How Many Calories Do You Need to Maintain Your Weight?

Your maintenance calorie level is the daily energy intake at which your weight stays the same over time — neither rising nor falling. It is determined by your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), which combines your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) with the energy you burn through daily movement and activity.

The components that shape your number

• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): the calories your body burns simply to keep you alive — breathing, circulation, cell repair. This accounts for roughly 60–70% of total energy expenditure for most people.
• Activity level: a sedentary desk-based day burns far fewer calories than a physically active one. Common activity multipliers range from around 1.2 (sedentary) to 1.9 (very active).
• Body composition: muscle tissue burns more energy at rest than fat tissue, so two people with the same body weight can have meaningfully different maintenance levels.

Why this matters on a GLP-1 journey

Many people on Mounjaro or Wegovy eat significantly less during treatment — sometimes well below what they will need to maintain weight once their dose stabilises or if the medicine is eventually stopped. Understanding how many calories it takes to maintain your weight helps you plan ahead rather than being caught off guard. Knowing your target also helps you understand your individual calorie needs as your body changes throughout treatment.

A note on how much a calorie deficit or surplus matters

Weight shifts when intake and expenditure fall out of balance. To understand the relationship in practical terms, it helps to know how many calories equate to a pound of body weight — a useful reference for setting realistic expectations. The main point: maintenance is not a fixed number forever. As your weight changes, your maintenance level shifts too, so recalculating periodically gives you a more accurate picture.

Calculating a number is only useful if you can actually hit it day to day — and that is where consistent tracking makes all the difference. GLP Trackr's food logging feature is built around the reality of GLP-1 appetite changes: reduced hunger can make it easy to undershoot your calorie target without realising it, which matters especially if you are trying to maintain rather than lose weight.

The AI photo-scan food logging in GLP Trackr lets you point your camera at a meal and get an instant calorie and protein breakdown — no manual searching required. Combined with barcode scanning and a search database, logging what you eat takes seconds rather than minutes, which makes it far easier to stay consistent.

Once you set a calorie target in the app, your daily intake is tracked against it automatically. The app also lets you set protein, water, and fibre goals alongside calories, which is particularly relevant on a GLP-1 journey where eating less makes hitting protein targets harder. Your daily check-in and weekly insights show how your intake patterns relate to your weight trend over time, helping you spot whether your current level is genuinely at maintenance or drifting in either direction.

For a broader view of your calorie and nutrition goals, explore the GLP Trackr calorie calculator hub for tools and guidance across the full journey.

GLP Trackr helps you observe and record your patterns — it is not a substitute for advice from your prescriber or doctor, who can guide you on appropriate targets for your individual situation.

Ready to stop guessing and start seeing your maintenance picture clearly? Download GLP Trackr on the App Store or Google Play and explore it free for 7 days.