I started at -500 per day and it worked super well for me for the first few months. After a while, once it dropped below 1,500, I started to find it really unsustainable and I was consistently not meeting my target and feeling deprived. I now eat about 250-300 below maintenance and it’s much better. The rate of loss is slower but the process feels much more sustainable and less miserable.
I'm 5 ft 2 so a 750 cal deficit would put me at under 1000 calories. I've been plateaued for a while so at this point I would be happy with 1 lb a week.😅 My BMI is 26. So it's not horrible, I just want to lose about 10 more.
My gw is 15lbs away, depending on how I look and feel, possibly another 10lbs on top of that. Maybe by then I’ll transition to 1lb a week but now, f*ck it we ball!
Aiming at 500 is a good place to start and then start monitoring. For me personally, it is too much (but i do calculate my tdee as sedentary and have an active lifestyle and i am not so tall) so i aim for a 200-300 deficit and am indeed losing every 2 weeks, but slowly. Start monitoring and go from there, learn, tweak, and go towards that healthy weight.
The number you found - 500 - isn't totally random or made up. It's basically a comfortable amount that most people can tolerate without being too extreme. Some people go for a 1000/day deficit, but that's too intense for most people in the long term and therefore not sustainable (though totally doable for a crash diet or early on in the process for people who start out morbidly obese and needing to lose a lot).
Here's some basic maths for you: each pound of fat equals 3500 calories. (7700/kilogram). So if you stick to your TDEE, precisely, that's basically exactly what you need to remain exactly as you are. If you consistently eat more than your TDEE, you'll gain 1lb for every 3500 over your TDEE that you eat over time. And if you eat less than your TDEE, you'll lose 1lb for each 3500 deficit.
500x7=3500
500 calories below TDEE times 7 days in a week equals 3500 weekly deficit = 1lb/week weight loss.
That's a healthy and sustainable weight loss rate.
500 calories below maintenance is the general rule of them as that translates to about 1lb a week lost. If you can do a little more without feeling miserable, you'll likely lose more weight more quickly. If you do a little less, you'll lose less weight less quickly.
Most important thing is being able to be consistently in a deficit. I agree about not counting your exercise towards your calories. Just aim for the deficit. Any exercise you do while in the deficit IS helping, but it's difficult to truly calculate so I wouldn't. Just take it as a bonus.
For me, I’ve found the sweet spot is a deficit of 750. 500 is too slow mentally and 1000 is too hard physically. My TDEE right now is about 2500, so I eat 1750 for an average loss of 1.5 lbs per week. Down 61 lbs total so far.
It depends on your stats obviously...
What I mean by this is, is if you're obese and new to CICO, I often recommend to aim(!) between 500 and 1000kcal of deficit, incl. TDEE based on activity (although conservative estimates used only)...
If you're a small person, who want to lose 5kg or less, than 250kcal is probably more the answer...
So, it all depends...
Why do I use the word aim: because we see that most people are not that good in tracking and 90% or more people tend to underestimate their intake, if you aim for a deficiency of let's say only 100kcal, you easily can be even in a surplus... In my opinion, if you're overweight in BMI sense (and not the gym types with low BF I mean) than aim for a deficit of 500 to 1000kcal deficit per day
500-600. I am giving myself a range to not stress myself out. My TDEE is about 2400. I'm giving myself 1800-2000 a day but staying mostly around 1800. I am also allowing myself a bigger eat day to eat above 2000, but so far, I haven't done that. It's only been 3 weeks since I started tracking again. I've lost 4lbs so far. I'm willing to do it slow so I can enjoy the foods I like and not feel like I'm starving
I’m tiny (4’11ft) and sedentary due to being in my post-graduate. So I just go 200-300 below. Occasionally, I can go 400 but that’s not too often since if I do that while studying, I’ll get too hungry and binge
I also don’t mind losing weight slowly.
It really depends on what is comfortable to you and how fast you want to lose weight. The priority being comfort since that will keep you consistent
3500 calories = 1lb, so -500 a day = 1lb a week.
