What is a calorie deficit?

Losing weight is made possible through a simple equation. The calories you burn must be greater than the calories you eat. (Calories burned > calories eaten). When you are on a diet that follows this equation, you will lose weight.

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A calorie deficit is the difference between what you burn and what you eat. If you eat 2,000 calories and burn 2,500 today, you calorie deficit is 500. It is important because the size of your calorie deficit will determine how much weight you lose each week. Creating a calorie deficit forces your body to use stored energy which will cause the weight loss.

The general rule is that you have to burn 3,500 calories more than you eat to lose one pound. Since you cannot do all of that in one day, you spread it out over a greater period of time: a week. To lose one pound in a week, you need to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories during the week. Since a week has seven days, you divide 3,500 calories by seven and get 500.

Five hundred is the calorie deficit you need to create each day in order to lose one pound per week. This means that you need to burn 500 calories more than you eat everyday for a week to lose one pound.

If you want to lose two pounds per week, you need to double your calorie deficit to 7,000 calories per week or 1,000 per day. You can use the calorie calculator to get an estimate of how many calories you burn each day.