How Many Calories Should I Eat to Lose 1 Pound Per Week?

One pound of body fat contains approximately 3,500 calories of stored energy. To lose one pound per week, you need to create a total weekly deficit of 3,500 calories — which works out to 500 calories per day.

This rule originates from research by Max Wishnofsky published in 1958 and has been used in clinical nutrition ever since. It is not perfectly precise — body composition, hydration, and metabolic adaptation all introduce variability — but as a planning tool, it holds up reliably over weeks to months of consistent application.

The 500-calorie deficit is taken relative to your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), not from a generic baseline. Your TDEE depends on your height, weight, age, sex, and activity level — and it is different for everyone.

To find your specific daily calorie target for one pound per week:

1. Calculate your BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor formula: (10 × kg) + (6.25 × cm) − (5 × age) + 5 for men, or −161 for women.
2. Multiply by your activity factor: 1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for lightly active, 1.55 for moderately active, 1.725 for very active. This gives your TDEE.
3. Subtract 500 from your TDEE. That is your daily calorie target for approximately one pound per week of fat loss.

Example: A 38-year-old man, 178 cm, 91 kg, lightly active. His BMR is approximately 1,951 calories. Multiplied by 1.375, TDEE is ~2,682 calories. Subtract 500 and his daily target is ~2,182 calories.

Week one often produces a larger drop than one pound — sometimes 3–5 pounds. This is almost entirely water weight. When you reduce carbohydrate intake, your muscles and liver release stored glycogen, and each gram of glycogen binds roughly 3–4 grams of water. This initial drop is real weight but not fat loss. It reverses immediately if you return to previous eating habits.

Weeks two through four typically show a more consistent loss of 0.5–1 pound per week — closer to what the formula predicts. The scale will not drop exactly 1 pound every 7 days. Daily fluctuations from water retention, sodium intake, hormonal cycles, and digestive timing can mask fat loss for days at a time. Focus on the trend over 2–4 week periods rather than daily weigh-ins.

After 8–12 weeks, a plateau is common. As you lose weight, your TDEE decreases — your body is lighter and requires fewer calories. A 500- calorie deficit that worked at 200 lbs may only create a 200-calorie deficit at 185 lbs if you have not recalculated. Recalibrate your TDEE and target every 10–15 pounds lost.

One pound per week is a solid target for most people, but it is not universal. Those with a lot of weight to lose may be able to sustain a larger deficit (1.5–2 lbs/week) without significant muscle loss. Those closer to their goal weight or with limited muscle mass should target a smaller deficit (0.5 lb/week) to protect lean tissue.

Athletes and people who train regularly should be especially cautious about large deficits. Performance degrades when caloric restriction is too aggressive, and training quality drives the muscle retention that makes the weight loss worthwhile. A smaller deficit that lets you train hard is often better than a large deficit that leaves you exhausted in the gym.

When weight loss stalls for more than three consecutive weeks despite accurate calorie tracking, you have several options:

• Recalculate your TDEE at your current weight. Your maintenance calories have likely dropped as you have lost mass.
• Tighten up tracking. It is easy for small untracked items to accumulate. Weigh food for one week to verify accuracy.
• Increase NEAT. Add a daily 20-minute walk. Non-exercise activity has a surprisingly large effect on total expenditure and is easier to sustain than adding formal workouts.
• Try a diet break. Eating at maintenance for 1–2 weeks has been shown in research to partially reverse metabolic adaptation and improve long-term adherence.
• Reduce intake by 100–150 calories. A small, sustained reduction is better than a dramatic cut that causes muscle loss and rebound.

The key is patience combined with accurate data. If you are genuinely tracking every calorie and the scale is not moving, the answer is almost always that your TDEE has decreased or that some calories are going untracked — not that your metabolism is uniquely broken.