How Many Calories Should You Eat? (Do the Math Once)
Calculate your maintenance calories and your deficit properly — then stop guessing.
Step one: estimate maintenance
A workable estimate for most people is bodyweight in pounds times 14 to 16 — the lower end if you're sedentary, the higher end if you're active and training. A 180lb person who lifts four times a week and walks lands somewhere near 2,700 calories to maintain. Every online calculator is doing a version of this arithmetic with more decimal places and no more accuracy.
Step two: set the deficit
For fat loss, subtract 15-25%. That's roughly 400-650 calories for the person above, producing a bit under a pound a week. Larger deficits work faster and cost more muscle, more performance and more adherence. Smaller deficits are slower and easier to sustain — which usually wins over a year.
Step three: fix protein first
Set protein before anything else, around 0.8-1.0g per pound of goal bodyweight. Then fill remaining calories with carbohydrates and fats in whatever ratio you actually enjoy and can sustain. The ratio matters far less than the protein floor and the total.
The number is a starting point, not a truth
Every estimate has meaningful error, and your actual expenditure changes with activity, sleep and time in a deficit. The number is a hypothesis. What you do with it is the experiment: track bodyweight as a weekly average for two to three weeks, and adjust by 100-200 calories based on what the trend actually did.
Why your tracking is probably wrong
Underreporting is well documented and mostly unintentional — cooking oil, sauces, bites while cooking, weekend meals estimated generously. If the math says you should be losing and you aren't, the likeliest explanation isn't a broken metabolism; it's a few hundred untracked calories a day.
If an old injury is the reason your training isn't consistent enough for any of this to matter, REBUILD handles that side.
When to stop cutting
Don't diet indefinitely. Run a fat-loss phase for eight to sixteen weeks, then eat at maintenance deliberately for several weeks before deciding whether to continue. People who plan the exit keep the results; people who diet until they crack usually don't.
How to Apply This
Information only becomes useful when it changes what you do. Pick the single change from this page most relevant to your current situation and run it for four weeks before judging it. Changing several variables at once means you learn nothing about which one worked — and most people quit before any of them had time to show an effect.
What to Track
Track the outcome you actually care about, measured the same way each time. Bodyweight as a weekly average rather than a daily reading. Strength as the load and reps you completed, written down. Energy and sleep as a simple one-to-ten note. Numbers you record are the only ones you can act on later, and memory is a far worse record than most people believe.
Common Reasons It Doesn’t Work
Three explanations cover almost every stall. The change was never applied consistently enough to matter. It was applied consistently but not long enough to show. Or something else in the picture — sleep, total food intake, training volume, life stress — was the actual limiting factor and went unaddressed. Before adding anything new, check those three honestly.
When to Get Individual Advice
General information is a starting point, not a plan. If you have an existing medical condition, take prescription medication, are pregnant or nursing, or have symptoms that concern you, speak with a qualified professional who can assess your specific situation. Nothing on this page is medical or individual nutrition advice.
Common Questions
How big should a calorie deficit be?
Roughly 15-25% below maintenance for most people. Bigger isn't better beyond that.
Why has my weight stalled for two weeks?
Usually intake creep or water retention. Check a two-week average before changing anything.
Do I have to count calories forever?
No. Most people count long enough to learn portion sizes, then rely on habits and periodic check-ins.
Want this built around your life?
Your schedule, your appetite, your training history, your injuries — applied instead of explained.
Get the weekly breakdown
One email a week: what actually works in training and nutrition, minus the hype. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.