That calculator is why I don't go by calculators for anything but a starting point, and then see what I have to eat to get to something more like maintenance. It gives me 1280 calories as a target, supposedly for a 20 percent deficit. That would make my maintenance calories 1600--that's my wither away, go crazy and eat my neighbour's brains calorie intake, even at 1600. I don't think I've ever failed to lose weight at 1600 calories, no matter how lean I was--but I've certainly failed to consistently eat so low, which sort of makes the point moot.

The athlete calculator gives me more realistic numbers. But the choices for activity--from slothful to overtraining--aren't really exact, and they pretty much can't be.