How big should my calorie deficit be?
Fifteen to twenty percent below maintenance, which for most adults is 300–500 calories a day and gives roughly 0.5 kg of loss a week. Larger deficits do work faster, but they cost more muscle, make hunger and fatigue much worse, and have a far higher dropout rate. A cap of about 1% of bodyweight lost per week is a sensible ceiling.
How do I calculate my maintenance calories?
Estimate your BMR with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, then multiply by an activity factor from 1.2 for sedentary up to 1.9 for very active. That gives your TDEE, or maintenance. The calorie calculator runs it for you. Treat the result as a starting estimate: track your weight for two weeks and adjust from what actually happens.
Is 1,589 calories too low for me?
Possibly. It suits a smaller or less active adult. If you are tall, heavy, male, or training several times a week, it is likely too aggressive and you should scale the portions up using the swaps above. As a floor, most guidance puts 1,200 calories for women and 1,500 for men as the point below which hitting nutrient needs becomes genuinely difficult.
Why am I not losing weight in a calorie deficit?
Almost always one of three things. The deficit is smaller than you think, because oil, drinks, tasting while cooking and weekends are not being counted. Or water retention is masking fat loss — common after a hard session or a salty meal, and it can hide two weeks of progress. Or it has not been long enough: four weeks of a flat average is a stall, four days is not.
Should I eat back the calories I burn exercising?
Partly, and only from a conservative estimate. Fitness trackers routinely overestimate calorie burn by 30–50%, so eating back the number on the watch can erase the whole deficit. A reasonable approach is to set your target using an activity multiplier that already includes your training, then not adjust day to day.
Do I have to count calories to be in a deficit?
No, but you have to control portions somehow. This plan does it structurally — fixed portions, high protein, high volume — so the deficit happens without a tracking app. Counting for two weeks is still worth doing once, purely to calibrate your estimates, which are almost certainly low on fats and high on vegetables.
Will I lose muscle in a calorie deficit?
Some, unless you actively prevent it. The two things that protect muscle are high protein — which is why this plan runs 127 g — and resistance training two or three times a week. With both, most of what you lose is fat. With neither, as much as a quarter of the loss can be lean tissue.
Is it better to eat fewer, bigger meals?
It makes no difference to fat loss; total daily calories are what count. Meal frequency is purely a preference question. Some people find three large meals far more satisfying than five small ones, and others are the opposite. This plan uses four because it suits most schedules, but collapse it into three if that suits you better.
How long should I stay in a deficit?
Eight to sixteen weeks, then eat at maintenance for a few weeks before continuing if you have more to lose. Long uninterrupted deficits wear down adherence, training quality and often mood. Planned maintenance breaks make the whole process more sustainable and do not meaningfully slow the result.
What happens when I reach my goal weight?
Add calories back gradually — roughly 100 a week until your weight holds steady — rather than stopping the plan on a Friday. Keep the protein, keep the vegetable volume, keep the training. If you want a maintenance version of this exact plan built around your new weight, the meal plan generator will produce one in about thirty seconds.
