How many calories to lose weight (without starving yourself)
How to find your calorie target for weight loss: work out your maintenance calories, set a sensible deficit, and track it so the scale actually moves.
“How many calories to lose weight” has a real answer, and it is simpler than the diet industry wants you to believe. You do not need to starve, cut carbs, or buy anything. You need to eat a bit less than you burn, consistently, and track it well enough to know it is working.
The short version: find your maintenance calories, subtract 250 to 500 per day, and track your intake and weight for a couple of weeks so you can adjust. That is the whole game.
Step 1: Find your maintenance calories (TDEE)
Your maintenance level is called your TDEE, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It is everything you burn in a day: your body at rest plus all your movement and exercise. Eat at your TDEE and your weight holds steady. Eat below it and you lose. Eat above it and you gain.
You cannot measure TDEE exactly at home, but you can estimate it well. The TDEE calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the most accurate general formula, to estimate your maintenance calories from your age, sex, height, weight and activity level. That number is your starting point for everything else.
Step 2: Set a sensible deficit
Fat loss comes from an energy deficit: eating fewer calories than you burn. About 3,500 calories equals a pound of fat, so:
- 250 calories/day below maintenance leads to roughly half a pound of loss per week. Slow, easy to sustain, barely noticeable at the table.
- 500 calories/day below maintenance leads to roughly a pound per week. A solid, common target for most people.
Bigger is not better. Aggressive cuts make you hungry, tired, and more likely to quit, and they eat into muscle. A moderate deficit you can hold for months beats an extreme one you abandon in two weeks. The TDEE calculator shows these targets for you and caps very low numbers at a safety floor.
Step 3: Get enough protein
Calories decide whether you lose weight; protein and training decide how much of that loss is fat instead of muscle. In a deficit, aim for a higher protein intake to protect muscle and stay full. Our protein calculator gives a target for your body, and the macro calculator turns your calories into protein, carb and fat grams if you want the full breakdown.
Step 4: Track honestly for two weeks
Here is where most plans quietly fail. The formulas estimate the average person and can be off by about 10 percent, and it is easy to underestimate what you actually eat. So treat your first target as a hypothesis, not gospel.
Log your food and weigh yourself for two weeks. If you are losing at the pace you expected, keep going. If the scale has not moved and you have been honest, nudge calories down a little or add some movement. Weigh trends over weeks, not single days, because water weight swings hide fat loss constantly.
This tracking habit is the difference between guessing and knowing. Our weight loss motivation planner and healthy habits weight planner are built to make daily logging quick and to keep your wins visible so you stay with it.
Step 5: Recalculate as you shrink
A smaller body burns fewer calories, so the deficit you set at the start slowly shrinks as you lose weight. Recalculate your TDEE after every 10 to 15 pounds and reset your target. This is why weight loss naturally slows over time and why a plateau is usually just a signal to recheck the math, not a reason to give up.
What about BMI and “goal weight”?
BMI is a quick screen for whether your weight sits in a healthy range for your height, not a target to obsess over. If you want context, the BMI calculator shows your category and a healthy weight range. Pick a goal inside that range, then use your calorie target to get there at a pace you can live with.
Keep reading
- What is TDEE? Your maintenance calories explained
- How to track a calorie deficit without obsessing
- Why is my weight loss stalling? 5 real reasons
- Protein for weight loss: how much and why it matters
Weight loss is not a mystery and it is not a punishment. Find your maintenance calories with the TDEE calculator, eat a bit under it, protect your protein, and track honestly. The scale follows the math when you give it time.
This guide is general information, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before starting a weight loss plan, especially if you have a health condition.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
Start from your maintenance calories (the amount that keeps your weight stable) and subtract 250 to 500 per day. That leads to roughly half a pound to a pound of loss per week. A TDEE calculator estimates your maintenance number from your age, sex, height, weight and activity.
How much is one pound of fat in calories?
About 3,500 calories. That is why a daily deficit of 500 calories works out to roughly one pound of fat loss per week, and 250 per day to about half a pound.
Is 1200 calories a day enough?
For many women 1200 is used as a lower safety floor, and for men around 1500, but very low intakes make it hard to get enough nutrients and are hard to sustain. If your target drops below the floor, make the deficit smaller or add activity instead.
Why am I not losing weight in a calorie deficit?
Common reasons are underestimating what you eat, water weight masking fat loss on the scale, a maintenance estimate that is too high, or a deficit that has shrunk as you lost weight. Track honestly for two weeks and recalculate, and weigh trends over time rather than day to day.
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