Question 1

How many calories do you need to lose 1 kg?

Accepted Answer

About 7,700 kcal is the common cumulative energy estimate for 1 kg of adipose tissue. It is not a daily calorie target or a guaranteed conversion for scale weight. Water, glycogen and lean tissue also change during weight loss. Use the calculator for an initial daily estimate, not a fixed deadline.

Question 2

How many calories to lose 5 kg?

Accepted Answer

Using the simplified rule, 5 × 7,700 gives 38,500 kcal. Dividing by a constant 500 kcal daily deficit gives 77 days, or 11 weeks. This is an arithmetic illustration, not a recommendation or personal forecast: energy expenditure and body composition change over time.

Question 3

How many calories to lose 10 kg?

Accepted Answer

The simplified calculation is 77,000 cumulative kcal. At a hypothetical constant deficit of 500 kcal/day, that is 154 days, or 22 weeks. Actual progress is not linear, so reassess your needs rather than treating the result as a deadline.

Question 4

How many calories to lose 20 kg?

Accepted Answer

The simplified arithmetic gives 154,000 cumulative kcal, or 308 days at a constant 500 kcal/day deficit. This is not an individual timeline. For a substantial weight change, personalized guidance is more useful than extrapolating a fixed calorie-per-kilogram rule.

Question 5

How many calories per day for a woman who wants to lose weight?

Accepted Answer

Needs are computed from personal TDEE, not from one-size-fits-all numbers. For a sedentary 65 kg woman (1.65 m, 30 years old), TDEE is about 1,650 kcal/day; a moderate 20 % deficit gives ~1,315 kcal/day. Safety floor: never go below 1,200 kcal/day. If your computed target falls below that, raise expenditure (cardio, walking) instead of dropping intake further.

Question 6

How many calories per day for a man who wants to lose weight?

Accepted Answer

For a sedentary 80 kg man (1.75 m, 30 years old), TDEE is about 2,100 kcal/day; a moderate 20 % deficit gives ~1,680 kcal/day. Safety floor: 1,500 kcal/day. For active men (TDEE ≥ 2,800 kcal), the deficit can look generous in absolute terms while staying moderate as a percentage — what matters is the ratio, not the raw number.

Question 7

Is losing 1 kg of body weight the same as losing 1 kg of fat?

Accepted Answer

No. Scale weight includes water, glycogen and lean tissue as well as fat. The familiar 7,700 kcal rule is based on an approximation for adipose tissue, not pure fat or every kilogram of weight change. Hall (2008)[2] explains why a fixed conversion oversimplifies real weight loss.

Question 8

Should I drop below 1,200 kcal to lose weight fast?

Accepted Answer

No, never on your own. Below 1,200 kcal (woman) or 1,500 kcal (man), three risks appear: (1) micronutrient deficiencies (iron, B12, calcium), (2) accelerated muscle loss, (3) persistent metabolic slowdown. If your computed target falls below this floor, your TDEE is very low — raise expenditure (walk 8,000–10,000 steps/day) instead of cutting intake further.

Question 9

Why am I no longer losing weight even though I eat little?

Accepted Answer

Five typical causes. (1) By far the most common one is underestimating actual intake: Lichtman et al. (1992)[4] measured a gap of about 47 % between reported and actual intake in people who were not losing weight — on a small sample selected for that profile, but with energy expenditure perfectly in line with predictions, which rules out the “slow metabolism” explanation. (2) Metabolic adaptation: resting expenditure drops beyond what weight loss alone would predict, all the more so as the deficit is deepened and prolonged. (3) Missed TDEE recompute: if you were at 80 kg and are now at 75 kg, your TDEE has dropped[1][6]. (4) Water retention (stress, cycle, sodium). (5) Muscle loss if protein is insufficient. Solution: weigh every food for 7 days straight, then recompute.

Question 10

How many calories below my needs?

Accepted Answer

The presets subtract 15%, 20% or 25% from estimated maintenance. They are starting estimates, not prescriptions. A larger deficit is not automatically better; adjust it to your health, recovery and progress.

Question 11

Is it better to count calories or macros?

Accepted Answer

Adequate protein and resistance training help preserve muscle during weight loss. The scale alone cannot distinguish fat, muscle and water changes; no fixed percentage of muscle loss applies to everyone.

Question 12

How many calories per day to avoid regaining weight after a diet?

Accepted Answer

Your TDEE recomputed at your new weight — not the TDEE from before the diet. Example: for a sedentary man (1.75 m, 30 years old) who went from 80 to 70 kg, maintenance drops from about 2,100 to ~1,980 kcal/day — that new figure is the one to aim for, not the old one. Reverse-diet strategy: gradually raise intake by +100 kcal/week over 4–6 weeks once the goal is reached, to stabilize without rebound. Jumping straight back to your old maintenance creates a real surplus, and weight climbs back fast — first as water and glycogen, then as fat if the surplus sticks around.

Profile	TDEE	Target	Pace
Male 60 kg, sedentary175 cm · 30 yrs	1,859	1,487	−0.34 kg/wks
Male 80 kg, sedentary175 cm · 30 yrs	2,099	1,679	−0.38 kg/wks
Male 80 kg, sport 3-5×/week175 cm · 30 yrs	2,711	2,168	−0.49 kg/wks
Female 60 kg, sedentary165 cm · 30 yrs	1,584	1,267	−0.29 kg/wks
Female 65 kg, sedentary165 cm · 30 yrs	1,644	1,315	−0.30 kg/wks
Female 70 kg, sport 3-5×/week165 cm · 30 yrs	2,201	1,761	−0.40 kg/wks

Goal	Cumulative deficit	Slow pace	Moderate pace	Fast pace
1 kg	7,700 kcal	~4 wks	~2 wks	~1.5 wks
2 kg	15,400 kcal	~9 wks	~4 wks	~3 wks
5 kg	38,500 kcal	~22 wks	~11 wks	~7 wks
10 kg	77,000 kcal	~44 wks	~22 wks	~15 wks
20 kg	154,000 kcal	~88 wks	~44 wks	~29 wks

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