What are maintenance calories?
Maintenance calories are your estimated total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. They combine resting energy needs with normal movement, exercise, and daily activity.
If your average intake matches maintenance, weight tends to stay stable over time. If you eat below it, you create a deficit. If you eat above it, you create a surplus.
Why maintenance comes first
Maintenance is the center point for most calorie goals. Weight loss and weight gain targets make more sense after you know the likely baseline, which is why the calculator above shows all three together.
For the full walkthrough — the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the activity multipliers, and why a personalised number beats a generic target like 1,200 — read our TDEE calculator guide.
- Maintain: stay near estimated TDEE.
- Gradual loss: use a small deficit.
- Gradual gain: use a small surplus.
Make the estimate practical
Coach Ivy helps you test your maintenance estimate in real life by tracking meals, calories, macros, water, and progress without making logging feel clinical.