR, the calories your body burns at rest, and multiply it by an activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9 depending on how much you move in a day. For a lot of moderately active adults that lands somewhere around 14 to 16 calories per pound of bodyweight, though your real number depends on your size, age, sex, and activity level.
That formula gets you a solid starting estimate, not a guarantee. Here's how to calculate it, how far off it can be, and how to find your actual number.
How do you calculate your maintenance calories?
The standard approach is two steps. First, estimate your BMR (basal metabolic rate) using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, generally considered the most accurate widely available formula:
- Men: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5
- Women: BMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161
Then multiply your BMR by an activity factor to get your TDEE, total daily energy expenditure, which is the same thing as your maintenance calories:
| Activity level | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Sedentary (little to no exercise) | 1.2 |
| Lightly active (light exercise 1 to 3 days a week) | 1.375 |
| Moderately active (moderate exercise 3 to 5 days a week) | 1.55 |
| Very active (hard exercise 6 to 7 days a week) | 1.725 |
| Extra active (very hard training or physical job) | 1.9 |
So someone with a BMR of 1,600 who trains moderately would land around 1,600 × 1.55 ≈ 2,480 calories a day to maintain their current weight.
How accurate is this formula, really?
Within about 10 percent for most people, which sounds close but leaves real room for error. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation predicts resting metabolism within 10 percent for roughly 70 to 82 percent of adults, meaning it is meaningfully off for something like one in five to one in three people. It also has known blind spots for people who carry a lot of muscle, people with a BMI above 35, and older adults, since it can't fully separate lean mass from fat mass.
Is there a faster shortcut?
Yes, if you want to skip the two-step math. A common rough estimate is about 14 to 16 calories per pound of bodyweight for a moderately active adult, which is roughly what the formula above tends to produce anyway. It's a shortcut, not a more accurate method, so it carries the same margin of error as the full calculation.
How do you find your real number?
Track it. Eat at your estimated maintenance level for two to three weeks while weighing yourself regularly and averaging by week, not by day, since daily weight swings from water and sodium hide the real trend. If your weekly average stays roughly flat, you've found your maintenance number. If it's climbing or dropping steadily, adjust your calories up or down by 100 to 150 a day and give it another couple of weeks.
This is the same tracking approach that matters on either side of maintenance. If you're aiming to lose weight, your deficit gets built off this same baseline, covered in how many calories to lose weight, and if you're trying to gain, the surplus works the same way, covered in how many calories to build muscle.
Does your maintenance number stay the same forever?
No. Maintenance calories move as your bodyweight, age, and activity level change, so the number you calculated last year, or even a few months ago after a weight change, may no longer be accurate. It's worth re-checking whenever your weight has shifted meaningfully or your routine has changed, the same recalculation habit that helps if you ever hit a weight loss plateau.
Tracking maintenance calories by hand is where most people give up, not because the math is hard, but because logging every meal accurately for weeks gets tedious fast. OneFit's meal scanning estimates calories and protein from a photo of your plate, so the two to three weeks of tracking that actually reveal your real number is something you can keep up with instead of abandoning after day four.
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FAQ
How many calories do I need to maintain my weight? Start with your BMR (calories burned at rest) and multiply it by an activity factor between 1.2 and 1.9 depending on how active you are. For a lot of moderately active adults this lands somewhere around 14 to 16 calories per pound of bodyweight, but track your actual weight for a couple of weeks to confirm your real number.
What is TDEE? TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure, the total number of calories you burn in a day including rest, digestion, daily movement, and exercise. Eating at your TDEE keeps your weight roughly stable, which is why it is the same thing as your maintenance calories.
How accurate are TDEE calculators? Reasonably accurate as a starting point but not exact. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the formula behind most calculators, predicts resting metabolism within about 10 percent for roughly 70 to 82 percent of people, which still leaves real day-to-day variation a formula alone cannot capture.
Do maintenance calories change over time? Yes. Maintenance calories shift as your weight, age, and activity level change, so a number that was accurate six months ago may not be accurate today. It is worth recalculating or re-checking through tracking whenever your weight or routine changes meaningfully.
What's the fastest way to estimate maintenance calories without doing the math? A rough shortcut many people use is about 14 to 16 calories per pound of bodyweight for a moderately active adult. It is a starting point, not a precise number, so treat it the same way you would a formula result and confirm it against a couple of weeks of real tracking.
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