How to calculate the daily calorie deficit you need?
I’m sure you have heard of calorie deficit and why it is important for weight loss. In a simple way, you can only lose weight if you consume less calories than the ones you spend. To optimize weight loss diets or programs it is quite common to have the daily calorie deficit referring to the difference between the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and the daily calorie intake minus the calories spent with exercise or other activities not covered in the BMR.
As the BMR represents the calories you body requires over a day to function in rest mode, what happens is that when you provoke a calorie deficit, you force your body to make use of the existing stored energy (fat tissue).
The concept behind the quantification of calorie deficit is theoretical and simplistic but it allows you to get an idea of the number of calories you should eat daily and how many calories you need to burn daily to reach the objective you want. Keep in mind that this is not a linear relationship, meaning that different people will react differently, and some will lose more weight than others, and same applies to the rate at which you lose weight.
You can calculate the daily calorie deficit you need, either making use to the calculator above, or by doing the math on your own. You just need to know how many pounds you want to lose, over how much time and the fact that 1 pound of fat corresponds to 3500 calories (in theory).
So, for example, let’s say you want to lose 10 pounds in 5 months, you would require a calorie deficit of 35000 calories (10 pounds x 3500 calories/fat pound). To calculate the Daily Calorie Deficit, simple divide the total calorie deficit (35000 calories) by the number of days (150) and you will obtain the 233 calories per day in deficit.
In average, you will need a daily calorie deficit of 233 calories to lose 10 pounds in 5 months. The deficit can be caused by consuming less calories than your BMR, by exercising to burn calories causing the deficit or a combination of both methods.
Keep in mind that the minimum recommended daily calorie intake is 1200 calories for women and 1500 calories for men. I do not recommend using diets below these levels unless you are being advised by a professional.
You can find concrete example of how to use the BMR and Daily Calorie deficit in the article how to lose 3 pounds a week.
Check out the free tools we have available for you:
Calories daily intake calculator