Maintenance calories for a 200 lb man

For a 200 pound man there is no single maintenance number, because your activity swings it by hundreds of calories. That is why the example above shows a range instead of one figure.

The pattern is worth understanding. Your resting burn, the calories your body uses just to keep running, is the base. Then you multiply by how active you are. A desk job with little exercise lands a 200 pound man around 2,250 a day. Training a few days a week pushes it toward 2,900. A physically demanding week can carry it past 3,200.

The honest trap here is activity level. Almost everyone rates themselves one notch too high. If you sit most of the day and lift three times a week, you are closer to lightly active than very active, because a few gym hours do not outweigh many sedentary ones. When in doubt, pick the lower estimate. It is easier to add calories later than to wonder why the scale is not moving.

Height, age, and current weight all move this too, so the range above is specific to the example stats. Put your own numbers in the calculator, pick your activity honestly, and treat the result as a starting point you adjust from over a couple of weeks.