How many calories should I eat to lose fat and not muscle?
A deficit of roughly 300 to 500 calories a day, which produces about half a kilogram or a pound of loss per week. Larger deficits do not reliably produce faster fat loss — they produce more muscle loss, more fatigue and worse adherence, which is what ends most attempts.
Why moderate beats aggressive
Fat can only be mobilised so fast. Beyond a certain deficit the extra energy has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is lean tissue. The scale moves quickly and the body composition gets worse.
The second problem is adherence. Severe restriction is tolerable for a few weeks and then collapses, usually into a rebound that erases the progress. A deficit you can hold for six months beats one you abandon in five.
Getting a starting number
Estimate maintenance at roughly 30 calories per kilogram of body weight for a moderately active person, then subtract 300 to 500. Any formula is an estimate, so treat it as a starting point and adjust from what actually happens over two to three weeks.
Weigh yourself at the same time several mornings a week and use the weekly average. Day-to-day fluctuation is water and gut contents and will mislead you constantly if you read it as fat.
The non-negotiables inside the deficit
Protein at roughly 1.6 grams per kilogram of goal weight, which is the single biggest determinant of whether the loss is fat. Resistance training two or three times a week, which gives the body a reason to keep the muscle.
Enough sleep, since short sleep reliably increases appetite and reduces the proportion of loss that comes from fat. These three matter more than the precise calorie figure.
General information, not medical advice, and not a substitute for seeing a clinician who can assess you. Cryohealthcare Marina del Rey is a wellness practice; our treatments are not medical treatments and do not treat medical disease. We do not sell peptides or prescription medication from this website.
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