How Many Calories to Eat to Lose Weight

How Many Calories Should You Eat to Lose Weight?

To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns each day - typically 300 to 500 fewer calories than your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). That creates a calorie deficit that forces your body to draw on stored fat for fuel. The exact number of calories you need depends on your current weight, height, age, sex, and physical activity level.

Why There Is No Single "Magic Number" of Calories

You have probably seen headlines claiming 1200 calories is the answer, or that 1500 is the universal target. Neither is true. The number of calories that creates a healthy deficit for a 90 kg man who runs four times a week is completely different from the number that works for a 60 kg woman who has a desk job. Calories need to be calculated individually, not guessed.

Two numbers matter most here:

• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): The calories your body burns just to stay alive - breathing, circulation, cell repair. This is your baseline even if you did nothing but lie in bed all day.
• Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): Your BMR multiplied by an activity factor that accounts for movement, exercise, and daily physical activity. This is your true maintenance calorie intake.

Once you know your TDEE, losing weight is a matter of eating consistently below it.

Step-by-Step: How to Calculate Your Calorie Intake for Weight Loss

Step 1 - Estimate Your BMR

The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is one of the most widely used formulas for estimating BMR:

• Men: (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) - (5 x age) + 5
• Women: (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) - (5 x age) - 161

For example, a 35-year-old woman who weighs 75 kg and stands 165 cm tall has a BMR of roughly 1,540 calories per day.

Step 2 - Multiply by Your Activity Level

Physical activity has a massive impact on how many calories you burn each day. Use these multipliers to get your TDEE:

• Sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2
• Lightly active (1-3 days of exercise per week): BMR x 1.375
• Moderately active (3-5 days per week): BMR x 1.55
• Very active (hard exercise 6-7 days per week): BMR x 1.725
• Extremely active (physical job plus daily training): BMR x 1.9

Using the same example, if that woman exercises three to four times a week, her TDEE is approximately 1,540 x 1.55 = 2,387 calories per day. That is her maintenance level - the number of calories that would keep her current weight stable.

Step 3 - Apply a Sensible Calorie Deficit

A deficit of 300-500 calories below TDEE is the sweet spot for most people. It is aggressive enough to produce visible fat loss while still being sustainable and protecting muscle mass.

• 300-calorie deficit: Slower, easier to stick to, good for people close to their goal weight
• 500-calorie deficit: Around 0.5 kg of fat loss per week, the most common recommendation
• 750-calorie deficit: Suitable for people with a higher starting weight and plenty of cushion in their calorie budget

In the example above, the woman's target calorie intake for weight loss would land between 1,887 and 2,087 calories per day - not some arbitrary 1,200-calorie crash diet.

For a detailed breakdown of how deficits work for women specifically, see Calorie Deficit for Women: How to Lose Fat.

How Current Weight Affects Your Calorie Target

Your current weight is one of the most important inputs in any calorie calculation. Heavier individuals naturally have a higher BMR because their bodies require more energy to maintain basic functions. This means someone who weighs 100 kg will have a significantly higher TDEE than someone who weighs 65 kg - and therefore has more room to create a deficit without going dangerously low.

This also means your calorie target is not fixed forever. As you lose weight, your TDEE falls, and the deficit that was working in month one may become a maintenance level by month three. Recalculate every 4-6 weeks or whenever your progress stalls for more than two consecutive weeks.

What Happens If You Cut Too Many Calories?

Eating far below your calorie needs creates problems that work against your health and your goals:

• Muscle loss: When calories are severely restricted, your body breaks down muscle tissue for energy alongside fat.
• Metabolic adaptation: Your body becomes more efficient at using fewer calories, slowing the rate of fat loss over time.
• Nutrient deficiencies: Very low calorie intakes make it nearly impossible to hit your targets for protein, vitamins, and minerals.
• Rebound eating: Extreme restriction almost always leads to periods of overeating, wiping out the deficit and sometimes creating a surplus.

As a general rule, women should rarely eat below 1,200 calories per day and men should not go below 1,500 - and even those floors are appropriate only for smaller, less active individuals.

Protein: The Most Important Macro When Eating in a Deficit

When your calorie intake drops, your protein intake becomes critically important. Protein keeps you full, preserves lean muscle mass, and has a higher thermic effect than carbs or fat - meaning your body burns more energy just digesting it.

A target of 1.6-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is well-supported and should be your first priority when setting up your macros. Hit your protein goal first, then divide the remaining calories between carbohydrates and fat based on your preferences and training style.

Platforms like Trainera.fit make this easier by automatically calculating your macro targets alongside your calorie goal, so you are not just tracking one number in isolation.

The Role of Physical Activity in Your Calorie Equation

Physical activity does not just burn extra calories during the workout - it also raises your TDEE and helps protect muscle while you are in a deficit. This is why combining a moderate calorie reduction with regular exercise is almost always more effective than dieting alone.

You do not need to spend hours in the gym. Research consistently shows that a mix of resistance training and moderate cardio produces better body composition outcomes than cardio alone. For a complete approach, check out Calorie Deficit: The Complete Fat Loss Guide for advice on pairing nutrition with training.

Even non-exercise physical activity - walking, standing, taking the stairs - adds up and can account for hundreds of extra calories burned per day. Do not underestimate the power of simply moving more throughout your day.

How to Track Your Calorie Intake Without Obsessing

Tracking calories does not mean weighing every gram of food forever. For most people, a few weeks of consistent logging builds enough awareness to make better choices intuitively. Here are some practical habits that make tracking sustainable:

• Log your food before you eat it, not after, so you can adjust portions in advance
• Weigh foods in grams rather than using cup measurements for accuracy
• Prepare and log meals in bulk to save time throughout the week
• Allow yourself a buffer of plus or minus 100 calories - perfection is not required
• Focus on weekly averages rather than panicking over one high-calorie day

Apps and platforms that combine calorie tracking with workout logging - like Trainera.fit - help you see both sides of the energy equation in one place, which makes it much easier to stay on track without the mental load of managing multiple tools.

A Realistic Timeline: What to Expect

A 500-calorie daily deficit produces roughly 3,500 calories of deficit per week - which corresponds to approximately 0.45 kg of fat. Over 12 weeks, that adds up to around 5-6 kg of fat loss. In practice, the number on the scale will fluctuate because of water retention, digestive contents, and hormonal shifts - but the trend over several weeks should be downward.

Expect faster progress in the first few weeks (partly water loss) and a natural slowdown as you get leaner. If progress genuinely stalls for two to three weeks despite consistent tracking, either reduce your calorie intake slightly or increase your physical activity to widen the deficit again.

Key Takeaways

• Calculate your TDEE first using your current weight, height, age, and activity level
• Subtract 300-500 calories to find your target calorie intake for weight loss
• Prioritise protein at 1.6-2.2 g per kg of body weight to preserve muscle
• Recalculate your numbers every 4-6 weeks as your weight changes
• Pair your calorie deficit with resistance training for the best body composition results
• Never drop below 1,200 calories (women) or 1,500 calories (men) without medical supervision