We all have our weight goals. Some of us want to lose weight, others want to gain weight, and others wish to retain their weight. Where do you stand? Regardless of your goal, you can only achieve it when you understand your maintenance calories. If you would like a breakdown of what calories are, you can check out these guides, which delve into this in detail.

1. How many calories should you consume?
2. What are empty calories?

What Are Maintenance Calories?

I could go deep into this and leave you wondering what I meant. But I have learned that keeping things simple always has the most effectiveness. So, we all know that calories are a measure of the energy stored in foods. And that energy is what your body uses to perform various functions. Maintenance calories are the calories you need to meet your daily energy needs. And that means, like calorie intakes, they are not standard and instead depend on several factors, including:

1. Your age,
2. Your weight,
3. Your height,
4. Your mental state (yes, this is a thing),
5. Your body type (do you have more fat or more muscle?), and
6. How much you exercise.

A slight deviation in any of these factors results in a change in maintenance calories. For example, if you exercise daily, your maintenance calories (TDEE) would be higher. TDEE stands for total daily energy expenditure and corresponds with your maintenance calories. So, if your TDEE is high, so will your maintenance calories be.

Should You Care About Your TDEE?

Good question! And the answer is yes! Here’s why:

1. You make better food choices: When you know how much you need to eat in a day, you can eat the right foods to hit that limit. For example, if you know that you need 2,000 calories a day, you can factor in fruits, veggies, healthy carbs, and protein in 1,500 calories and add some snacks to meet your goals.
2. You can lose or gain weight better: If you know how much you need to maintain your current body weight, you can figure out how much you need to add or reduce to gain or lose weight. And if you’re not trying to lose or gain weight, you can keep eating within the TDEE range to avoid losing or gaining weight.
3. You can fuel your body: If you realize that your body needs a certain number of calories to work efficiently, you can give it the right balance of nutrients to meet that need. And you can thus set yourself up for success by not starving or overfeeding your body.

See? Knowing your maintenance calories works to your benefit. You can avoid eating more than you need and thus avoid accumulating fat deposits and predisposing yourself to chronic conditions.

How to Calculate Your Maintenance Calories

I earlier mentioned that maintenance calories are not standard. So, nobody can tell you that you need to eat X number of calories as they must first figure out some of the underlying factors. That’s why I first figure out my clients’ maintenance calories before working with them on losing, retaining, or gaining weight. You can get more information on how to join my ongoing program at the end of this article.

So, how can you measure your TDEE/ maintenance calories? You could go to a lab and have the doctor run tests on you or use a method that will give you fairly accurate results. What is it?

Step 1: Figure out your basal metabolic rate (BMR).

And for this, you can use various formulas. But in this case, I will use the Mifflin-St Jeor formula that considers your weight, height, and age. So, let’s assume you are 25 years old, weigh 60 kilograms, and are 150 cm tall.

The formula follows:

(10*weight in kilograms)+(6.25*height in centimeters)-(5*age in years)-161.

In our subject’s case, the formula would follow (10*60)+(6.25*150)-(5*25)-161, giving us a maintenance calorie figure of 1251.50.

You can already tell that this might not be an accurate figure. After all, it does not consider how much energy she expends working out. And that brings us to our second point.

Step 2: Figure out your physical activity level multiplier

Your activity or lack thereof determines how many calories you need because you will multiply this multiplier by your BMR. And the options are as follows:

1. Relatively sedentary people who engage in 15 minutes or less of exercise per day (1.3 for women and 1.3 for men)
2. People who engage in light activity with 1-2 hours of exercise per week (1.5 for women and 1.6 for men)
3. People who exercise moderately on most days with 3-5 hours of exercise per week (1.6 for women and 1.7 for men)
4. People who are active throughout the day with 6-7 hours of exercise per week (1.9 for women and 2.1 for men)
5. People who are very active throughout the day with more than 7 hours of exercise per week (2.2 for women and 2.4 for men)

You will notice that men generally have higher TDEEs as they are built of muscle and thus have fewer fat deposits on which they can rely. Now, back to our example, who had a BMR of 1251.50. If our subject is a female with a physical activity level (PAL) of 2.2, she will need to consume 2753.30 maintenance calories. But if she has a PAL of 1.3, she will drop this to 1626.95 calories. Can you see that difference?

You could be eating way more or way less than your body needs. And the only way to find out is by determining your maintenance calories with this simple formula.

Does Nutrient Composition Matter in Maintenance Calories?

It does! But there is no standard formula as it depends on what you want to achieve. A muscle builder will focus more on protein and carbs, and fats. Yet someone trying to lose weight will likely cut back on carbs. So, once you figure out your maintenance calories, you should tie your foods to what you want to gain so the two can align.

Have you calculated your maintenance calories yet? What’s the number? Eat within this range, watch how your body responds, and increase or decrease it accordingly.

Need More Help with Your Maintenance Calories?

Check out this guide if you want to jumpstart your weight loss journey with a 28-day metabolism plan. And if you want a consultation on how to right while abiding by your maintenance calories, you can reach me via dee@deemanded.com or drop me a contact form. Also, I am on Instagram and constantly checking my DMs. Find me here.