Question 1

How many calories do I need to lose 1 pound a week?

Accepted Answer

About 500 calories per day below your TDEE. The math: 1 pound of body fat stores roughly 3,500 calories, and 3,500 ÷ 7 days = 500 calories per day. To lose 1 pound a week, eat 500 calories below your daily energy expenditure. For 2 pounds a week you'd need a 1,000-calorie daily deficit, which is too aggressive for most people without medical supervision.

Question 2

What's a safe rate of weight loss?

Accepted Answer

Roughly 0.5 to 1 percent of your bodyweight per week is the evidence-based sweet spot. For a 200 lb person that's 1 to 2 lbs per week; for a 150 lb person it's 0.75 to 1.5 lbs per week. Faster than 1% per week tends to cause muscle loss alongside fat loss, energy crashes, and adherence problems. Slower is fine — slow loss with high adherence beats fast loss followed by a rebound every time.

Question 3

Is the 3500 calories per pound rule accurate?

Accepted Answer

Approximately, yes — and it's the right starting point. 3,500 kcal is roughly the energy stored in 1 pound of pure body fat. In real weight loss, what you actually drop is a mix of fat, water, glycogen, and a small amount of lean tissue, so the scale moves a bit faster than the equation predicts in week one (water/glycogen flush) and a bit slower over time (metabolic adaptation). The rule is a useful planning heuristic, not a precise contract — adjust based on what your real weight trend shows over 2-3 weeks.

Question 4

What's the minimum calories I should eat?

Accepted Answer

Conservative clinical floors are roughly 1,500 kcal/day for adult men and 1,200 kcal/day for adult women. Below those numbers, micronutrient adequacy gets hard to maintain, training quality collapses, and adherence usually breaks. If your calculated target falls below the floor, choose a slower rate of loss instead of eating less — you'll lose at a similar real-world pace because adherence is the actual limiting factor.

Question 5

Why am I not losing weight in a calorie deficit?

Accepted Answer

Almost always one of three things: (1) you're underestimating intake — most people undercount by 20-40% from missed bites, oils, sauces, and unweighed portions; (2) you're overestimating activity — 'moderately active' usually means 'I think about being active', and your real TDEE is lower than the calculator says; (3) you haven't waited long enough — weight is noisy day-to-day from water, sodium, and glycogen. Track for 2-3 weeks, weigh-in consistently, then adjust if the trend isn't moving.

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