If you’ve tried reducing calories to lose weight, then you know it’s like a moving target.

Yet conventional wisdom claims that a 500 calorie deficit results in 1 lb per week of fat loss. That’s dead wrong!

Instead, you need a calorie deficit calculator that factors in your unique situation. And tells you exactly how many calories you should eat to lose weight.

Understanding Calories In vs Calories Out

Calories Out

Generally you expend energy in two ways – metabolism and activity. Also called TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).

The energy needed just to stay alive is called BMR (base metabolic rate). Most other energy expenditure is daily activity like walking around or deliberate exercise.

Below is how your energy expenditure might look on days you workout compared to days you don’t

Calories In

Next, is finding out how many calories you should eat. When it comes to weight loss, the goal is to eat fewer calories than you burn. Also called a calorie deficit.

Calories In < Calories Out = Calorie Deficit

Most often, people choose to reduce ‘calories in’ to ceate a bigger deficit. However, your metabolism slows down when you consistently undereat.

Why Traditional Calorie Deficit Diets Fail

As a result, you lose muscle and it’s harder to burn fat. To avoid muscle wasting, target calories above BMR but below TDEE. That way you feed your metabolism yet create a deficit for sustainable fat loss.

Another way to create a bigger deficit is by increasing ‘calories out’. In other words, you increase exercise and activity.

As you can see, you create a larger calorie deficit when you exercise. And that allows you to eat a little more. Thereby maximizing fat loss while fueling your metabolism.

How the Calorie Deficit Calculator Works

Now you understand the basics of calories in vs calories out. How does the calorie deficit calculator find your calorie target?

Easily Find Your Body Fat Percentage

First, we need to establish your body composition. Because the amount of lean muscle you have determines your metabolic rate.

In reality, most of us don’t have an accurate means to measure body fat. So I made finding your body composition easy with a fun picture. All you do is move the slider to the person that looks most like you.

Your Unique Body Type

Have you ever noticed how some people can eat whatever they want and stay thin? Well, another factor that affects metabolic rate is your unique genetics, or body type.

For this reason, I have you describe your body type in general terms. Like how difficult it is for you to lose weight or gain weight.

Still not sure which body type you have? Try the free body type quiz and see how you compare to over 16,000 other people.

3 Levels of Daily Activity

All that’s left is to add your activity level to BMR to find TDEE.

Any movement that isn’t in the form of exercise is considered your daily activity. In other words, just moving your body from point A to point B.

1. Less Than 8,000 Steps Per Day

This applies to most people. Such as students or those of us with desk jobs. You walk less than 4 miles between classes or at work.

2. Between 8,000 And 16,000 Steps Per Day

For those who have active jobs or studies. You walk 4 to 6 miles per day.

3. More Than 16,000 Steps Per Day

These are the over-achievers who walk everywhere or ride their bike to work. Putting in 6 miles or more each day excluding exercise!

Another example would be a very physical job. Or if you play sports in addition to working out.

Additional Exercise

Lastly, you’ll tell me a little about your personal workout schedule. This is any exercise you do in addition to your daily activity. Such as jogging or weight lifting.

Finally, we know how to find all of the factors that go into energy expenditure. But your personal calorie target depends on more than just TDEE and BMR.

Other factors include how much body fat you have and how fast you want to lose it. Accordingly, the calorie deficit calculator takes all these factors into account.

Find out how many calories to eat and how much fat you can expect to lose.

Plus get personalized recommendations to increase your calorie deficit in a healthy way. So you can burn as much fat as possible without crashing.