Does maintenance change?

jamieparadis20
jamieparadis20 Posts: 129 Member
edited November 2024 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi guys,
If I am less active one day, is my maintenance lower? Or if I work out a ton, does maintenance go up? If so, how do I calculate? Newbie question:)

Replies

  • H_Ock12
    H_Ock12 Posts: 1,152 Member
    I have my maintenance set at sedentary, as my job is sendentary and I'm there 5-6 days per week. I log exercise to account for additional activity on days I work out or am home and do yard work or am more active.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited January 2017
    You do burn more calories on days when you are more active. Some like to eat more on days that they are more active and others like to average out their calories over the course of the week.

    To get an estimate, you can use an online TDEE calculator. You can use your own numbers after you track for a while to get a better idea of your personal maintenance calories.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,195 Member
    If you use MFP you can set your goal to maintain and then add exercise and it will give you additional calories just like it does when you are at a deficit. That way you will eat more on more active days. That is a good way to go if your activity and exercise are not always consistent each day.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Yes every day is slightly different, some may be enormously different, but obviously you don't have to be at perfect maintenance calories daily anyway.

    How are you currently accounting for your exercise calorie burn?
  • jamieparadis20
    jamieparadis20 Posts: 129 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Yes every day is slightly different, some may be enormously different, but obviously you don't have to be at perfect maintenance calories daily anyway.

    How are you currently accounting for your exercise calorie burn?

    I am doing a recomp and the website I looked at said not to eat back excercise calories. I calculated a daily maintenance of 1600 then it said to just eat to that no matter what excercise I do. My non strength training days I eat at a deficit at 1400
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    jamieparadis20 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    Yes every day is slightly different, some may be enormously different, but obviously you don't have to be at perfect maintenance calories daily anyway.

    How are you currently accounting for your exercise calorie burn?

    I am doing a recomp and the website I looked at said not to eat back excercise calories. I calculated a daily maintenance of 1600 then it said to just eat to that no matter what excercise I do. My non strength training days I eat at a deficit at 1400

    That would be a TDEE site I assume - TDEE does include your exercise calories, it's just averaged out rather than variable day to day (the way this site works).
    The site would have asked you to estimate your normal weekly exercise routine so hope you answered that correctly.

    1600 sounds very low maintenance for an active young person!

  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    You could adjust your calories in daily, or you could look at a weekly average.
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