How many calories per day: finding your maintenance level

How many calories per day you need to stay at your weight is called your maintenance level. For an active man that often sits between 2,500 and 3,000 kcal, for an active woman between 2,000 and 2,400 kcal. That number is your anchor for both fat loss and gaining.

I start every athlete at this number. Without your maintenance you do not know whether you eat too much or too little, you just guess.

What are maintenance calories?

Maintenance calories are the number of calories at which your weight stays stable. You eat exactly as much as you burn, so you do not gain and do not lose. It is the same as your total daily energy use, your TDEE. Know this number and you know exactly how much to cut to lose fat or add to gain.

Your maintenance is not a fixed number for life. It moves with your weight, your muscle mass and how much you train.

So you check it again when your body or your routine changes a lot.

How many calories per day for a man or woman?

An average active man sits around 2,500 to 3,000 kcal per day, an active woman around 2,000 to 2,400 kcal. Men usually carry more muscle mass and a higher resting metabolism, so a higher maintenance. Your exact number depends on your weight, height, age and activity.

The Voedingscentrum, the Dutch nutrition authority, keeps an average of 2,500 kcal for men and 2,000 kcal for women. The table sets two athletes side by side per activity level.

If you would rather not calculate, our calorie needs calculator does it for you. The full explanation is in calculating your calorie needs.

How do you find your maintenance level?

The calculator gives an estimate, but you find your real maintenance by measuring. Eat at your estimated number for two weeks and track your weight. If your weight stays the same, you are at maintenance. If it rises or falls, adjust by 100 to 200 kcal. That way you move from an estimate to your figure.

Weigh yourself every morning at the same time and take the weekly average. Single days swing with water and gut content, the average does not.

Take an athlete who starts at 2,600 kcal and gains half a kilo in two weeks. His maintenance then sits lower, toward 2,400 kcal. More on the pitfalls of tracking in counting and tracking calories.

What changes your maintenance over time?

Your maintenance drops when you lose weight and rises when you build muscle mass. Age plays a part too: from 30 your resting metabolism falls gradually, partly through loss of muscle mass. And when you sit in a deficit for a long time, your body runs more efficiently. Together that means you need to recheck your number now and then.

That efficiency during long diets is called metabolic adaptation. A review by Trexler and colleagues (2014) shows how energy expenditure adapts under sustained energy restriction.

Muscle mass works the other way. More muscle lifts your resting metabolism and your maintenance slightly, which is what makes strength training so valuable.

How do you see in your blood whether your metabolism plays along?

If your weight stalls unexpectedly, your metabolism can play a role. Your thyroid drives a large part of your resting metabolism. Values like TSH and free T4 show whether it works normally. Your blood sugar and insulin add context too. Discuss a deviating value with your GP.

If fat loss will not come despite a clean deficit, look beyond calories. Read our piece on measuring metabolic health and on weight loss and your blood values.

If you want your base in view, our 360 health blood test measures your thyroid and blood sugar among others.

My advice: calculate your maintenance, test it for two weeks and adjust on the trend of your weight. That way you build on a number that truly fits, not on a guess. The full approach to nutrition around your training is in our plan for muscle growth and recovery.

References

1. Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1990. PMID: 2305711.
2. Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE, Norton LE. Metabolic adaptation to weight loss: implications for the athlete. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2014. PMID: 24571926.
3. Voedingscentrum. How many calories do I need per day? 2024.

Disclaimer

Every blood test result includes a professional assessment by a BIG-registered doctor. This article gives general information and is not a substitute for medical advice. A blood test is a tool to walk into the conversation with your GP better informed, not a diagnosis in itself. For treatment decisions, discuss your results with your GP.