What are Maintenance Calories?

Maintenance calories are the amount of calories you need to consume in order to maintain your current weight, without gaining or losing any weight.

Everyone's maintenance calories are different, and depend on various factors such as age, sex, weight, height, and activity level.

How to Calculate Maintenance Calories

One common method to calculate maintenance calories is to use a formula that takes into account your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and your activity level. The Harris-Benedict equation is a commonly used formula:

• For men: BMR = 88.362 + (13.397 x weight in kg) + (4.799 x height in cm) – (5.677 x age in years)
• For women: BMR = 447.593 + (9.247 x weight in kg) + (3.098 x height in cm) – (4.330 x age in years)

After calculating your BMR, you can then multiply it by an activity factor to get your maintenance calories. The activity factor takes into account how much exercise you do on a daily basis. Here are some common activity factors:

• Sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2
• Lightly active (light exercise 1-3 days per week): BMR x 1.375
• Moderately active (moderate exercise 3-5 days per week): BMR x 1.55
• Very active (hard exercise 6-7 days per week): BMR x 1.725
• Super active (very hard exercise, physical job or training 2 times per day): BMR x 1.9

Why is Knowing Your Maintenance Calories Important?

Knowing your maintenance calories is important because it allows you to maintain your weight without gaining or losing any weight. If you want to lose weight, you need to consume less calories than your maintenance calories, and if you want to gain weight, you need to consume more calories than your maintenance calories.

Synonyms and Related Terms

• Caloric Maintenance
• Maintenance Energy Intake
• Energy Balance