What Are My Maintenance Calories — and How Do I Find Them?

Maintenance calories are estimated by combining two things: your basal metabolic rate (BMR) — the energy your body burns at rest just to keep you alive — and an activity multiplier that accounts for how much you move each day. The result is often called your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).

What goes into the calculation?

• Weight — heavier bodies generally burn more calories at rest
• Height — a factor in most standard formulas
• Age — metabolic rate tends to decrease gradually with age
• Sex assigned at birth — affects baseline muscle mass and hormonal profile
• Activity level — a sedentary office day burns far fewer calories than a physically active one

Common formulas (such as the Mifflin-St Jeor equation) feed these inputs into a BMR estimate, which is then multiplied by an activity factor — typically ranging from around 1.2 (very sedentary) to 1.9 (very active). The result gives a reasonable estimate of your maintenance calories. It is worth treating it as a useful starting figure rather than a precise target, because individual metabolism varies and changes over time.

Why this matters on a GLP-1 journey

GLP-1 medicines like Mounjaro (tirzepatide) and Wegovy (semaglutide) commonly reduce appetite and food noise, meaning many people naturally eat less without much effort. Understanding roughly where your maintenance level sits helps you see whether you are in a calorie deficit — which is typically what drives weight loss — or closer to maintenance, which is where you want to be once you reach your goal. For a deeper look at how a deficit fits in, see our guide to understanding a calorie deficit.

If you want to go further, you can also explore how to work out your maintenance calories step by step or use a dedicated tool to work out your maintenance calories directly.

Knowing your maintenance number is only useful if you can see how your actual eating compares to it — and that is where logging becomes genuinely valuable. GLP Trackr's AI food photo scan lets you point your camera at a meal and get an instant calorie and protein breakdown, which makes logging realistic even when appetite is low and meals are small and irregular.

Once you have a rough maintenance figure, you can set it as a calorie target inside the app. Your daily food log then shows you in real time whether you are under, at, or above that number — no mental arithmetic required. The app also lets you track protein and other macros alongside calories, which matters on a GLP-1 journey where eating less makes hitting protein goals harder.

Over time, your weight trend in the app will tell you whether your estimate is accurate: if your weight is holding steady, you are close to maintenance; if it is drifting down, you are likely in a deficit. The full guide to maintenance calories covers how to adjust your estimate based on real results.

GLP Trackr is an informational and tracking tool — it is not a substitute for personalised guidance from your prescriber or a registered dietitian. If you are unsure what calorie level is right for your situation, your healthcare professional is the right person to ask.

Ready to see how your daily eating lines up with your maintenance level? Download GLP Trackr on the App Store or Google Play — your first 7 days are completely free.