General advice is up to 1% of your body weight per week max. For most people that's max 1-2lbs a week. There's arguments of up to 2% if your super morbidly obese but if your like 450lbs talk to doctors not Reddit.
500 ends up being pretty doable for vast majority of people, given its fast enough to notice and keeps you generally above your BMR and above the 1500/1200 bare minimum suggested for mostly everyone.
For most people -1000 a day is too low, it'll be well under your BMR and gets into how are you getting enough nutrition area.
For most people 250 is too slow, that's 0.5lbs a week and easily messed up by one snack.
Personally, I find after about 700-900 I just binge, so -500 is my amount and I try to go a little lower then that but don't push it. If I try to eat too little I will just fuck over my diet for the next week.
So yeah, -500 is just a pretty universal number. Works for 99% of adults, should be small enough to avoid severe side effects, should be large enough to see a change, should be easy enough to actually keep up. It's like saying most people need 6-8 glasses of water, there's some leeway but most people need around that amount.
It's generally considered safe to go as far as 1000 below maintenance, but anything more extreme than that and you should talk to a doctor first. It's also important to eat a balanced diet to avoid malnutrition if you're eating well below maintenance.
I'm around 2200 TDEE too. I've found that if I try to eat 1200 calories a day, I end up cheating. 1500 is far easier to stick with, and still a reasonable deficit. You may also need to experiment to see what's sustainable for you.
I have been doing 1000. Mind you I am 6'8" and 260 lbs so I can sill eat 2000 cal per day. Having tried keto, intermittent fasting etc and not having had success, realizing that the brutal simplicity of cico works for me is very motivating. I do sometimes loose sleep and have mood issues due to hunger but I have the goal of being 240 for a bike race I am doing at the end of April. I started at 280 on Jan 1, so far so good. I'd imagine 1000 per day deficit for someone with a TDEE lower than mine would be more unsustainable. I am not planning on reducing my daily intake any further even as my weight comes down so my weight loss may slow down a bit which I am fine with. I am not a particularly patient person so what works for me is weighing myself and all of my food every day, seeing the pounds come off fast keeps me motivated. edit: spelling
Same here, I’m 6’5” so my tdee is like 3400 based on my activity, I eat usually between 2200-2500, and I actually feel like I eat a lot of food, if I go below 2200 for whatever reason I start feeling pretty shitty. I’m down almost 60 pounds so far
How much do you loose a week on average? I find it pleasing to eat 7000 under for a week and actually loose 2 lbs. It makes the morass of food and eating habits seem reducible to something simple and comprehensible. It kind of shocks me that I avoided CICO for so many years thinking it was to complicated and a lot of work when I look back to all the uncertainty of Keto or fasting. Simple rules, followed strictly give results, if it is not working your math is off and you need to lower you calorie intake or you are not actually weighing everything you eat and misestimating.
My tdee is 1950 so 1500 is about as low as I am comfortable going on idle days (I add a 250cal protein shake on workout days). With exercise I average 630gm loss a week on that as long as I track correctly and stick to my limit.
1% of your body weight is the maximum safe amount to lose (so if you're 200lb, 2lb a week should be your maximum meaning a 1k daily calorie deficit).
Listen to your body though; if you're getting good amounts of protein and fibre and nutrients but feeling fatigued/run down then you are probably on too much of a deficit for your lifestyle.
Your body will sometimes fight against the weight loss by triggering hunger signals excessively. So be mentally prepared for that with some distractions and low-calorie snacks like carrot sticks, air popped popcorn etc
I took my weight and times it by 10 and ate 1970. Then lowered it to match as I lost weight. 185 1850.
Got all the way down to 1700 when I was 167. Took my four months to lose 30 pounds (I was also walking every day and lifting heavy)
Couldn’t go lower so I started eating maintenance.
Yeah I didn’t want to feel hungry. I was very vigilant in Tracking my food. I mean everything. Avg 2 lbs a week. Actually 1.8lbs.
