How many calories should I eat to lose weight? The answer is different for every person — and guessing it is the #1 reason most diets fail. Before counting a single calorie, you need one number: your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). That’s the exact calories your body burns each day. Eat below it and you lose weight. Eat above it and you gain. Everything else is noise.
What is TDEE — and why does it determine how many calories you should eat to lose weight?
Your TDEE is the total calories your body burns in a 24-hour period — not just at rest, but including every step you take, every workout you do, and even the energy used to digest food. It’s calculated from your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) — the calories your body needs at complete rest — multiplied by your activity level. Use our BMR calculator to find your resting baseline first.
Most people try to lose weight by cutting food randomly — removing carbs, skipping meals, eating “clean” — without ever knowing how many calories they should eat to lose weight. Without your TDEE, you’re guessing. And guessing is why most diets stall within 3 weeks.
Example: Two people who both weigh 70 kg can have TDEEs of 1,800 and 2,400 calories — a 600 calorie difference — depending on age, height, gender and activity level. The same diet would produce completely different results for each of them.
This is why generic calorie recommendations like “eat 1,200 calories” are not just unhelpful — they can be actively harmful. Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms that total calorie intake — not macronutrient composition — is the primary driver of weight loss. Your number is personal to your body.
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your TDEE. The difference between what you burn and what you eat is called your calorie deficit. Your body makes up that energy gap by burning stored fat.
For most people asking how many calories should I eat to lose weight, the answer is a deficit of 400–500 calories per day below your TDEE — producing approximately 0.5 kg of fat loss per week at a rate that is safe, sustainable, and preserves muscle mass. Here’s how that looks across different goals:
Calculate your TDEE now
Enter your age, weight, height and activity level — your personal daily calorie target appears in 30 seconds.
Calculate My TDEE →How many calories should I eat to lose weight safely? The 400–500 rule explained
The most common mistake is making the deficit too large too fast. A deficit of 1,000+ calories per day might seem like it would double your results — but research consistently shows it leads to muscle loss, extreme hunger, metabolic adaptation, and eventual rebound weight gain.
The sweet spot for most people wondering how many calories should I eat to lose weight safely is a deficit of 400–500 kcal/day. Here’s why this works better than extremes:
Preserves muscle — high protein + moderate deficit keeps muscle while burning fat, rather than burning both equally
Sustainable hunger levels — you’re not constantly starving, so compliance is dramatically higher over weeks and months
Protects metabolism — very low calorie diets slow your metabolism as your body adapts to conserve energy, stalling progress
Important: Never eat below your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) — the minimum calories your body needs at complete rest. This is your absolute floor when deciding how many calories you should eat to lose weight. Use our free BMR calculator to find your floor before setting any calorie target.
Why am I not losing weight even in a calorie deficit?
This is one of the most common frustrations in weight loss — and the answer is almost always the same. Studies consistently show that people underestimate their calorie intake by 20–40% when estimating portion sizes and tracking manually. So even when they believe they know how many calories they should eat to lose weight, the actual intake is much higher.
A handful of almonds you log as “small” might be 200 calories. A restaurant portion of rice could be double what you tracked. Cooking oil you didn’t log adds 120 calories. These gaps add up to hundreds of calories a day — completely erasing your deficit without you realising.
How many calories should I eat to lose weight — FAQ
How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
First calculate your TDEE — the calories your body burns each day. Then subtract 400–500 calories from that number. The result is your daily calorie target for weight loss. Use our free TDEE calculator to get your personal number in 30 seconds.
Is 1,200 calories a day enough to lose weight?
1,200 calories is not a universal target — it may be appropriate for some people but dangerously low for others. Whether 1,200 calories creates a healthy deficit depends entirely on your personal TDEE. Someone with a TDEE of 1,600 kcal would have a reasonable 400 kcal deficit. Someone with a TDEE of 2,400 kcal would be creating a dangerous 1,200 kcal deficit. Always base your intake on your individual TDEE.
How long will it take to lose 5 kg eating in a calorie deficit?
At a moderate deficit of 500 kcal/day, you will lose approximately 0.5 kg per week. At that rate, losing 5 kg takes about 10 weeks. A larger deficit of 750 kcal/day would get you there in roughly 7 weeks, but comes with more hunger and slightly higher risk of muscle loss. Use our calorie deficit calculator to see your personal timeline.
Should I eat back calories burned during exercise?
It depends on how you calculated your TDEE. If you used a moderate or active activity multiplier, your exercise calories are already included in your TDEE — so eating them back would cancel your deficit. If you used “sedentary” as your activity level and exercise regularly, eating back a portion (around 50%) of burned calories is reasonable to prevent excessive hunger and muscle loss.
What is the best app to track calories for weight loss?
The best calorie tracker is one you’ll actually stick to. Traditional apps require manual logging which most people abandon within 2 weeks. Tou Calo uses AI to identify food from a photo and log calories in 3 seconds — removing the friction that causes people to give up. Start by using our BMR calculator to understand your baseline, then track every meal automatically with Tou Calo.
The next step is tracking meals accurately — every single day.
Tou Calo makes this effortless. Snap any food — AI logs it in 3 seconds. No manual entry, no guessing, no giving up after a week.
The team behind Tou Calo AI Calorie Counter. We build tools that make healthy eating effortless — starting with understanding your personal calorie needs.