How Many Calories per Day to Lose Weight: Full Guide

How many calories a day should you eat to lose weight? It is the most important question of any diet, and the answer is not one number for everyone: it depends on how much your body burns each day. In this guide we look at how to calculate it precisely and how to turn it into a concrete weight-loss target.

The starting point: your daily needs

To lose weight you have to eat fewer calories than you burn. The number you burn in a day is called your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and includes everything: your basal metabolism, digestion, movement and exercise. Knowing your TDEE is the first step, because the deficit for weight loss is calculated from it.

How to calculate the calories you burn

You start from your basal metabolism with the Mifflin-St Jeor formula: for men, 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) minus 5 x age plus 5; for women, the same formula but minus 161 instead of plus 5. The result is how much you burn at rest. To get your TDEE you multiply it by your activity level:

• Sedentary (little or no exercise): x 1.2
• Lightly active (1 to 3 workouts a week): x 1.375
• Moderately active (3 to 5 workouts): x 1.55
• Very active (6 to 7 workouts): x 1.725

Example: a woman of 65 kg, 168 cm, 30 years old, moderately active has a basal metabolism of about 1,400 kcal and a TDEE of about 2,170 kcal. That is how many calories she burns in a day.

How many calories to lose weight: the deficit

Once you know your TDEE, to lose weight you subtract a deficit. The most common options:

• Small deficit (about 300 kcal): slow, very sustainable loss, ideal if you have only a few kg to lose
• Moderate deficit (about 500 kcal): about 0.5 kg a week, the most recommended compromise
• Aggressive deficit (about 700 to 1,000 kcal): faster loss, but harder to maintain and best done with a professional

Back to the example: with a TDEE of 2,170 kcal and a 500 deficit, the daily target is about 1,670 kcal to lose weight in a healthy way.

How many calories to lose 5 or 10 kg

Since 1 kg of fat equals about 7,700 kcal, losing 5 kg needs a total deficit of about 38,500 kcal and 10 kg about 77,000 kcal. The daily calorie amount does not change, the time does: with a 500 kcal daily deficit, 5 kg takes about 2.5 to 3 months and 10 kg about 5 to 6 months. Anyone promising 10 kg in a few weeks is talking mostly about water, not fat.

The minimum you should not go below

Cutting calories too far backfires: it slows your metabolism, causes muscle loss and becomes unsustainable. As a general rule, do not go below 1,200 kcal a day for women and 1,500 for men without guidance from a doctor or nutritionist. A moderate, steady deficit beats an extreme, short-lived one.

The mistakes that stall weight loss

• Underestimating portions: oils, sauces and dressings add calories almost nobody counts
• Not recalculating your TDEE as you lose weight: your needs fall and the old deficit is no longer enough
• Watching the scale every day instead of the weekly average, which is far more reliable
• Offsetting workouts by eating more and wiping out the deficit

In short: calculate your TDEE, subtract a deficit of 300 to 500 kcal, stay above the minimum and track what you eat. With these numbers clear, losing weight stops being a blind attempt and becomes a measurable path.