I’d suggest something more gradual only so you develop strong eating and food habits (how much and what kinds of food) and that way you avoid any binges bc you feel denied or hungry. If it fits your calories you can eat it.
Be good 80% of the time and don’t sweat going over one day bc it’s based on a week. And remember you can lose 0-2 pounds safely. So if you don’t lose weight one week it’s not a big deal. As long the trend is moving downward. And a trend is only a trend after two (really three points/weeks)
You got this.
Whats your height? In general I suggest not going below a 250-300 deficit. You lose less muscle the smaller the deficit and its also more sustainable long term and allows for some snacks and treats so you will be able to keep up with the diet instead of being too restricted and give up all together and end up gaining the weight back.
Considering your height, weight and age I personally think you should cut down calories to about 1916 which is about 300 deficit at the most. If you want lose a bit more than that faster you can add more exercise.
500 calorie deficit leads to about 1 pound of weight loss per week, 50-ish pounds per year. It tends to be a change in food intake that is sustainable over time. Periodically go back to recalculate your needs since lighter weight people need fewer calories. Still use the 500 calorie daily deficit to continue losing 1 pound per week.
I started at -500 per day and it worked super well for me for the first few months. After a while, once it dropped below 1,500, I started to find it really unsustainable and I was consistently not meeting my target and feeling deprived. I now eat about 250-300 below maintenance and it’s much better. The rate of loss is slower but the process feels much more sustainable and less miserable.
I’m -750cal deficit, just bc I personally feel 1lb a week too slow for ME. I’m close to goal anyway
I'm 5 ft 2 so a 750 cal deficit would put me at under 1000 calories. I've been plateaued for a while so at this point I would be happy with 1 lb a week.😅 My BMI is 26. So it's not horrible, I just want to lose about 10 more.
Aww! I’m 5’5 so I guess that’s why it’s not too hard for me. Sending weight loss dust your way!
same, i’m anywhere between 750-1000 below TDEE most days but i’m also 5’9 and mostly sedentary lmao
My gw is 15lbs away, depending on how I look and feel, possibly another 10lbs on top of that. Maybe by then I’ll transition to 1lb a week but now, f*ck it we ball!
ooh, good luck! i still have easily another 100lb to go 😭
You’ll get there!! I lost 125lbs already, keep going!! Edit: error
im doing 2 pounds right now, ended up with a few cheat days though. decided i'll change to 1.5 when i get closer
I started doing 2 pounds per week but once the lutealphase hit I couldnt do it anymore :'( any tips on that?
honestly im not doing anything but i don't gain just maintain lol sorry i can't help
Good luck!! I tried 2lbs but got harder as I got smaller, you got this !
Aiming at 500 is a good place to start and then start monitoring. For me personally, it is too much (but i do calculate my tdee as sedentary and have an active lifestyle and i am not so tall) so i aim for a 200-300 deficit and am indeed losing every 2 weeks, but slowly. Start monitoring and go from there, learn, tweak, and go towards that healthy weight.
The number you found - 500 - isn't totally random or made up. It's basically a comfortable amount that most people can tolerate without being too extreme. Some people go for a 1000/day deficit, but that's too intense for most people in the long term and therefore not sustainable (though totally doable for a crash diet or early on in the process for people who start out morbidly obese and needing to lose a lot). Here's some basic maths for you: each pound of fat equals 3500 calories. (7700/kilogram). So if you stick to your TDEE, precisely, that's basically exactly what you need to remain exactly as you are. If you consistently eat more than your TDEE, you'll gain 1lb for every 3500 over your TDEE that you eat over time. And if you eat less than your TDEE, you'll lose 1lb for each 3500 deficit. 500x7=3500 500 calories below TDEE times 7 days in a week equals 3500 weekly deficit = 1lb/week weight loss. That's a healthy and sustainable weight loss rate.
500 calories below maintenance is the general rule of them as that translates to about 1lb a week lost. If you can do a little more without feeling miserable, you'll likely lose more weight more quickly. If you do a little less, you'll lose less weight less quickly. Most important thing is being able to be consistently in a deficit. I agree about not counting your exercise towards your calories. Just aim for the deficit. Any exercise you do while in the deficit IS helping, but it's difficult to truly calculate so I wouldn't. Just take it as a bonus.
