Maintenance caloriesEstimated calories to hold your current weight
--Calorie guide
How Many Calories Should I Eat to Lose Weight?
Here is the straight answer: find your maintenance calories, then eat about 500 below that to lose roughly 1 lb (0.45 kg) per week. The calculator below does the maths for your body. But the number it gives you is a starting estimate, not a verdict. You adjust it from what the scale actually does.
Most calorie advice fails for a simple reason: it gives you a number and acts like the number is the hard part. It is not. The hard part is eating near that number on a normal Tuesday, after a bad night's sleep, when you are travelling and hungry. So this guide gives you the number, and then spends most of its time on the part that actually decides the outcome.
Run the calculator first. Then read why the floor matters, why you should treat the number as a draft, and why protein and adherence move the scale more than decimal-place precision ever will.
Calorie calculator for weight loss
Enter your details. The calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation to estimate maintenance calories, then shows three deficit targets and the weekly loss each one tends to produce.
No tracking app
Units:
Mild deficit--~250/day below · ~0.5 lb/week
Moderate deficit--~500/day below · ~1 lb/week
Aggressive deficit--~750/day below · ~1.5 lb/week
One or more targets were raised to the safe floor (about 1200 for women, 1500 for men). Below that it is hard to hit enough protein and nutrients, so a gentler deficit is the better call.
A moderate deficit is the sane default. Pick aggressive only if you have a lot to lose and your sleep, training, mood, and hunger still hold up. The floor is a general caution, not a personal prescription.
How the calculator works: BMR, TDEE, and the deficit
Three plain steps sit under the number.
1. BMR (basal metabolic rate). This is what your body burns at rest just to keep you alive. The calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the most reliable simple formula we have: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5 for men, and the same minus 161 for women.
2. TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Your BMR multiplied by an activity factor. This is your maintenance: roughly the calories that hold your weight steady. A desk worker sits near 1.2 times BMR, someone training hard most days sits closer to 1.7.
3. The deficit. Eat below maintenance and your body covers the gap from stored energy. Because about 3500 calories equals 1 lb of fat, a 500-per-day gap averages roughly 1 lb (0.45 kg) per week. That is the moderate tier. Mild (about 250) is gentler and easier to live with; aggressive (about 750) is faster but harder to sustain and easier to overshoot. If a target would drop below the safe floor, the calculator raises it back up.
Want to compare maintenance numbers or just check your TDEE on its own? Use the TDEE calculator. For how a deficit actually turns into fat loss, see calories in, calories out explained.
The safe-floor caution: do not just chase the lowest number
The instinct is to drag the number as low as you can stand. Resist it. As a rough general caution, women should not sit below about 1200 calories and men below about 1500 without medical supervision. These are not magic lines, and they should be individualized, but they exist for a real reason.
Below the floor, two things go wrong. First, you cannot reliably hit enough protein, fibre, vitamins, and minerals, so you lose more muscle and feel worse. Second, very low intake is hard to repeat, so people swing between starving and binge eating, and the weekly average creeps back to maintenance. A slightly larger, more comfortable deficit that you actually keep beats a brutal one you abandon by Thursday. If you set up a deficit and the scale still will not move, the cause is usually counting or water, not metabolism. The calorie deficit but not losing weight guide walks through that.
Why the number is a start, not a rule
Every calorie calculator, including this one, is an educated estimate. Mifflin-St Jeor is good, but it is a population formula applied to one specific you. Activity multipliers are blunt. People genuinely vary in how much they burn. So the number that comes out is a sensible starting point, not your destiny.
Here is how you actually use it. Eat near the moderate target for two to three weeks. Weigh yourself a few mornings a week and watch the trend, not single days. If you are losing about 0.5 to 1 percent of body weight per week and feel fine, you found your number. If the trend is flat after three honest weeks, drop it by 100 to 200 and reassess. If you are losing fast but feel wrecked, eat a bit more. The scale is the feedback loop. The calculator just gives you a smart first guess to react to.
| What the scale does over 2 to 3 weeks | What to do |
|---|---|
| Losing 0.5 to 1% body weight/week, feeling normal | Hold. You found your number. |
| Flat trend, counting is honest | Lower target by 100 to 200 calories |
| Dropping fast, hungry, tired, low mood | Eat more, move toward the mild tier |
| Down then suddenly up several pounds | Likely water or sodium, not fat. Keep going. |
Protein and behaviour beat precision
If you only get two things right, get these. They matter more than whether your target is 1,710 or 1,780.
Protein. Aim for roughly 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight (about 0.7 to 1 gram per pound). Protein protects muscle while you lose fat, keeps you fuller, and means the weight you lose is mostly the weight you wanted to lose. A low-calorie month with low protein leaves you smaller but softer.
Adherence. The best calorie target is the one you can repeat without your food life becoming weird. Five disciplined days and two chaotic ones often average out to maintenance, which is why the perfect plan you quit loses to the decent plan you keep. This is the whole behaviour-change point: you do not need more willpower, you need an environment and a setup that make the right choice the easy one.
That is exactly why a fixed, boring default works so well when life is busy or you are travelling. If you want a deficit that survives airports, hotel rooms, and late nights without cooking or counting, the 711 protocol is built around it. And before you set an aggressive target, sanity-check the timeline with how much weight you can lose in a month, so your number matches a pace you can actually hold.
Stop doing the maths every meal.
The 711 Diet is the physician-built system: which exact convenience-store products to grab, in which combo, at which calorie tier. The deficit is already done for you. No cooking, no tracking.
Get The 711 Diet Protocol →FAQ
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
Start from your maintenance (TDEE) and subtract a deficit you can repeat. About 500 below maintenance tends to give roughly 1 lb (0.45 kg) per week. Use the calculator for your own number, then adjust from what the scale does over 2 to 3 weeks.
Is 1200 calories a day too low?
For many people, yes. It is a common floor for smaller women, but it is hard to hit enough protein there and easy to feel awful and quit. Treat roughly 1200 for women and 1500 for men as a general caution floor, not a goal, and individualize.
How fast will I lose weight at a 500 calorie deficit?
About 1 lb (0.45 kg) per week on average, since roughly 3500 calories equals 1 lb of fat. The first week often looks faster from water weight, and the rate slows as you get lighter.
Do I need to count calories exactly?
No. The number is a starting estimate, not a precise quota. Protein at every meal, mostly zero-calorie drinks, and a repeatable food setup move the scale more reliably than chasing a perfect figure.
Why am I in a calorie deficit but not losing weight?
Usually the deficit is smaller than it looks, or water weight is masking fat loss. Recheck portions and drinks, weigh over 2 to 3 weeks, and lower the target by 100 to 200 if the trend is genuinely flat.
Numbers are practical estimates for healthy adults. They are not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, are under 18, or take medication that affects appetite or metabolism, talk to a clinician before setting a calorie target.