How to Calculate Calorie Deficit for Weight Loss

What is a Calorie Deficit for Weight Loss?

Losing weight often feels like a guessing game of endless cardio and strict food restriction, but the actual science behind shedding pounds is surprisingly straightforward. To lose fat consistently, you don’t need a trendy diet; you simply need to master the math of energy balance. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn exactly how to calculate a calorie deficit for weight loss that fits your lifestyle, keeps your energy high, and delivers lasting results.

Eat Less Calories then you use and you will lose weight!

How to Calculate Your Calorie Deficit for Weight Loss

So there are a couple of things you need to know. First is your BMR or basal metabolic rate. This is how many calories you need at rest to run the basic functions of the body.

There are many calculators online but I like to use the following formula to get a more accurate number. This is from the Harris-Benedict formula.

For Men over 18:   66  +  (6.3  x body weight in pounds)  +  (12.9  x height in inches)  –  (6.8  x  age in years).

For Women over 18:    655  +  (4.3  x weight in pounds)  +  (4.7  x  height in inches)  –  (4.7  x  age in years).

So for me, the number of calories my body needs to survive at rest would calculate out as follows:

66  +  (6.3  x  192)  +  (12.9  x  70)   –  (6.8  x  57)   or   66  +  (1209.6)  +  (903)  –  (387.6)   or  1725 Calories per day.

So know that we know what our BMR is we need to add in two more factors. How many calories we burn at work (or in motion) and how many calories we burn during metabolic process. Both of these are important when you want to calculate your own calorie deficit for weight loss.

For activity you simply need to add up all of your daily activities and their caloric count and add them into the amount of calories above. For my sake I do not worry much about what I am doing outside of my job since it is mostly at a desk so I just count my workout calories.

They are about 300 calories per day for Cardio and about 150 calories per day for Weightlifting or 450 Calories per day. On days when I play Pickleball I burn about 700+ active calories. So to average it out I will say that my total activity calories are about 550 Calories.

Next is how much your body will use to digest the food you consume. This is normally done by taking the total amount of calories you consume in a day  X  .10  or 1725 Calories BMR  +  550 Calories Activity  =  2275 Calories x  .10   or  228 Calories per day, this is the calories I burn just digesting food.

So in total I need 1725 +  550  + 228 = 2503 calories each day if I want to maintain my weight at the current level of activity. Now I have that level of activity 6 days a week but one day I rest so we need to add that in as well to get an accurate daily caloric intake.

TIP # 1 See A Sample Meal Plan that I Use Here…

Choosing the Right Deficit: Aggressive vs. Sustainable Weight Loss

The rule of thumb is you need to lose 3500 calories which is equal to one pound of FAT. So most people like to try to lose this much by the week, so I will calculate it this way.

So to calculate my weekly caloric intake I take the total days I work out and add those caloric numbers and then the one day I rest I add that caloric number which is a different amount. For me this is the best way to calculate my personal calorie deficit for weight loss.

So it would look like this:

To loose 1 pound of fat I would need to reduce that by 3500 calories (16918-3500) or 13418 calories per week, about a 20% reduction, or total amount of calories I can eat is 1917 Calories per day.

I like to do a little better than that and do a 25% deficit in calories or 12688 calories per week which equates out to 1813 calories per day.

TIP # 2 – a constant theme in weight loss and changing to a fitter life is making a change to the diet which can seem drastic. To avoid fat loss stalling, boredom, and cravings a CHEAT MEAL or DAY is recommended.

That is why I reduced my calories further. So one day I can eat the things I have been craving with the additional 1000 calories.

See why it is a good idea to have a cheat meal here…

A word of CAUTION I am not a doctor or physician or medical professional. I am just letting you know what has worked for me. Before you start any program for weight loss, exercise, or health change you should consult a doctor. See our website disclaimer here.

TIP # 3 is that as you lose weight you need to remember to recalculate. I would do so at every 5-10lbs because your daily caloric intake will go down as you lose weight.