# How Many Calories Do I Burn a Day? (TDEE & Maintenance Calculator)

> Find your maintenance calories with a free TDEE calculator, plus reference tables by weight and activity — and why your real burn differs from the formula.

Canonical: https://www.mycallie.app/en/blog/maintenance-calories-tdee-calculator
Published: 2026-06-30 · Updated: 2026-06-30
Author: Md Sadab Wasim · Source: https://www.mycallie.app

If you want one number to build everything else on — losing, gaining, or holding — it's your **maintenance calories**, also called TDEE. Here's how to find it, why it differs from the formula, and how to use it.

## The 30-second answer

**Your maintenance calories (TDEE) are the total you burn in a day.** Eat that number and your weight stays flat. For most adults it lands between 1,800 and 2,800 kcal. Use the calculator below for your personal estimate, then read on for why the formula is only a starting point.

[Interactive calorie deficit calculator — use it on the page.]

## BMR vs TDEE: what the calculator is actually doing

Two numbers do all the work:

- **BMR (basal metabolic rate)** — what your body burns at complete rest, just to keep your heart, brain, liver, and kidneys running. For most people this is **60–70% of total daily burn**.
- **TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)** — BMR plus everything else you do. That's the number you eat against.

TDEE breaks down into four parts:

| Component | What it is | Share of TDEE |
|---|---|---|
| BMR | Resting/organ function | 60–70% |
| NEAT | Non-exercise movement: walking, standing, fidgeting, chores | 15–30% |
| TEF | Thermic effect of food (energy to digest) | ~10% |
| EAT | Exercise (deliberate training) | 5–15% for most people |

The surprise for most people: **NEAT, not the gym, explains most of the difference** between a "fast metabolism" and a "slow" one. Two people of identical size can differ by 400+ kcal/day purely in how much they move around outside of workouts.

## Maintenance calories — quick reference

These use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation at a **moderate activity multiplier (1.55)**. Find the row closest to you, then adjust with the activity guide below.

### Women

| Age | Weight (kg) | Height (cm) | Maintenance (kcal) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 55 | 160 | 1,890 |
| 25 | 70 | 168 | 2,120 |
| 35 | 60 | 162 | 1,930 |
| 35 | 75 | 170 | 2,150 |
| 45 | 65 | 163 | 1,940 |
| 45 | 80 | 170 | 2,160 |
| 55 | 70 | 162 | 1,950 |

### Men

| Age | Weight (kg) | Height (cm) | Maintenance (kcal) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 70 | 175 | 2,680 |
| 25 | 85 | 182 | 2,930 |
| 35 | 75 | 176 | 2,660 |
| 35 | 90 | 183 | 2,900 |
| 45 | 80 | 177 | 2,650 |
| 45 | 95 | 184 | 2,880 |
| 55 | 85 | 176 | 2,620 |

### Adjust for your activity level

| If you are... | Multiply BMR by | Or adjust the table by |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary (desk job, little exercise) | 1.2 | −20% |
| Lightly active (1–3 days/week) | 1.375 | −10% |
| Moderately active (3–5 days/week) | 1.55 | baseline |
| Very active (6–7 days/week) | 1.725 | +10% |
| Athlete / physical job | 1.9 | +20% |

Most people overestimate this. Studies repeatedly show people rate themselves "moderately active" when they're really "lightly active." When in doubt, pick the lower bracket — you can always add calories if the scale isn't moving.

## Why your real burn differs from the number

The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is the most accurate general formula available, but it was built on population averages. Your number can drift from it for real reasons:

- **Muscle mass** — more lean tissue raises BMR. Two people at 75 kg can differ by 150+ kcal based on body composition alone. (If you know your body-fat %, the Katch-McArdle formula is more precise.)
- **NEAT variability** — fidgeters and pacers burn hundreds more calories a day than still people, often without noticing.
- **Adaptive thermogenesis** — after sustained dieting, BMR drops a little *below* what your new body size predicts. This is real but small (typically 50–100 kcal), and reverses when you eat at maintenance again.
- **Age and hormones** — BMR declines slowly with age, largely tracking muscle loss.

This is why the formula is a **starting point, not a verdict**. The scale is the real calorimeter.

## How to find your true maintenance in 3 weeks

1. **Eat at your calculated TDEE** for 2–3 weeks, logging consistently.
2. **Weigh daily, take the weekly average.** Daily weight swings ±1 kg from water, sodium, and glycogen — the average cancels the noise.
3. **Read the trend:**

| Weekly average | What it means | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Holding steady | Your estimate is correct | This is your true maintenance |
| Slowly rising | Real TDEE is lower than estimated | Subtract ~150 kcal |
| Slowly falling | Real TDEE is higher (or you under-logged) | Add ~150 kcal |

After 3 weeks you'll have a maintenance number grounded in *your* data — far more reliable than any equation.

## A word on "starvation mode"

There is no switch that makes your body stop losing weight if you eat too little. What's real is **metabolic adaptation**: as you get smaller and diet longer, your burn drifts down, which shrinks your deficit over time. The fix isn't to eat even less — it's to know your *current* maintenance and keep a sensible gap below it. If weight loss stalls completely, see [why you've stopped losing weight](/blog/weight-loss-plateau).

## Don't trust your smartwatch's calorie number

Wrist-worn trackers are good at counting steps and heart rate, but bad at calories. They overestimate exercise burn by **20–40%** on average ([Shcherbina et al., 2017](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5524096/)). If you eat back the "active calories" your watch reports, you can quietly erase the deficit you're trying to create. Use the watch for activity trends, not as your eating target.

## How Callie handles this for you

Tell Callie your age, height, weight, and activity, and it sets your maintenance and goal targets using Mifflin-St Jeor — then **re-tunes them automatically every two weeks** based on your real weight trend, so you never have to recalculate after losing a few kilos. Because you log meals by photo, voice, or text instead of searching a database, your intake data is accurate enough for that auto-tuning to actually work.

## Related reading

- [Calorie Deficit Calculator & Complete Guide](/guides/calorie-calculator) — turn your maintenance number into a fat-loss target.
- [How Many Calories Should I Eat to Lose Weight?](/blog/how-many-calories-to-lose-weight) — the deficit side of the equation.
- [How Long Does It Take to Lose Weight?](/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-lose-weight) — realistic timelines built on your TDEE.
- [Why Have I Stopped Losing Weight?](/blog/weight-loss-plateau) — what to do when maintenance drifts down.

## Sources

1. Mifflin MD, et al. (1990). "A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals." *Am J Clin Nutr* 51(2):241-247.
2. Shcherbina A, et al. (2017). "Accuracy in Wrist-Worn, Sensor-Based Measurements of Heart Rate and Energy Expenditure in a Diverse Cohort." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5524096/
3. Levine JA (2002). "Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT)." *Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab* 16(4):679-702.
4. Rosenbaum M, Leibel RL (2010). "Adaptive thermogenesis in humans." *Int J Obes* 34:S47-S55.