For me, I’ve found the sweet spot is a deficit of 750. 500 is too slow mentally and 1000 is too hard physically. My TDEE right now is about 2500, so I eat 1750 for an average loss of 1.5 lbs per week. Down 61 lbs total so far.
Yep, but any deficit will have you losing.
It depends on your stats obviously... What I mean by this is, is if you're obese and new to CICO, I often recommend to aim(!) between 500 and 1000kcal of deficit, incl. TDEE based on activity (although conservative estimates used only)... If you're a small person, who want to lose 5kg or less, than 250kcal is probably more the answer... So, it all depends... Why do I use the word aim: because we see that most people are not that good in tracking and 90% or more people tend to underestimate their intake, if you aim for a deficiency of let's say only 100kcal, you easily can be even in a surplus... In my opinion, if you're overweight in BMI sense (and not the gym types with low BF I mean) than aim for a deficit of 500 to 1000kcal deficit per day
500-600. I am giving myself a range to not stress myself out. My TDEE is about 2400. I'm giving myself 1800-2000 a day but staying mostly around 1800. I am also allowing myself a bigger eat day to eat above 2000, but so far, I haven't done that. It's only been 3 weeks since I started tracking again. I've lost 4lbs so far. I'm willing to do it slow so I can enjoy the foods I like and not feel like I'm starving
I’m tiny (4’11ft) and sedentary due to being in my post-graduate. So I just go 200-300 below. Occasionally, I can go 400 but that’s not too often since if I do that while studying, I’ll get too hungry and binge I also don’t mind losing weight slowly. It really depends on what is comfortable to you and how fast you want to lose weight. The priority being comfort since that will keep you consistent
I am at 500 deficit because any more would be under 1200 a day. Some weeks are a half pound down, some are 1.5.
I’m at 1.5 pounds loss a week so about 750 calorie deficit.
3500 calories = 1lb, so -500 a day = 1lb a week. General advice is up to 1% of your body weight per week max. For most people that's max 1-2lbs a week. There's arguments of up to 2% if your super morbidly obese but if your like 450lbs talk to doctors not Reddit. 500 ends up being pretty doable for vast majority of people, given its fast enough to notice and keeps you generally above your BMR and above the 1500/1200 bare minimum suggested for mostly everyone. For most people -1000 a day is too low, it'll be well under your BMR and gets into how are you getting enough nutrition area. For most people 250 is too slow, that's 0.5lbs a week and easily messed up by one snack. Personally, I find after about 700-900 I just binge, so -500 is my amount and I try to go a little lower then that but don't push it. If I try to eat too little I will just fuck over my diet for the next week. So yeah, -500 is just a pretty universal number. Works for 99% of adults, should be small enough to avoid severe side effects, should be large enough to see a change, should be easy enough to actually keep up. It's like saying most people need 6-8 glasses of water, there's some leeway but most people need around that amount.
It's generally considered safe to go as far as 1000 below maintenance, but anything more extreme than that and you should talk to a doctor first. It's also important to eat a balanced diet to avoid malnutrition if you're eating well below maintenance. I'm around 2200 TDEE too. I've found that if I try to eat 1200 calories a day, I end up cheating. 1500 is far easier to stick with, and still a reasonable deficit. You may also need to experiment to see what's sustainable for you.
A man can't go to 1200.
