When you will reach your goal weight
Your intake, the number of weeks, and the week-by-week curve — which slows down, like a real body.
Goal reached in
17weeks
- To eat per day
- 1,547 kcal
- That is
- ≈ 3.9 months
- Lost in the first week
- 1.1 lb
Your expenditure drops as you lose weight: it is recalculated every week, so the loss slows down. In the first days, water moves the scale more than fat.
Week by week
Intake stays the same; expenditure falls with your weight, and the gap narrows.
| Week | Weight | Expenditure | Real deficit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 165.3 lb | 2,047 kcal | 500 kcal |
| 2 | 163.4 lb | 2,035 kcal | 488 kcal |
| 4 | 161.4 lb | 2,023 kcal | 476 kcal |
| 6 | 159.6 lb | 2,011 kcal | 464 kcal |
| 8 | 157.6 lb | 1,999 kcal | 452 kcal |
| 10 | 155.9 lb | 1,988 kcal | 441 kcal |
| 12 | 154.1 lb | 1,977 kcal | 430 kcal |
| 14 | 152.3 lb | 1,967 kcal | 420 kcal |
| 16 | 150.8 lb | 1,956 kcal | 409 kcal |
| 17 | 149.9 lb | 1,951 kcal | 404 kcal |
By pace
The same goal, four deficits.
| Daily deficit | To eat per day | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| −250 kcal | 1,797 kcal | 39 |
| −500 kcal | 1,547 kcal | 17 |
| −750 kcal | 1,297 kcal | 11 |
| −1,000 kcal | 1,047 kcal | 9 |
- Starting expenditure comes from Mifflin-St Jeor and your activity level; intake is that minus the chosen deficit.
- Every week, expenditure is recalculated at the new weight: the gap narrows and loss slows, as Hall et al. (2011) showed.
- Each kilo lost counts for about 7,700 kcal, the usual estimate for fat.
Frequently asked questions
500 kcal a day is the most common starting point. Larger is faster but harder to keep, and muscle suffers without enough protein.
As you lose weight, you burn less. The same intake becomes a smaller and smaller deficit: that is normal, not a plateau.
Carbohydrate stores hold water: emptying them quickly removes a kilo or two that is not fat.
- Calorie calculatorYour daily calories and macros
- BMR & TDEEYour metabolism and daily energy expenditure
- Macro calculatorYour protein, fat and carbs in grams
- Protein calculatorHow much protein per day
- Water intake calculatorHow much to drink a day, training included
- Calories burnedThe calories of an activity
- Steps to caloriesHow many calories your steps burn
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