TDEE for Maintenance — Women Age 35-39, Sedentary

Maintenance means eating at your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), so energy in matches energy out and body weight stays roughly stable over time. For a 35 to 39-year-old woman who is sedentary — a desk job and little or no planned exercise — the worked example below uses a body weight of 65 kg (143 lb) and a height of 165 cm, and gives a maintenance target of 1,602 kcal/day, equal to TDEE. That figure is an estimate built from a published formula, not a personal prescription: your own numbers will differ if your weight, height or daily activity differ from the example.

The worked example is the whole point of this page. Rather than quoting a single number with no working, it shows the Mifflin-St Jeor equation step by step, multiplies the result by the activity factor for a sedentary lifestyle, and then turns the total into a daily calorie target for maintenance. Use the same steps with your own measurements, or use the calculator linked below, and you will get a target matched to you rather than to the example person.

Calculate your own TDEE

Your weight, height, age and activity level are almost certainly different from the example above, so run your own numbers with the TDEE calculator. It uses the same Mifflin-St Jeor equation and the same activity multipliers shown on this page, and it also gives cutting, maintenance and bulking targets from a single set of inputs. If you only want the resting figure, the BMR calculator gives that on its own.

Related pages and tools:

The formula: Mifflin-St Jeor (1990)

The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is the most widely validated formula for estimating resting energy expenditure in adults. It was published by Mifflin et al. in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1990 (Mifflin MD et al., Am J Clin Nutr 1990;51(2):241–247), and it is the equation most calculators and many clinical settings use as a starting point. For women it is:

BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age (years) −161

For men the final term is +5 instead of −161. TDEE is then the BMR multiplied by an activity factor: 1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for lightly active, 1.55 for moderately active, 1.725 for very active and 1.9 for extremely active. These multipliers are the standard values used with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.

Working through the example for a 35 to 39-year-old woman at 65 kg and 165 cm, using age 37 (the midpoint of the 35 to 39 band):

  • 10 × 65 kg = 650 kcal
  • 6.25 × 165 cm = 1,031 kcal
  • 5 × 37 years = 185 kcal
  • Constant: −161 kcal

So BMR = 650 + 1,031 − 185 −161 = 1,335 kcal/day. That is the energy the body would use at complete rest, before any movement, digestion or exercise is counted. Multiplying by the sedentary factor of 1.2 gives TDEE = 1,335 × 1.2 = 1,602 kcal/day.

Your targets at a glance

Figure Value
BMR (Mifflin-St Jeor) 1,335 kcal/day
Activity level sedentary (×1.2)
TDEE 1,602 kcal/day
Maintenance target 1,602 kcal/day
Safety floor 1,200 kcal/day (women)

How activity level changes the number

The same 35 to 39-year-old woman at 65 kg and 165 cm has the same BMR of 1,335 kcal/day whatever the lifestyle — but TDEE moves a lot with activity:

Activity level Multiplier TDEE
Sedentary 1.2 1,602
Lightly Active 1.375 1,836
Moderately Active 1.55 2,070
Very Active 1.725 2,303
Extremely Active 1.9 2,537

The gap between sedentary and extremely active is 935 kcal a day for this person, which is why two people of the same age, sex, weight and height can need very different calorie intakes. It is also why activity level is the input people most often get wrong: be honest about a typical week, not your best week. If you sit most of the day and train three times a week, you are closer to lightly active than moderately active, and using the higher factor inflates the target. The label that fits this page — sedentary, a desk job and little or no planned exercise — is the one the 1,602 kcal TDEE is built on; if your week looks different, use the row in the table that matches your week and recalculate from there.

The three targets from one TDEE

One TDEE produces three different daily targets, depending on the goal. A deficit of about 500 kcal a day is the standard cutting size, a surplus of about 350 kcal a day is the standard lean-bulking size, and maintenance is TDEE itself:

Goal How it is set Daily target
Cutting TDEE − 500 kcal (never below the safety floor) 1,200 kcal/day
Maintenance TDEE 1,602 kcal/day
Bulking TDEE + 350 kcal 1,952 kcal/day

Safety floor applied: a full 500 kcal deficit from this TDEE would give 1,102 kcal/day, below the 1,200 kcal/day minimum for women. The cutting target is therefore held at the floor of 1,200 kcal/day, giving a real deficit of 402 kcal a day. A slower rate of loss at this level is expected and safer; do not go below the floor without medical supervision.

Note that the cutting figure is a starting estimate, not a prescription. If weight falls faster than about 1% of body weight a week, the deficit is too large and the target should come up; if it does not move for two weeks, the target or the activity level needs a second look. The bulking figure is likewise a starting point: a 350 kcal surplus supports muscle gain alongside training, but a larger surplus mostly adds fat rather than muscle.

What age 35 to 39 changes

At 35 to 39, the age term in the equation subtracts about 185 kcal a day, and muscle loss begins to accelerate if training stops — adults typically lose 3 to 8% of muscle mass per decade from their thirties onwards unless they train against it. That is why the cutting or maintenance target on this page only works as half the plan: the other half is resistance training two to four times a week, which protects the muscle that keeps resting expenditure up.

