What Is a Calorie Deficit and How Do You Calculate It for Weight Loss?

Creating a calorie deficit — where you burn more calories than you eat — can help you lose weight. And calculating your calorie deficit can help you determine how many calories to eat and burn every day to accomplish your weight-loss goals.

A calorie deficit is when you burn more calories than you eat in a day, which can help you lose weight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You can create a calorie deficit by eating fewer calories in your diet, exercising more or a combination of both.

Exactly how many calories you should eat per day to maintain your weight varies based on your age, sex and activity levels. But in general, the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends people assigned female at birth (AFAB) eat 1,600 to 2,000 calories and people assigned male at birth (AMAB) eat 2,000 to 2,400 calories per day to maintain weight.

To lose weight at the safe and sustainable CDC-recommended pace of 1 to 2 pounds per week, the Mayo Clinic suggests cutting approximately 500 to 1,000 calories from that daily baseline. Why? You lose 1 pound when you burn about 3,500 more calories than you eat. Here's how many calories to cut for your weight-loss goals:

• ​To lose 1 pound per week:​ Maintenance calories - 500 = Daily calorie goal
• ​To lose 2 pounds per week:​ Maintenance calories - 1,000 = Daily calorie goal

There are a few ways you can calculate your calorie deficit for weight loss.

A diet- and fitness-tracking app like LIVESTRONG.com's MyPlate is like a calorie deficit calculator in your pocket. Here's how to get started:

1. Download the app onto your phone or other device.
2. Fill out your height, weight, goal weight and activity level for an automatic daily caloric intake recommendation.
3. Track your calorie intake by adding your foods and beverages (you can search MyPlate's catalogue or scan the food or drink's barcode).
4. Track your calorie burn by entering your exercise sessions (you can search by activity or manually enter the amount of calories you burned).

You can also manually calculate your daily caloric intake for weight loss. To do so, you first need to determine your basal metabolic rate (BMR) or resting metabolic rate (RMR), which are measures of how many calories your body needs at rest, per the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

While BMR and RMR are similar, BMR is typically used in more controlled settings like a doctor's office, whereas RMR may better represent how many calories your body needs at rest in everyday life, per ACE.

​1. Find Your BMR or RMR​

Calculate your BMR using the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation or Katch-McArdle equation:

• ​Mifflin-St. Jeor equation for people AFAB:​ (9.99 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) – (4.92 x age) – 161
• ​Mifflin-St. Jeor equation for people ​AMAB: (9.99 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) – (4.92 x age) + 5
• ​​Katch-McArdle equation:​ 370 + (21.6 x lean body mass in kg). Lean body mass = total body weight in kg – weight from body fat in kg.

Calculate your RMR with the following equation:

• ​​Cunningham Equation:​ 500 + (22 x lean body mass in kg)
  

​2. Use Your BMR to Find Your TDEE​

Once you know your BMR or RMR, you can then factor in physical activity to calculate your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), which is the total amount of calories you burn every day, per ACE. Just multiply your BMR or RMR by the number below that best corresponds to your activity level:

• ​Sedentary:​ 1.2
• ​Lightly active (exercise 1 to 3 times per week):​ 1.375
• ​Moderately active (exercise 3 to 5 times per week)​: 1.55
• ​Very active (hard exercise 6 to 7 times per week)​: 1.725
• ​Extremely active (hard daily exercise and a physical job):​ 1.9

​3. Subtract Weight-Loss Calories​

From there, subtract your daily calorie deficit goal of 500 to 1,000 to calculate how many calories you should eat per day for weight loss.

Each formula gives a slightly different result, so pick whatever equation best fits the information you have or calculate all three for a caloric range to aim for.

Now that you know how to calculate a calorie deficit, here are some tips to actually create that deficit to lose weight.

Cutting back on your daily food intake can create a calorie deficit, per the Mayo Clinic. This doesn't necessarily mean drastically reducing how much you eat, though: In general, prioritizing nutritious whole foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains over processed foods like packaged baked goods will help you naturally eat fewer calories.

The Mayo Clinic also recommends trying these strategies:

• Reduce your portion sizes
• Limit or avoid high-calorie, low-nutrition foods like candy or soda
• Replace high-calorie snacks with lower-calorie substitutes, like crispy chickpeas instead of chips

You can also supplement a deficit by burning calories through regular physical activity. The CDC recommends adults get at least 150 minutes of exercise (including cardio activities and strength training) each week.

If you'd like to keep track of how many calories you burn during your workout rather than rely on the activity multipliers listed above, cardio machines and calorie-tracking apps can usually estimate it for you. But if you'd like to do it yourself, there's a formula to help.

Before crunching the numbers, start by determining your heart rate with the help of a heart rate monitor or by placing your fingers on the side of your throat and counting how many times your heart beats in a minute. Then use the following equations:

• ​AFAB:​ [(-20.4022 + (0.4472 x heart rate in beats per minute) + (0.278 x weight in lbs) + (0.074 x age in years)] / 4.184. Then multiply your result by the number of minutes exercised
• ​AMAB:​ [(-55.0969 + (0.6309 x heart rate in beats per minute) + (0.438 x weight in lbs) + (0.2017 x age in years)] / 4.184. Then multiply your result by the number of minutes exercised