Calorie Deficit Calculator
Find out how many calories to eat to reach your goal weight safely. Enter your stats, your goal, and your timeline, and see your daily target plus a realistic, healthy plan.
This calorie deficit calculator shows you how many calories to eat each day to lose weight at a pace you choose. It starts by estimating your maintenance calories, the amount that keeps your weight steady, then subtracts a deficit to produce a daily target and a realistic timeline to reach your goal weight. Because body fat stores roughly seven thousand seven hundred calories per kilogram, the tool can translate your chosen deficit into an expected weekly rate of loss.
It is for anyone who wants to lose weight in a structured, sustainable way rather than by crash dieting. If you have tried cutting calories with no clear plan and stalled, having a specific daily number to aim for makes the process far easier to follow. It is built with Asian bodies and Singapore eating habits in mind, from hawker portions to sweet local drinks.
To use your result, aim for the daily calorie target and check your progress against the weekly trend on the scale rather than day to day, since water and food weight cause normal fluctuations. A deficit of around three hundred to five hundred calories a day suits most people and protects muscle. Avoid dropping below about twelve hundred calories for women or fifteen hundred for men without medical guidance. For a deeper look at safe deficits and local meal swaps, read our full calorie deficit guide.
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📉 Your Calorie Deficit Plan
⚚️ Health disclaimer: This calculator gives general estimates for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not a substitute for guidance from a qualified doctor or dietitian. Very low calorie intakes can be harmful. If you have any health concerns, or before changing your diet, please speak with a healthcare professional.
Hitting your protein target gets harder as calories come down. If whole food falls short, a scoop of whey or plant protein is a low-calorie, filling way to top up and protect muscle in a deficit. You can browse a wide range of protein supplements on iHerb, which ships across Asia. Food first, supplements only to fill the gaps.
We may earn a commission from purchases made through links on this page, at no extra cost to you.How to Use This Calculator
Enter your stats
Gender, age, height, current weight, and activity level set your daily energy burn.
Set goal and timeline
Add your goal weight and how many weeks you want to take. Slower is usually more sustainable.
Read your target
See your daily calorie target and weekly deficit, with a clear note if your plan is too aggressive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a calorie deficit?
A calorie deficit means eating fewer calories than your body burns in a day. When you are in a deficit, your body makes up the difference by using stored energy, which leads to weight loss over time. A deficit of roughly 7,700 calories corresponds to about 1 kg of body fat.
What is a safe calorie deficit for weight loss?
A safe and sustainable deficit for most people is 300 to 500 calories per day below your total daily energy expenditure, which supports roughly 0.3 to 0.5 kg of weight loss per week. Larger deficits can work short term but raise the risk of muscle loss, fatigue, and rebound. Do not drop below about 1,200 calories per day for women or 1,500 for men without medical supervision.
How many calories should I cut to lose 0.5 kg per week?
Losing about 0.5 kg per week requires a deficit of roughly 500 calories per day, since 0.5 kg of fat holds around 3,850 calories. You can create this through eating less, moving more, or a combination. A combined approach is usually easier to sustain than cutting food alone.
Do Asians need a different calorie target?
The calorie maths is the same, but healthy weight targets differ. WHO Asia-Pacific guidelines use a lower healthy BMI range of 18.5 to 22.9 for Asian populations, because Asians tend to carry more body fat and face higher metabolic risk at a given BMI. This calculator checks your goal weight against the Asian healthy range so your target is sensible.
Why am I not losing weight in a calorie deficit?
Calorie estimates carry an error margin of 10 to 15 percent, and many people underestimate what they eat. Water retention, hormonal shifts, and muscle gain can also hide fat loss on the scale. Track consistently for 2 to 3 weeks, weigh at the same time of day, and adjust based on real results rather than daily fluctuations.
How a calorie deficit really works
Weight loss comes down to energy balance. When you eat fewer calories than your body uses, it draws on stored energy to fill the gap, and over time that shows up as fat loss. The often-quoted figure is that about 7,700 calories equals roughly 1 kg of body fat, so a daily deficit of 500 calories adds up to around half a kilogram a week. The maths is simple, but the human body is not a perfect machine, so treat these numbers as a careful estimate rather than a guarantee.
The safest, most sustainable deficit for most people sits between 300 and 500 calories per day. This range is large enough to produce steady progress, but gentle enough that you keep your energy, protect your muscle, and avoid the intense hunger that makes very low calorie diets so hard to stick to. Crash dieting tends to backfire, because the weight often returns once normal eating resumes, sometimes with interest.
Asian bodies and healthy targets
Where Asian bodies matter most is in choosing a sensible goal weight. Singapore's Health Promotion Board and WHO Asia-Pacific guidance use a lower healthy BMI band of 18.5 to 22.9, rather than the global 18.5 to 24.9, because research shows people of Asian descent tend to carry more body fat and face higher metabolic risk at the same BMI. Setting your goal somewhere in that Asian healthy range, rather than chasing an extreme low number, gives you a target that supports long-term health rather than working against it. Pair a modest deficit with enough protein, regular movement, and good sleep, and the results tend to last.
Sources: WHO Asia-Pacific BMI guidance; Singapore Health Promotion Board; Mifflin-St Jeor equation.