How Many Calories Should You Eat To Lose Weight?

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to estimate how many calories you should eat to lose weight, a question I’m often asked. When someone says, “lose weight,” I take it to mean, “lose fat without losing muscle.” The #1 reason why people do not lose weight is because they eat too many calories.

To lose weight, you must eat fewer calories than you burn. This is a scientific fact!¹²³ I discuss this more in my article – How To Break A Weight Loss Plateau. The basic equation to calculate how many calories you should eat to lose weight is:

Calorie Burn – Calorie Deficit = Target Calorie Intake

Seems simple enough, right? To solve this equation, we need to estimate your calorie burn and calorie deficit, which is Step 1 and Step 2. Eating fewer calories than you burn is easier said than done, which is why we’ve written so many articles on BuiltLean.com to make this process easier for you.

Step 1 – Calculate How Many Calories You Burn A Day

While calculating calorie burn can be tricky as I describe in detail in How to Calculate Your Calorie Burn, here’s a quick way to estimate our calorie burn:

Body Weight in lbs x 14 = Total Daily Calorie Burn

Or

Body Weight in kg x 31 = Total Daily Calorie Burn

The equations above assumes (1) you have a sedentary job, (2) you exercise moderately 3-5x per week and (3) your body fat is around 20%-25%. Don’t worry too much if you are not perfect with your estimate, just move to the next step.

Step 2 – Determine Your Calorie Deficit A Day

So what is a calorie deficit? When you burn more calories than you consume, you have a calorie deficit. Eating more calories than you consume is a calorie surplus. Many people will choose a random daily calorie deficit say 500, or 1,000 calories, but I strongly recommend NOT doing this, because you can easily make it unsustainable. Instead, choose a calorie deficit percentage range of 20%-35% fewer calories than your total calorie burn.

For example, take a guy who is 190 lbs and wants an aggressive calorie deficit to lose weight. He would take his total daily burn of 2,660 (190 lbs x 14) and apply a 30% calorie deficit, which would be 800 calories (30% x 2,660). His target calorie intake is 1,860 calories per day (2,660 daily calorie burn – 800 calorie deficit).

Now if you multiply your daily calorie deficit by 7, you get your total weekly calorie deficit. Since 1 lbs of fat has 3500 calories, you can estimate how many lbs of fat you can lose each week (usually 1-2 lbs) based on your weekly calorie deficit.

A shorthand calculation for calorie intake to lose weight is bodyweight in pounds x 10, or bodyweight in kilograms x 22.

You will arrive at a very similar number as going through these 3 steps. I think going through these steps, however, helps you understand the process of losing fat better. Most health organizations recommend men don’t eat below 1,600 calories and women don’t eat below 1,200 calories, but keep in mind this is a law of averages approach. It really depends on how many calories you burn (see: How to Calculate Calorie Burn to estimate your BMR).

So how large of a deficit should you create? The leaner you are the lower your calorie deficit percentage should be (15-20%) whereas for people who have a lot of weight to lose, a 35% deficit could work well.

Step 3 – Track Your Progress

To validate that you have estimated your calorie burn properly and are eating the right calorie level, we need a way to track your progress. I’m a big fan of tracking body weight with Monday Morning Weigh Ins for all guys and some women (depends on if you are comfortable).

If you have any issues with weighing yourself, then monitor how your clothes are fitting, or use a body fat caliper to measure body fat changes over time. Weighing yourself is a proxy for body fat loss.

If you are eating ample protein, moderate carbs, and strength training, it is highly likely if the number on the scale creeps downward that you are losing only fat while keeping your valuable muscle. Measuring your body fat percentage too frequently, such as once per week makes it difficult to discern changes.

So have we found the holy grail of losing fat? Simply choose a target calorie intake and voila, you get a lean body?

Losing fat is more complex than simply “calories in and calories out” and establishing a target calorie intake. For optimal fat loss, you should also consider the quality of calories, timing of calories, and breakdown of calories (protein, carbs, and fat).

Finally, positive hormonal and metabolic changes from exercise can accelerate losing fat and have a HUGE impact. In my experience, understanding how many calories you should eat by establishing a target intake, even just as a rough guide is crucial to successfully losing fat and maintaining body composition, and is actually more important than quality, timing, and breakdown of calories (research confirms this as well).

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