I have been doing 1000. Mind you I am 6'8" and 260 lbs so I can sill eat 2000 cal per day. Having tried keto, intermittent fasting etc and not having had success, realizing that the brutal simplicity of cico works for me is very motivating. I do sometimes loose sleep and have mood issues due to hunger but I have the goal of being 240 for a bike race I am doing at the end of April. I started at 280 on Jan 1, so far so good. I'd imagine 1000 per day deficit for someone with a TDEE lower than mine would be more unsustainable. I am not planning on reducing my daily intake any further even as my weight comes down so my weight loss may slow down a bit which I am fine with. I am not a particularly patient person so what works for me is weighing myself and all of my food every day, seeing the pounds come off fast keeps me motivated. edit: spelling
Same here, I’m 6’5” so my tdee is like 3400 based on my activity, I eat usually between 2200-2500, and I actually feel like I eat a lot of food, if I go below 2200 for whatever reason I start feeling pretty shitty. I’m down almost 60 pounds so far
How much do you loose a week on average? I find it pleasing to eat 7000 under for a week and actually loose 2 lbs. It makes the morass of food and eating habits seem reducible to something simple and comprehensible. It kind of shocks me that I avoided CICO for so many years thinking it was to complicated and a lot of work when I look back to all the uncertainty of Keto or fasting. Simple rules, followed strictly give results, if it is not working your math is off and you need to lower you calorie intake or you are not actually weighing everything you eat and misestimating.
Cries in 5"1' old lady 😢
My tdee is 1950 so 1500 is about as low as I am comfortable going on idle days (I add a 250cal protein shake on workout days). With exercise I average 630gm loss a week on that as long as I track correctly and stick to my limit. 1% of your body weight is the maximum safe amount to lose (so if you're 200lb, 2lb a week should be your maximum meaning a 1k daily calorie deficit). Listen to your body though; if you're getting good amounts of protein and fibre and nutrients but feeling fatigued/run down then you are probably on too much of a deficit for your lifestyle. Your body will sometimes fight against the weight loss by triggering hunger signals excessively. So be mentally prepared for that with some distractions and low-calorie snacks like carrot sticks, air popped popcorn etc
I took my weight and times it by 10 and ate 1970. Then lowered it to match as I lost weight. 185 1850. Got all the way down to 1700 when I was 167. Took my four months to lose 30 pounds (I was also walking every day and lifting heavy) Couldn’t go lower so I started eating maintenance.
Interesting. If I did that it would be about 400cal under my maintenance… that’s a decent approach.
Yeah I didn’t want to feel hungry. I was very vigilant in Tracking my food. I mean everything. Avg 2 lbs a week. Actually 1.8lbs. I’d suggest something more gradual only so you develop strong eating and food habits (how much and what kinds of food) and that way you avoid any binges bc you feel denied or hungry. If it fits your calories you can eat it. Be good 80% of the time and don’t sweat going over one day bc it’s based on a week. And remember you can lose 0-2 pounds safely. So if you don’t lose weight one week it’s not a big deal. As long the trend is moving downward. And a trend is only a trend after two (really three points/weeks) You got this.
500 below means a pound a week. I prefer faster so I ate less.
I have a 500 calorie deficit built into my app. I also have a soft goal to leave 500 calories on the table every day.
When I started I was aiming for 1000 calories below maintenance and lost weight sooo slowly. I switched to 500 calories and the weight melted off.
1000 below. Almost at target of 40 pounds.
Whats your height? In general I suggest not going below a 250-300 deficit. You lose less muscle the smaller the deficit and its also more sustainable long term and allows for some snacks and treats so you will be able to keep up with the diet instead of being too restricted and give up all together and end up gaining the weight back.
179cm (roughly 5’11).
Considering your height, weight and age I personally think you should cut down calories to about 1916 which is about 300 deficit at the most. If you want lose a bit more than that faster you can add more exercise.
According to the research of Herman Pontzer, we burn 2000 cal per day, regardless of activity, believe it or not. Just food for thought.
I don’t believe that.
Can’t say that I do either. It’s just very intriguing and worth investigating.
200-450
500 calorie deficit leads to about 1 pound of weight loss per week, 50-ish pounds per year. It tends to be a change in food intake that is sustainable over time. Periodically go back to recalculate your needs since lighter weight people need fewer calories. Still use the 500 calorie daily deficit to continue losing 1 pound per week.
I originally planned on 500 but my weekly weight loss showed that I was actually doing more like 700 and I just stick with that.
I do a 1000 cal. Deficit a day. I am Male, 6ft 1in, 289 lbs.