Your caloric maintenance is the number of calories that you consume daily (more precisely, over the week) which allows you not to move weight level.
That is to say, by consuming this number of calories, you do not lose weight, you do not gain weight. This will be called your maintenance calories.
From these maintenance calories, it is therefore possible to define 2 different objectives:
Weight loss: The goal is therefore to create a caloric deficit, that is to say to consume fewer calories than its maintenance calories. To lose weight, it is enough to have intakes lower than your energy needs. Coupled with weight training, we will talk more about fat loss than weight loss. Indeed, the goal is to keep a maximum of muscle mass and remove this fat so focusing only on « losing weight » would be useless.
Weight gain: The goal is therefore to create a caloric surplus, that is to say to consume more calories than its maintenance calories. To gain weight, it is enough to have intakes higher than your energy needs. Coupled with weight training, we will speak more of muscle gain than weight gain. Indeed, the goal is to gain muscle and not just weight which would include: water, fat, etc.
What you need to know is that your metabolism will gradually adapt. No matter how much you calculate your caloric maintenance, it varies depending on several factors: Weight, physical activity …
So your caloric maintenance represents your maintenance calories at an instant T. For example, if you want to lose weight as your « diet » progresses, your metabolism will adapt, and therefore slow down. The more you advance in your process, the more it will be necessary to lower your calories in order to continue losing weight.
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