If your goal is to build muscle, lose fat, or simply fuel your body well, understanding your maintenance calories—the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight—is essential.

Let’s break down how to calculate it, why it matters, and what to do with that number.

What Makes Up Your Maintenance Calories?

Your maintenance calories are more accurately called TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). This includes:

TDEE = BMR + NEAT + TEF + EXERCISE

Let’s go over each part.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

The energy you burn at rest, just to stay alive—breathing, thinking, and keeping your organs functioning.

BMR = ~50–70% of your TDEE
Calculated using your age, height, weight, and sex.

NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)

Calories burned through non-exercise activity: walking, typing, cooking, fidgeting.

NEAT = ~15–30% of your TDEE (often ~25%)
It’s influenced by how active your day is outside of structured workouts, and tends to increase in a surplus and decrease in a deficit.

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

The calories your body burns to digest and process food.

TEF = ~5–10% of TDEE
It varies by macronutrient:

• Protein: 20–30%

• Carbs: 5–15%

• Fats: 2–3%

• Fibre: 20–30%

• Alcohol: 15–20%

Example:
200 calories of protein → 40–60 calories burned in digestion → only 140–160 usable.

Exercise

Calories burned from intentional training (lifting, running, sport).

Exercise = ~5–10% of TDEE
This varies based on duration, intensity, and type of activity.

How to Estimate Your Maintenance Calories

Option 1: Use a Calculator

For most people, the Mifflin-St Jeor Equation is accurate and easy:

Mifflin-St Jeor Formula:

Men: BMR = [10 x weight (kg)] + [6.25 x height (cm)] – [5 x age(y)] + 5

Women: BMR = [10 x weight (kg)] + [6.25 x height (cm)] – [5 x age(y)] - 16

To determine your daily maintenance calories, you'll need to multiply your BMR by an activity factor based on how active you are throughout the day:

• Sedentary (1.2): You work a desk job and do little to no formal exercise.

• Lightly active (1.3–1.4): You engage in light daily movement and exercise 1–3 times per week. Alternatively, you may not formally exercise but work a job that keeps you on your feet, such as teaching or nursing.

• Moderately active (1.5–1.6): You have a moderately active lifestyle with consistent training (3–5 days per week) or work a job that requires you to be on your feet most of the time. This also applies if you have a desk job but train hard.

• Very active (1.7–1.8): Your job is physically demanding and you train 5 or more days per week. You’re active for most of the day, not just during workouts.

• Extra active (1.9–2.2): You combine a very physical job with intense training most days of the week. For example, a carpenter who lifts weights four times a week, trains for football two to three times per week, and plays a weekly match would fall into this category.

Choose the category that best matches your lifestyle, then multiply your BMR by the corresponding factor to estimate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).

Option 2: Track It Manually

Track your calories and weight over 1–2 weeks:

• If weight stays the same → you’re at maintenance

• If weight drops → you’re in a deficit

• If weight increases → you’re in a surplus

Be honest and consistent with tracking—include drinks, sauces, and bites here and there!

Important Reminders

• These are estimates, not exact numbers.

• Your maintenance may be higher or lower than what any equation tells you.

• If you’re not maintaining your weight at your “calculated” maintenance, then it’s not actually your maintenance.

Do You Need to Know Your Body Fat %?

Not really. You can use calipers, a DEXA scan, or smart scales, but they're not required. What matters more is:

• Monitoring your weight trends

• Checking progress photos

• Taking body measurements

Stick to the same method each time for consistency.

Final Take

Your maintenance calories = TDEE = the number of calories needed to maintain your current weight.

To estimate it:

• Use a calculator and activity factor, OR

• Track intake and weight over time

From there, you can adjust up (for muscle gain) or down (for fat loss).