Maintenance Calories (MC) are the number of calories that it takes to maintain your body weight. MC can be a good metric to know, which is why we display it so that each Carbon member understands where their current metabolism and metabolic rate are at and how it is improving. In this article, we will explain how your MC works while on a reverse diet and maintenance goal and where there may be some confusion about how MC works.

Your reverse diet starts at the Start maintenance number. Your macro targets will increase weekly from there as long as you don't gain too much weight.

The Current MC number is quite variable and will fluctuate depending on how your weight changes each week. This number will not be very accurate until you have at least four compliant check-ins in a row. Until that point, disregard that number. It's there to see how your metabolism has changed over an extended period of time.

After you complete a check-in with Carbon on a reverse diet, the first thing you will see is your current MC on the “coach” tab. This can be seen in the image above. It is important to note that this Current MC value is NOT the same as your actual calorie target. In order to see your calorie target, you can go to the “diary” tab or swipe left once on the top of the “coach” tab to see the “Current Macros” screen.

We do this because we want Carbon members to see how their metabolism is improving with their reverse diet, and the best way to do this is to show the change that your MC is having week after week!

Note: Don’t over analyze your current MC

Like mentioned above, your current MC is pretty inaccurate until you have about 4 compliant check-ins in a row on the same goal. Because of this, we wouldn’t even really worry about looking or worrying about the current MC until you reach that point.

A common question asked when members are on a maintain weight goal is, why are my calories different from the Current MC number? (current MC will not be shown at check-in on a maintain weight goal, but can be seen on the “me” tab under “Maintenance Calories”)

The coach doesn't adjust your macro targets based on estimated maintenance because it can fluctuate quite a bit. To make the best adjustments possible, the coach looks at how your weight changes and trends over time instead. We call this your Average MC, which is why there may be a bit of a difference between your Current MC number and the actual amount of calories that Carbon has you on while on a maintenance goal. That being said, Carbon has an acceptable weight range given to you while you are on a maintain weight goal. So, if your weight falls within that range, there are no calorie or macro adjustments necessary.