For this page's example, the practical consequence is simple: the BMR of 1,335 kcal/day and the TDEE of 1,602 kcal/day already include the age effect, because the equation subtracts 5 kcal a day for every year of age. Recalculate whenever age, weight or activity changes by a meaningful amount — every 5 kg of weight change, or every few years — because a target set at an old weight gradually becomes a surplus as the body gets lighter.

How to use the 1,602 kcal maintenance target

Start at 1,602 kcal a day and hold it for two to three weeks before changing anything. Weigh yourself three to four times a week, first thing in the morning, and compare weekly averages rather than single days — daily weight moves by a kilogram or more with water, glycogen and food volume. If the weekly average is steady within about half a kilogram, the target is right. If it creeps up for two full weeks, trim 100 to 150 kcal a day; if it drifts down, add the same amount. Maintenance is a range, not a single number, and a swing of 100 to 200 kcal either way is normal.

Protein still matters at maintenance. Aim for roughly 1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day — for the 65 kg example here that is about 104 to 143 g a day — spread across three to five meals, with resistance training two to four times a week to hold muscle. A sample day at 1,602 kcal with roughly 30% protein, 25% fat and 45% carbohydrate works out at about 120 g protein, 44 g fat and 180 g carbohydrate. That is one workable split, not a rule — the total matters most, then protein, then the rest.

The most common maintenance mistake is treating the target as a daily pass-or-fail test. Weekends, meals out and holidays all count, but what decides the trend is the weekly average. If 1,602 kcal feels like a lot of food, check whether the activity level is honest: a sedentary label only fits if the week genuinely looks like that. And remember the safety floor: even on a future cutting phase, never go below 1,200 kcal a day (women) without medical supervision.

What this number does not tell you

A TDEE estimate is a starting point, not a measurement. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation was validated on population averages, and individual resting metabolic rate varies by roughly ±10% around the prediction because of differences in muscle mass, genetics and health. Two people with identical age, sex, weight and height can have BMRs a few hundred calories apart. The equation also uses total body weight, so it is less accurate for very muscular people (it underestimates) and for people with a high body-fat percentage (it overestimates), because muscle burns more energy at rest than fat does.

Activity multipliers are blunt by design. They compress a whole week of movement, training, work and fidgeting into a single number, and they cannot capture a week that mixes desk days with long hikes, or a job that is physical some days and sedentary on others. Food intake itself also costs energy to digest — the thermic effect of food, roughly 10% of intake — which the multiplier approach folds in approximately rather than measuring. Treat the 1,602 kcal target as a hypothesis: follow it for two to three weeks, watch the weekly weight average, and adjust by 100–200 kcal based on what actually happens.

Frequently asked questions

What is the TDEE for a 35 to 39-year-old woman who is sedentary?

For the worked example on this page — 65 kg, 165 cm, age 37 — BMR is 1,335 kcal/day by Mifflin-St Jeor and TDEE is 1,602 kcal/day at the sedentary multiplier of 1.2. Your own TDEE will differ if your weight, height or activity differ; use the TDEE calculator with your own measurements.

How was the 1,602 kcal maintenance target calculated?

It starts from TDEE of 1,602 kcal/day. Maintenance equals TDEE, so the target is the TDEE itself. The cutting column in the table is held at the 1,200 kcal/day safety floor for women, because TDEE minus 500 kcal would fall below it. The target is an estimate, not a prescription.

Does TDEE fall as you get older?

Yes, slowly. In the Mifflin-St Jeor equation the age term subtracts 5 kcal a day for every year of age, so BMR falls by about 50 kcal a decade when weight and height stay the same — and in practice it often falls faster because muscle mass and daily activity tend to decline with age. That is one reason strength training matters more, not less, as the decades pass. For this 35 to 39 band the age term subtracts 185 kcal a day from the BMR.

Should I use my current weight or my goal weight in the formula?

Use your current weight. TDEE describes what your body uses now; plugging in a goal weight answers a different question — what you will need once you get there. Recalculate every 5 kg of weight change or so, because a lighter body burns fewer calories and a target set at your old weight gradually becomes a surplus.

Why is my TDEE different from another calculator's?

Different calculators use different equations (Mifflin-St Jeor, Harris-Benedict, Katch-McArdle) and different activity definitions, so results commonly differ by 100–300 kcal. That spread is normal and is another reason to treat any single figure as a starting estimate and adjust from two to three weeks of real weight data. The figure on this page is Mifflin-St Jeor with the 1.2 multiplier for sedentary activity.

What should I do if my weight stops moving at 1,602 kcal?

First check the basics: are you tracking everything, including oils, sauces, drinks and weekend meals, and has your activity actually stayed at the sedentary level? If tracking is honest and weight has been flat for two full weeks, adjust by 100–150 kcal a day in the direction you want weight to move, then reassess after another two weeks. Never drop below 1,200 kcal a day without medical supervision.

Estimates only, not medical advice. Minimum safe intakes: 1,200 kcal/day women, 1,500 kcal/day men — consult a healthcare professional before a very-low-calorie diet.