Macros for Maintenance
Your real maintenance calories, split into protein, carbs, and fat.
Daily calories for maintain weight
2668 cal
Protein
170g
Carbs
330g
Fat
74g
Worked example, step by step
Two reference people, run through exactly the same formulas as the calculator above. Swap in your own numbers and the steps are identical.
Alex
Male · 30 · 5'9" · 170 lb · moderately active
- Weight
- 170 lb × 0.4536
- 77.1 kg
- Height
- 5'9" = 69 in × 2.54
- 175.3 cm
- BMR
- 10 × 77.1 + 6.25 × 175.3 − 5 × 30 + 5
- 1,721 cal
- TDEE
- 1,721 × 1.55 (moderately active)
- 2,668 cal
2,668 cal as balanced
| Protein | 170 lb × 1 g | 170 g | 25% |
| Fat | 25% of 2,668 ÷ 9 | 74 g | 25% |
| Carbs | the rest ÷ 4 | 330 g | 50% |
Sam
Female · 30 · 5'5" · 140 lb · lightly active
- Weight
- 140 lb × 0.4536
- 63.5 kg
- Height
- 5'5" = 65 in × 2.54
- 165.1 cm
- BMR
- 10 × 63.5 + 6.25 × 165.1 − 5 × 30 − 161
- 1,356 cal
- TDEE
- 1,356 × 1.375 (lightly active)
- 1,864 cal
1,864 cal as balanced
| Protein | 140 lb × 1 g | 140 g | 30% |
| Fat | 25% of 1,864 ÷ 9 | 52 g | 25% |
| Carbs | the rest ÷ 4 | 210 g | 45% |
Maintaining weight, so the calorie target is the TDEE itself; a cut or bulk would subtract or add its adjustment first.
What the activity levels actually mean
The multiplier is where most people go wrong, usually by picking a level too high. A desk job plus three gym sessions a week is "lightly active", not "moderately active" -- the gym hour is real, but the other 23 are sitting. Here is Alex's TDEE at every level, from the same 1,721-calorie BMR:
| Level | Who it fits | Multiplier | Alex's TDEE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedentary | Little to no exercise, desk job | × 1.2 | 2,066 cal |
| Lightly active | Light exercise 1-3 days/week | × 1.375 | 2,367 cal |
| Moderately active | Moderate exercise 3-5 days/week | × 1.55 | 2,668 cal |
| Very active | Hard exercise 6-7 days/week | × 1.725 | 2,970 cal |
| Extra active | Very hard exercise and a physical job | × 1.9 | 3,271 cal |
The gap between sedentary and very active is 904 calories a day for the same person -- more than a whole meal. When in doubt, pick the lower level and let the two-week weigh-in correct you.
Gram targets by calorie level
With this split, protein is fixed by bodyweight (170 g for a 170 lb person, shown here) and fat is 25% of calories, so only carbs move as calories change. That is deliberate: when you cut, carbs absorb the deficit and protein stays put.
Gram targets assume you weigh food. If a recipe is in cups and tablespoons, CookSubs converts cups to grams by ingredient so the number you log matches the number here.
| Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,600 | 170 g | 130 g | 44 g |
| 1,800 | 170 g | 168 g | 50 g |
| 2,000 | 170 g | 205 g | 56 g |
| 2,200 | 170 g | 243 g | 61 g |
| 2,500 | 170 g | 299 g | 69 g |
| 2,800 | 170 g | 355 g | 78 g |
| 3,200 | 170 g | 430 g | 89 g |
After two weeks: how to adjust
Every number on this page is an estimate of the average person with your stats. You are not the average person, and the only way to find your real number is to eat at the estimate and watch the scale. The rules that make that work:
- Weigh daily, judge weekly. Same scale, same time, after the bathroom, before food. Daily readings swing 2-4 lb on water alone; compare weekly averages, not days.
- Give it 14 days. The first week of any change is mostly water and glycogen. The second week is the first honest read.
- Then move 100-200 calories, not 500. Trending down when you meant to hold? Add 100-200. Trending up? Subtract 100-200. Small moves, then another two weeks.
- Recalculate when your weight changes by 10-15 lb. Your BMR moves with your bodyweight, so a target set months ago is stale.
- Keep protein fixed, flex carbs and fat. Protein is the one macro tied to keeping muscle; it is the last thing to cut and the first to hit.
Common mistakes
- Counting the workout twice. The activity multiplier already includes your training. Adding the calories your watch says you burned on top of it double-counts, often by 300-600 a day.
- Treating the number as exact. Mifflin-St Jeor is accurate to within about 10% for most healthy adults. For Alex that is a 267-calorie band either side of 2,668.
- Eating at BMR. BMR is what you burn asleep and fasting. Eating that little for long is a crash diet with a scientific-sounding name; the deficit belongs under TDEE, not under BMR.
- Rounding macros to the gram. Food labels are legally allowed to be 20% off. Hitting protein within 10-15 g and calories within 100 is precise enough; anything tighter is false accuracy.
Keep going
- Maintenance calories are just your TDEE; the TDEE calculator shows how that number would shift if your activity level changed. TDEE Calculator
- Ready to move off maintenance? The macros-for-cutting page uses this same calorie number as the starting point for its deficit. Macros for Cutting
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "maintenance" actually mean here?
Eating at your real TDEE -- the exact number of calories your body burns in a day -- so your weight holds steady instead of trending up or down.
Do I still need a protein target if I'm not trying to change weight?
Yes -- maintenance calories don't guarantee you're eating enough protein. This still scales protein to bodyweight (about 1g per pound) so your body composition can improve even while your weight stays flat.
Why calculate this if I'm not cutting or bulking?
It's the real baseline everything else is measured against -- useful before starting a cut or bulk, or any time you just want to know your actual number instead of guessing.
How do I find my true maintenance?
Eat at the calculated number for two weeks, weighing daily and averaging each week. If the weekly average is flat, that is your maintenance. If it drifts, move by 100-200 calories and repeat. Two rounds of this gives a number more accurate than any formula, because it is measured on you.
What is reverse dieting, and do I need it after a cut?
Raising calories gradually (100-150 a week) from the cut level back up to maintenance. The metabolic benefit is smaller than it sounds, but the practical one is real: it lets you catch the point where the scale stops falling without overshooting into a surprise gain. Most people can simply jump to the maintenance estimate and adjust from there.