How to Calculate Your Calories for Healthy Weight Loss

Reviewed By Danielle Glesne, RDN, LD, CDCES

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Achieving a healthy body composition helps reduce the risk of many diseases and health conditions.

And since every body is different, it can be hard to understand how many calories your body needs to lose fat in a healthy manner.

Here is the method we recommend to find your calorie intake for healthy fat loss…

STEP 1

• Go to www.tdeecalculator.net

• Enter your Gender, Age, Weight, Height, and Activity level (be conservative with activity)

• Only enter Body Fat % if you’ve recently had your body fat tested and know your current percent

• Tap the “Calculate” button

Step 2

• Write down the results of Your Maintenance Calories per day

• Write down the results of your Basal Metabolic Rate calories per day

Step 3

• Subtract 250-500 calories from Your Maintenance Calories

• Ensure that number is not lower than your Basal Metabolic Rate

For instance, if subtracting 500 calories from Your Maintenance Calories equals fewer calories than your Basal Metabolic Rate, subtract 250 instead.

Here’s an example…

• Maintenance Calories: 2,000

• Basal Metabolic Rate: 1,500

• 2,000 - 250 = 1,750

• 1,750 is less than 2,000 ✅

• and greater than 1,500 ✅

In this example, 1,750 calories per day is a good starting place to lose fat.

The number of calories that is less than Your Maintenance Calories but greater than your Basal Metabolic Rate is likely a good starting point.

NOTE: The result of the calculation above is an estimate that works for most people most of the time.

Monitoring Weight Loss

Once you understand your starting calories, you need to understand data from your individual body to know if you’re losing fat.

Here’s how to do that…

• Weigh yourself every day first thing in the morning (after going to the bathroom, before eating or drinking anything)

• Take an average of all your weigh-ins for the week

• Monitor your average weekly weight from one week to the next

• If your average weekly weight is going down over time, you are losing weight

Daily body weight fluctuations are good, normal, and healthy—that’s why it’s important to understand average weekly weight.

And this is important: If you are strength training regularly and consuming optimal protein, most—if not all—of that weight loss is fat.

If you’d like guidance on what this means for you, your goals, and your family, don’t hesitate to CONTACT US.

We’re here to help.