Hint Maintenance Calories Calculator

TLDR

• Consuming maintenance calories daily is essential to sustain your current healthy body weight.
• Use the Harris-Benedict Equation and consider your activity factor to accurately determine your maintenance calories.
• If math isn't your thing, you can make it easy by downloading the Hint app, which calculates your maintenance calories after creating your profile.
• The Hint app also allows you to tailor your maintenance calorie goals to align with your specific health and fitness objectives.

What are Maintenance Calories?

Maintenance calories, also known as maintenance energy intake or maintenance calorie intake, refer to the amount of daily calories a person needs to consume to maintain their current body weight. 

These calories cover the energy requirements for various bodily functions, including basic metabolic functions, physical activity, and other daily activities.

When you consume the same number of calories as your maintenance calories, your body weight tends to remain stable over time. 

Weight Gain

If you consistently eat more calories than your maintenance level, you will likely gain weight because the excess energy is stored as fat. 

Weight Loss

Conversely, if you consistently eat fewer calories than your maintenance level, you are likely to lose weight as your body taps into stored fat for energy.

How to Calculate Maintenance Calories?

Calculating maintenance calories can be somewhat complex because it depends on age, gender, weight, height, activity level, and metabolic rate. 

One commonly used method is the Harris-Benedict Equation, which provides an estimate of daily calorie needs based on these factors:

For men:

BMR = 88.362 + (13.397 x weight in kg) + (4.799 x height in cm) - (5.677 x age in years)

Maintenance calories = BMR x Activity Factor

For women:

BMR = 447.593 + (9.247 x weight in kg) + (3.098 x height in cm) - (4.330 x age in years)

Maintenance calories = BMR x Activity Factor

The Activity Factor is a number that represents your level of physical activity. Commonly used values include:

Sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2

Lightly active (light exercise or sports 1-3 days a week): BMR x 1.375

Moderately active (moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week): BMR x 1.55

Very active (hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week): BMR x 1.725

Super active (very hard exercise and a physically demanding job): BMR x 1.9

It's important to note that these equations provide estimates, and individual variations exist. 

Calculate Maintenance Calories Using the Hint App

If you want to calculate maintenance calories without doing the math, just download the Hint app and enter your age, height, weight, gender, and activity level. You will get your maintenance calories as the daily calorie intake goal. 

Your maintenance calories will be visible on the home screen. Eating less than Maintenance Calories helps Maintain Your Healthy Weight and prevent weight gain. Log your meals regularly and be on track.

If you want to edit your maintenance calories for weight loss or gain, click on the more tab, go to the goals screen and edit your daily calorie intake goal. Avoid reducing the calorie goal by more than 25%, extreme calorie goal could lead to deficiency.

Currently, this feature is only available on the Android version of the Hint app.

Seek Expert Advice

To determine your specific maintenance calorie level accurately, you may need to adjust your calorie intake based on your actual progress and needs.

Remember that factors like age, muscle mass, and changes in activity level can affect your maintenance calorie requirements, so it's essential to monitor your weight and adjust your calorie intake accordingly to meet your goals, whether they involve maintaining, gaining, or losing weight. 

Consulting with a qualified dietitian or nutritionist will help you get an accurate estimate of maintenance calories and personalized guidance to achieve your goals.