To lose weight you need a caloric deficit. But how many calories should you cut to lose fat safely? What is the absolute limit where you should not go beyond? It is obvious that some people lose fat on very low calorie diets, but others do not. To lose weight, you need to get the right calorie intake to safely lose fat.
I think everyone has heard the saying “cut 500 calories a day to lose 1 pound a week, cut 100 calories a day and lose 2 pounds.” But does this formula work for everyone? If an inactive woman cuts 500 calories and an active man also cuts 500 calories, then the effects are not the same. To find out what type of calorie deficit works best for your specific body, you need to choose your deficit based on your body fat percentage.
The more fat you have, the more aggressive your approach will be because you will lose less muscle. If you lose muscle along with fat, then your metabolic system slows down and you burn fewer calories. But if a person with less body fat wants to lose weight, then they should take a more conservative approach. Because they have less fat and can lose muscle because of it and slow down their metabolic rate. Is that how it works:
50% or more below maintenance calories = semi-starvation/starvation (potentially dangerous and unhealthy if not medically supervised)
31-40% below maintenance calories = very aggressive (risky) deficit
25-30% below maintenance calories = aggressive deficit
20-25% below maintenance calories = moderate deficit
15-20% below maintenance calories = conservative deficit
If you’re an inactive person with a maintenance level of 1,800 calories and you want to cut 1,000 calories, that’s 800 calories and a deficit of 55.5 percent. That can be very risky. But 20% below maintenance calories would mean 1440 calories, which is much better. Lean people should start with a conservative deficit of around 15-20% below maintenance. But there is a difference between lean and overweight people in the number of calories they can or should cut. If you have a lot of body fat, then you should run a more aggressive deficit without worrying as much about losing muscle mass or slowing your metabolism.