To lose weight, eat 300–500 calories below your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). For most women that lands around 1,400–1,800 kcal/day and for most men around 1,800–2,300 kcal/day — but your exact target depends on your age, weight, height, and activity. A 500 kcal/day deficit produces roughly 0.5 kg (1 lb) of fat loss per week.
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Step 1: Find your maintenance calories (TDEE)
Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the number of calories you burn in a day — at rest, plus digestion, plus everyday movement and exercise. Eat at your TDEE and your weight stays the same. Eat below it and you lose. So weight loss starts with knowing this one number.
TDEE is built from your BMR (the calories you'd burn lying in bed all day) multiplied by an activity factor. The most accurate formula in common use is Mifflin-St Jeor:
Mifflin-St Jeor (BMR)
If you'd rather not do this by hand, our free TDEE & Calorie Calculator runs this exact formula and gives you targets for losing, maintaining, and gaining — plus a macro breakdown — in one step.
Step 2: Subtract your deficit
A calorie deficit is the gap between what you eat and your TDEE. Roughly 7,700 calories equals 1 kg of body fat, so the size of your daily deficit sets how fast you lose:
| Daily deficit | Weekly loss | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 250 kcal | ~0.25 kg/wk | Lean people, muscle preservation |
| 500 kcal | ~0.5 kg/wk | Most people — the standard recommendation |
| 750 kcal | ~0.7 kg/wk | Higher starting body fat, faster results |
| 1,000 kcal | ~1 kg/wk | Only with medical supervision |
For almost everyone, a 500 kcal/day deficit is the sweet spot: fast enough to stay motivating, slow enough to protect muscle and stay sustainable. If you're already lean or lift weights, lean toward 250–300. Want the deficit and timeline mapped to a goal weight? Use the Calorie Deficit Calculator.
A worked example
TDEE = 1,479 × 1.55 = 2,292 kcal/day (maintenance)
500 kcal deficit → eat ~1,792 kcal/day → lose roughly 0.5 kg/week
Calorie floors — don't go too low
It's tempting to slash calories for faster results, but very low intakes backfire: you lose muscle along with fat, your energy and training suffer, hunger becomes unmanageable, and you rebound. As a general rule, don't drop below 1,200 kcal/day (women) or 1,500 kcal/day (men) without medical guidance.
If your calculated target is already near these floors, choose a smaller deficit and add activity instead — walking more raises your TDEE without making you hungrier the way hard cardio does.
Step 3: Track it so it actually happens
A calorie target is only useful if you hit it, and the biggest source of error isn't the formula — it's underestimating what you eat. Studies repeatedly find people undercount intake by 20–40%. That's why a tracker matters: it turns "I think that was about 600 calories" into an actual number.
Once you have your target from the calculator, set it as your daily goal in a tracking app and log everything — including oils, sauces, and drinks. The remaining-calories number does the discipline for you.
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Eat 300–500 calories below your TDEE. For most women that's around 1,400–1,800 kcal/day and for most men around 1,800–2,300 kcal/day, but your exact number depends on age, weight, height, and activity. Calculate yours with the free TDEE & Calorie Calculator.
1,200 kcal/day is the lowest recommended intake for most women (1,500 for most men). It creates weight loss for nearly everyone, but going below these floors risks muscle loss, nutrient gaps, and rebound hunger, and should only be done under medical supervision. Most people lose weight comfortably on a smaller deficit at a higher intake.
A safe, sustainable rate is 0.5–1% of body weight per week — about 0.4–0.8 kg for an 80 kg person. Faster loss increases muscle loss and is harder to maintain. Choose the slower end if you train hard or want to preserve muscle.
Most often it's underestimated intake (weigh and log everything, including oils and drinks), water-weight fluctuations masking fat loss (use weekly averages), or a TDEE estimate that's slightly high (after 2–3 weeks with no change, drop your target by 100–150 kcal). See our guide on how accurate calorie tracking is.