Calorie Deficit Calculator

You can make use of this calorie deficit calculator to figure out the number of calories you should be aiming for in order to lose weight.

It’s worth noting if you’re looking to gain weight you can also use this calculator, just be sure to click weight gain instead of weight loss.

It’s easy to use; just provide your body details and activity level.

Then select weight loss or weight gain and the calculator will do the rest.

It will give you an estimation of your daily calorie target required to lose weight or gain weight.

What is a Calorie Deficit?

Before using the calorie deficit calculator you might be wondering what exactly is a calorie deficit?

It’s when you eat fewer calories than your body needs for its basic functions and daily activities.

In a calorie deficit, your body taps into its reserves, which can include both body fat and muscle, to get the extra energy it requires, leading to weight loss.

For example, if you burned 2,000 calories yesterday but only ate 1,500 calories, that’s a 500-calorie deficit.

Your body had to break down some of its stored energy to make up for the 500-calorie shortage.

How much weight you lose in this process depends on various factors, including the ratio of fat to muscle energy burned.

Our bodies continuously use energy for essential functions like breathing, heart rate maintenance, and temperature regulation – this is known as the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

For most people, 60 to 75 percent of daily calorie expenditure comes from BMR.

The remainder of calorie burn comes from physical activity, such as going to the gym or just moving around during the day.

Physical activity can make up 20 to 30 percent of daily calorie expenditure.

About 5 to 10 percent of daily calorie burn is due to digesting food.

Altogether, these three factors – BMR, physical activity, and digestion – add up to your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).

To shed pounds, you must consume fewer calories than your TDEE, resulting in a calorie deficit.

Conversely, when you eat more calories than your TDEE, it leads to weight gain as those extra calories are stored as fat.

Now, you might have heard that a 500-calorie deficit means losing a pound a week.

This is a common misconception based on the “3,500-calorie rule,” which assumes that a pound of body fat contains about 3,500 calories.

However, research published in the International Journal of Obesity suggests that this rule greatly overestimates actual weight loss and sets unrealistic expectations.

Despite this evidence, it continues to circulate on many health-related websites.

The 3,500-calorie rule doesn’t take into account important factors, such as the physiological changes that happen during weight loss.

Eating 3,500 fewer calories doesn’t equate to burning 3,500 calories of body fat exclusively.

Muscle tissue can also be lost, depending on your starting body composition.

People with higher initial body fat tend to burn more fat compared to muscle tissue.

Muscle tissue is a big contributor to your BMR, and as it decreases, so does your daily calorie burn.

This is why it’s so important to incorporate regular resistance training to maintain your muscle tissue, whilst also maintaining a balanced diet with sufficient protein.

Engaging in muscle-strengthening activities like resistance training can help your body prioritise fat loss over muscle loss.

You’ve probably seen some people who have lost lots of weight without doing any resistance training.

The subsequent result if often a lack of any muscle tone or definition.

A loss of muscle tissue means a slower BMR which puts you at a greater risk of regaining the weight plus more.

What do the Calculations Show?

The maths used in this calorie deficit calculator is based on a fancy equation created by Kevin Dennis Hall, Ph.D., and a group of researchers at the National Institute of Health.

The model is pretty accurate at guessing how weight loss works because it takes into account all the science behind what happens when your body is in a calorie deficit.

The science includes changes in things like body fat, lean body mass, glycogen, sodium, fluid levels, and how your body burns calories when you eat.

For example, if you’re a 37-year-old guy, about 6 feet tall, not very active, and weigh 265 pounds, your body burns about 2,600 calories every day.

To stay the same weight, you’d need to eat the same amount of calories.

But let’s say you want to lose 85 pounds to be healthier.

So, you decide to eat 1,600 calories a day, creating a 1,000-calorie deficit.

It sounds like you’d lose 2 pounds a week, right?

Well, according to the old “3500-calorie rule,” you’d think you’d lose that weight in about 43 weeks.

But using Hall’s maths, it shows it’ll actually take nearly 70 weeks to lose the same weight.

That’s because weight loss doesn’t follow a straight line like the old rule says.

It’s more like a roller coaster ride, with ups and downs, because your body is complicated like that.

Hall’s formula gets closer to how it really works.

How Low Should My Calorie Deficit Be?

As a general rule, women shouldn’t eat less than 1,200 calories a day, and guys shouldn’t go below 1,500 calories.

This is because your body needs a certain amount of food to get the right nutrients and energy.

If you eat too little, your weight loss might slow down, and it could be harder because your body thinks it’s not getting enough food.

When you eat too few calories, your metabolism, which is how fast your body burns calories, gets slower.

It’s like your body’s way of saving energy because it thinks there’s not enough food around.

This happens even if you’re trying to lose weight, and a slower metabolism means you burn calories at a slower rate.

Yes we do want to make sure we are in a calorie deficit in order to lose weight.

However it’s important for your health, wellbeing and muscle preservation that you do not go into too much of a deficit.

Rest assured, this calorie deficit calculator will give you a good estimation of the number calories for you to aim for.

Thanks for checking out my calorie deficit calculator.

Keep pushing.

Speak soon.

READ THIS NEXT

Calorie Deficit Calculator

Calorie Calculator