SETTING UP YOUR
CALORIE-DEFICIT
FOR FAT-LOSS
BY @ARYAN_BHATIA04
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
01 CALCULATING YOUR 03 SETTING UP YOUR
MAINTAINANCE CALORIES CALORIE DEFICIT
02 HOW TO TRACK 04 DETERMINING MACRO -
YOUR CALORIES NUTRIENT BREAKDOWN
CALCULATING YOUR MAINTAINANCE
Step 1: Get your predicted maintenance using a TDEE
calculator. Go to https://tdeecalculator.net/ and enter
your own specific details. The TDEE calculator will spit
out it’s predicted maintenance calories for you.
Step 2: For the next 7-14 days, eat at the predicted
calories as consistently as possible (exact calorie
tracking procedure in next point). I’d recommend a food
tracking app like Myfitnesspal to easily keep your
entries tallied up in one place.
Step 3: For the next 7-14 days, log your morning body
weight in your notes. Make sure you co. mplete weigh-
ins fasted. By the end of each week, you should have 7
morning entries.
CALCULATING YOUR MAINTAINANCE
Step 4: After you’ve consistently tracked and logged for
7 days in a row, average out the weigh-ins to determine
your weekly average bodyweight. By the end of the 2-
weeks, you should have 2 weekly average weights.
Step 5: If your two week average body-weights stayed
relatively unchanged (<1% change) you can confirm
these are your maintenance calories.
Step 6: If ur bodyweight Increased (>1% relative change)
you can assume you're in a surplus. Lower your calories
by a couple hundred and reattempt steps 2-4.
Conversely if it decreased (>1% relative change), you
can assume you're in a deficit. Keep cals the same if
you're happy with the rate of weight-loss.
HOW TO TRACK CALORIES
Step 1: Use a food scale to weight everything you eat in
grams. You can easliy find an affordable one on Amazon
Step 2: Enter your Exact Food Item and its weight on the
app MyFitnessPal. It will give u the exact calories and
macronutrient breakdown for every meal.
Step 3: If you do not find a food item on MyFitnessPal,
read the nutrition label of said food item and calculate
the calories based on your portion size.
Step 4: Try your best to self-prepare as many
meals/snacks as you can.
Step 5: Be weary of calories in oils, sauces and drinks.
Note: Calorie Value of Different Macro-Nutrients:
Carbohydrates - 4 calories per gram, Protein - 4 calories
per gram, Fats - 4 calories per gram
SETTING UP YOUR CALORIE DEFICIT
Step 1: Determine Your Deficit:
(i) A moderate deficit: 250–500 kcal/day (slow,
sustainable weight loss).
(ii) An aggressive deficit: 500–800 kcal/day (faster
weight loss but harder to sustain).
Step 2: Take your maintainance calories and deduct the
deficit amount. This is how many calories you have to
eat everyday. Example: If your maintenance is 2500 kcal
and you choose a 500 kcal deficit, your target intake is
2000 kcal/day.
Step 3: Try adding low-intensity cardio to your routine.
This gives you a larger calorie budget for a day.
Example: If you have to eat only 2000 calories a day and
you burn 300 calories doing cardio, you can now eat
2300 calories.
Result: You should be losing 0.3-0.4Kgs per week on a
moderate deficit and 0.7-0.9Kgs on an aggressive deficit.
DETERMINING MACRO
NUTRIENT INTAKE
Step 1: Protein intake
General rule for fat loss : 0.8–1g per pound of body
weight. Example: A 180lb man cutting may set protein
at 160–180g.
Calories from protein: Protein grams × 4
(180g × 4 = 720 calories from protein)
Step 2: Fat intake
General rule: 20–30% of total calories from fats.
Example: If your calorie goal is 2,500 kcal,
25% of 2,500 = 620 calories from fat.
In Grams: 620 ÷ 9 = 69 grams of fat in one day.
Step 3: Carbohydrate intake
Formula: Remaining calories go to carbs
Example (for 2,500 kcal target):
Protein = 180g (720 kcal)
Fats = 69g (620 kcal)
Carbs = (2,500 - 720 - 620) ÷ 4
= 290g carbs
