Maintenance Calories Calculator: Use Your Weight Trend

How this maintenance calories calculator works

This maintenance calories calculator estimates the daily intake that would have held your weight steady, using your own log instead of a formula. Enter your average daily intake in kcal and your weigh-ins, one per line as a date and a weight, in lb or kg. The page fits a trend line through every weigh-in, converts the trend to calories, and adds that back to your intake.

If your weight trended down, you were using more than you ate, so your maintenance is higher than your intake. If it trended up, your maintenance is lower. If it held flat, your maintenance is about what you ate.

The maintenance formula

Maintenance (kcal/day) = average intake − weight trend (kg/day) × 7,700

The weight trend is the slope of a least-squares line through all of your weigh-ins against the day they were taken. A falling trend is a negative number, so subtracting it adds calories. Weights entered in pounds are converted to kilograms at 0.45359237 kg per lb before the trend is fitted.

A line through every weigh-in is steadier than comparing your first and last weigh-in, because one high or low reading at either end can move a two-point comparison by more than 100 kcal/day.

Why 7,700 kcal per kilogram

EVR counts each kilogram of weight change as about 7,700 kcal, the familiar 3,500 kcal per pound. Research by Kevin Hall shows that figure fits modest changes in people with more body fat but runs high for leaner people, so for a lean person whose weight is falling 0.5 kg a week this estimate can be about 50 to 150 kcal/day too high. It is a rough conversion, not a measurement.

The best-known problem with the 3,500 rule is using it to forecast future weight, because the body adapts as weight changes. This page does not forecast. It uses the weight change that already happened, so only the energy per kilogram matters here.

How much data you need

EVR shows no number until your weigh-ins cover at least 14 days and include at least 8 weigh-ins, and it labels any estimate under 28 days as early. These limits are EVR’s rule of thumb. No published source we found sets a minimum.

The reason is scale noise. Water, stored carbohydrate and salt move the scale from day to day, while a real trend of 0.5 kg a week adds up to only 2 kg over four weeks. More days and more weigh-ins give the line more to work with. Weigh in under the same conditions each time, and leave out the first week after a big change in what or how much you eat, when stored carbohydrate and water shift the most.

Your intake should cover the same days as the weigh-ins. Log as many of those days as you can.

Maintenance calorie examples

The default log shows 9 weigh-ins over 28 days, falling from 180.0 lb to 177.3 lb, with an average intake of 2,400 kcal/day. The trend line falls 0.70 lb a week, which is 0.318 kg a week. That is 0.318 × 7,700 ÷ 7, about 349 kcal/day drawn from stored energy, so maintenance is 2,400 + 349, about 2,749 kcal/day.

Someone eating 2,400 kcal/day whose trend falls 0.5 kg a week was using about 550 more than they ate, so their maintenance is about 2,950. Someone eating 2,800 whose trend rises 0.25 kg a week was storing about 275 a day, so their maintenance is about 2,525. A flat trend at 2,200 gives 2,200.

With made-up day-to-day noise added to the first case, the line through 28 daily weigh-ins gives about 2,983 instead of 2,950. With only 10 days of the same log, the page shows no number.

Formula estimates and other calculators

The TDEE calculator estimates maintenance from a formula instead, using sex, age, height, weight and an activity level. Its default man comes out at 2,763 kcal/day. A formula describes people like you. Your log describes you, if it is accurate.

The calorie deficit calculator uses the same 3,500 kcal per pound figure, starting from a maintenance number you enter. The calorie surplus calculator does the same in the other direction.

Limits of the estimate

The estimate can only be as accurate as your intake log. Logged intake often runs below real intake, and every missing calorie in the log lowers the estimate by the same amount. The 7,700 kcal figure is rough, and the same figure is used for gains and for drops.

The result describes the period you logged. Your maintenance can change as your weight, activity and routine change, so a new log may give a different number.

Sources

Hall KD. What is the required energy deficit per unit weight loss? Int J Obes. 2008;32(3):573–576. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0803720. PMID 17848938.

Hall KD, Chow CC. Why is the 3500 kcal per pound weight loss rule wrong? Int J Obes. 2013;37(12):1614. doi:10.1038/ijo.2013.112. PMID 23774459.

Hall KD, Sacks G, Chandramohan D, et al. Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance on bodyweight. Lancet. 2011;378(9793):826–837. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60812-X. PMID 21872751.

The 14-day, 8-weigh-in and 28-day limits are EVR’s rule of thumb and are not taken from these papers.

Sources last checked: 9 October 2026.

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