How many calories should I eat to maintain my weight?

Reviewed 1 November 2026 · How these numbers are calculated

At 8,000 steps a day, a 40-year-old woman of 70 kg (154 lb) and 165 cm (5′5″) needs about 1,890 calories a day to keep her weight steady, and a 40-year-old man of 85 kg (187 lb) and 178 cm (5′10″) about 2,440. Your steps make the biggest everyday difference; regular workouts add more.

Maintenance calories by daily steps

Calories a day to maintain weight, age 40
Steps	Woman60 kg	Woman75 kg	Man75 kg	Man90 kg
2,000	1,600	1,790	2,100	2,300
5,000	1,670	1,880	2,190	2,410
8,000	1,730	1,960	2,280	2,520
10,000	1,780	2,020	2,350	2,590
12,000	1,830	2,080	2,410	2,660
15,000	1,890	2,160	2,500	2,780

Women 165 cm (5′5″), men 178 cm (5′10″), no workouts. Individual results vary by about ±10%.

What workouts add

Workouts are averaged over the week. Three hours of weight training a week adds about 90 calories a day for a man of 75 kg (165 lb); two 90-minute padel games add about 160. See lifting weights and padel.

How the number is built

Instead of an "activity level" multiplier, Deficitly adds up the parts: your resting burn (BMR), 10% for basic daily life, your steps, your workouts, and about 10% for digesting food. The details are on how Deficitly calculates.

Why multipliers often get it wrong

"Moderately active" means different things to different people, and a desk worker who runs three times a week is not the same as someone on their feet all day. Steps and real workouts take the guessing out.

Finding your true maintenance

Every equation is an estimate. If you eat about the same for 3–4 weeks and your weight trend stays flat, that's your real maintenance. If it drifts, adjust by 100–200 calories. To lose weight from here, see how many calories to eat to lose weight.