What are maintenance calories, and how do you find yours?

We'll walk through both, then a worked example so you can plug in your own numbers.

New to tracking? Our beginner's guide on how to count calories covers the basics in four steps.

The two numbers that make up TDEE: BMR × activity

TDEE isn't one measurement — it's a calculation built from two smaller ones.

Step 1: your BMR

BMR (basal metabolic rate) is roughly what you'd burn lying in bed all day — breathing, circulating blood, keeping your organs running. The most widely used formula for estimating it is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, derived from a 1990 study of nearly 500 people and still the equation most dietitians default to today (Mifflin et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1990):

• Men: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5
• Women: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161

A 34-year-old woman, 65kg, 165cm: (10 × 65) + (6.25 × 165) − (5 × 34) − 161 = 650 + 1,031 − 170 − 161 = 1,350 kcal/day. That's her BMR — before she's taken a single step.

Step 2: the activity multiplier

BMR alone underestimates what you actually burn, because it ignores movement. Multiply it by a factor for how active you genuinely are (not how active you'd like to be):

Activity level	What it actually means	Multiplier
Sedentary	Little to no structured exercise	1.2
Lightly active	1–3 workouts a week	1.375
Moderately active	3–5 workouts a week	1.55
Very active	6+ workouts a week, or a physical job	1.725

This is the step where people are least honest with themselves — "moderately active" gets picked a lot more than it's actually true. If you're not sure, round down; overestimating TDEE is the single most common reason a "calorie deficit" doesn't move the scale.

A worked example: same BMR, different TDEE

Take two people with the identical 1,350 kcal BMR from above.

• Person A works a desk job and doesn't exercise: 1,350 × 1.2 = 1,620 kcal/day maintenance.
• Person B has the same BMR but trains 4 times a week: 1,350 × 1.55 = 2,093 kcal/day maintenance.

Same body, same BMR, a 473-calorie gap in maintenance — purely from activity. This is why a generic "2,000 calories a day" guideline on a cereal box means almost nothing for any specific person: your actual number depends on your body and how you move, not a population average.

BMR vs TDEE vs maintenance calories: which number do you actually eat?

These three terms get mixed up constantly, and the mix-up has a real cost — people find their BMR, eat that much, and wonder why they feel terrible. Here's how they relate:

Term	What it means	Our example (65kg woman, trains 4×/week)	Eat this much?
BMR	Basal metabolic rate — what you burn at complete rest	1,350 kcal	No — it's the floor, not a target
TDEE	Total daily energy expenditure — BMR × your activity multiplier	2,093 kcal	Yes, to hold your weight
Maintenance calories	Same number as TDEE — the everyday name for it	2,093 kcal	Yes — it is TDEE

So: BMR is not your maintenance calories — it's the starting point the maintenance number is built from, and depending on activity TDEE runs about 20–70% above it. TDEE and maintenance calories are the same thing; "TDEE" is the textbook term, "maintenance" is what people say. To lose weight you eat below maintenance (TDEE), never below BMR for any length of time — our calorie deficit guide covers how far below.

Why the number moves — and why it's an estimate, not a fact

Mifflin-St Jeor and multiplier tables are good starting points, but they're population averages, not a measurement of you. Genetics, muscle mass, sleep, and even how NEAT (non-exercise activity — fidgeting, pacing, taking stairs) fluctuates day to day can shift your real number by several hundred calories either way. The NIH's Body Weight Planner builds a similar energy-balance model and is worth trying as a second estimate if you want to cross-check.

The honest way to use a TDEE number: treat it as your starting point, not gospel. Eat at that estimate for two to three weeks, track your weight, and adjust — if you're not moving the direction you expected, nudge the number by 100–150 calories and reassess. And recalculate from scratch every time you lose or gain roughly 5kg (10lb), since a lighter body needs less energy to maintain itself.

How Bocco helps

Bocco calculates your maintenance calories from the same Mifflin-St Jeor formula the moment you finish onboarding — no spreadsheet, no separate calculator. From there it's simple: log your meals from a photo, and your daily total is compared against that target automatically. If your weight trend says the estimate is off, you adjust the target directly in Bocco rather than guessing at a new formula.