How Many Calories Should I Eat to Lose Weight?
A clean answer to the question that gets buried under a thousand caveats.
Most adults lose weight at a healthy pace eating about 500 fewer calories per day than they burn. That usually lands somewhere between 1,400–1,800 kcal/day for women and 1,800–2,200 kcal/day for men — but the right number depends on your size and activity. The fastest way to get a personalized estimate is the Daily Calorie Calculator.
The Two Numbers You Need
Two numbers determine your weight-loss target. That’s it.
- Your maintenance calories. What your body burns in a day, without trying to lose or gain. Activity, age, sex, weight, and a little bit of metabolism luck go into this.
- Your deficit. How much less than maintenance you eat. The classic number is 500 kcal/day, which produces about 1 pound of fat loss per week.
That means the answer to “how many calories should I eat to lose weight?” is: maintenance minus 500.
So we need maintenance.
Maintenance, Without Math
Use the TDEE Calculator — it does the formula for you. But if you want a quick sanity check, here’s a rough version:
| Bodyweight | Lightly Active Maintenance | Active Maintenance |
|---|---|---|
| 130 lbs | ~1,800 kcal | ~2,000 kcal |
| 150 lbs | ~2,000 kcal | ~2,250 kcal |
| 175 lbs | ~2,250 kcal | ~2,500 kcal |
| 200 lbs | ~2,500 kcal | ~2,800 kcal |
| 225 lbs | ~2,750 kcal | ~3,050 kcal |
Subtract 500. That’s your weight-loss target.
A 150-lb lightly active woman? About 2,000 maintenance, 1,500 to lose. A 200-lb active man? About 2,800 maintenance, 2,300 to lose.
Why 500 (and Not 1,000)
You’ll see programs pushing 1,000 kcal/day deficits — the “two pounds a week” fantasy. Don’t.
A larger deficit doesn’t burn fat faster than your body can release it. Once you go past about 1% of bodyweight per week, the extra weight you lose is muscle, water, and glycogen — not the stuff you wanted to lose. You also tank your training, your sleep, and your patience.
A 500 kcal/day deficit produces about 0.5–1 lb of fat loss per week for most people. Slower than it sounds. Faster than what you’ll quit on.
The Floor
Don’t go below 1,200 kcal/day for women or 1,500 kcal/day for men without a doctor’s input. Below those floors, getting enough protein and micronutrients gets harder than the food math is worth.
If your TDEE minus 500 lands below the floor, do this instead:
- Eat at the floor (1,200/1,500)
- Add weekly walking — 30 min/day adds ~150 kcal of burn for a 150-lb person
- Recalculate after 10 lbs lost — your maintenance will have dropped, but your floor stays the same
What Most People Get Wrong
They eyeball portions. A “cup of rice” estimated by sight is often closer to two. Weigh dry, at least for the first few weeks. (How to weigh raw vs cooked.)
They forget liquid calories. A latte is 200 kcal. Two daily lattes plus a “small” glass of wine = ~600 kcal you didn’t log. The most common reason for not losing weight on a deficit is silent intake.
They quit week 2. Your scale won’t move in a straight line. Day-to-day weight fluctuates 1–3 lbs from water and food in transit. The trend matters; any single morning weigh-in does not.
What to Do This Week
- Plug your numbers into the Daily Calorie Calculator.
- Round to the nearest 50.
- Aim for that average across 7 days, not every single day.
- Reassess after 4 weeks. If the trend is moving 0.5–1% bodyweight per week down, you’re dialed in.
That’s it. The simplest way to start is to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 1,200 calories a day enough to lose weight?
For most adults, no — 1,200 kcal is below the floor where you can comfortably get protein, fiber, and micronutrients without engineering every meal. Most people lose weight just as fast at 1,400–1,600 kcal with much less hunger and a much better chance of sticking with it.
How quickly should I lose weight?
About 0.5–1% of your bodyweight per week is the sweet spot — fast enough to feel real progress, slow enough to keep your strength and your sanity. For most people that's 0.5–2 lbs per week.
Why does the deficit get smaller as I lose weight?
Smaller body, smaller calorie burn. A 200-lb person at maintenance might eat 2,400 kcal; the same person at 175 lbs might eat 2,200. Recalculate your numbers every 10–15 lbs of progress.
Can I just eat under 1,500 calories every day?
You can — but you don't need to engineer it that tightly. Hit a weekly average. One 1,800 kcal day surrounded by six 1,500 kcal days is the same as seven days at 1,543 kcal.
Keep going: Crunch the numbers · Browse all articles · Find a meal plan · Easy recipes