How many calories to lose 1 lb per week?
A 500 kcal/day deficit yields ~1 lb/week (3,500 kcal per pound of fat). Larger deficits risk muscle loss.
Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) and recommended calorie intake for weight loss, maintenance, or muscle gain.
TDEE = BMR × activity factor. BMR (Mifflin-St Jeor, men) = 10·weight(kg) + 6.25·height(cm) − 5·age + 5.
A 30-year-old, 178 cm, 77 kg moderately active male: BMR ≈ 1,675 kcal × 1.55 activity factor = ~2,596 kcal/day maintenance.
A 500 kcal/day deficit yields ~1 lb/week (3,500 kcal per pound of fat). Larger deficits risk muscle loss.
Sedentary 1.2, light 1.375, moderate 1.55, heavy 1.725, athlete 1.9. Most desk workers who exercise 3x/week are ~1.4–1.5.
Mifflin-St Jeor beats Harris-Benedict by ~5% for most people. Katch-McArdle is best if you know your body-fat percentage.
Typically eat back 50–75%. Fitness trackers overestimate burn by 20–40% on average.
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is what you burn at complete rest to run the body. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = BMR × activity factor and includes movement, exercise, and the thermic effect of food. Eat at TDEE to maintain, below TDEE to lose.
1 kg of fat ≈ 7,700 kcal, so a 1,100 kcal/day deficit yields ~1 kg/week. This is aggressive — 0.5 kg/week (550 kcal/day deficit) preserves more muscle.
Standard Mifflin-St Jeor underestimates BMR by 5–10% for very muscular people. Switch to the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR = 370 + 21.6 × lean body mass in kg), which uses body-fat percentage instead of just weight.