How Many Calories to Lose a Pound

A 3500 Calorie Deficit = Approximately 1 Pound of Weight Loss

If you are trying to lose weight through calorie counting, you will need to know how many calories it will take to lose a pound of weight. Creating a calorie deficit of about 3500 calories should result in about 1 pound of weight loss. That is, if you consume 3500 calories less than you burn over a given period of time, you should lose around 1 lb of weight. To get an idea of how many calories you burn, take a look at our article on how many calories do I burn in a day.

A lot of weight loss sources recommend that you should aim for about 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss a week while you are trying to lose wight. This rate of weight loss should be sustainable, and if you try losing weight much faster than this, you may risk loosing more lean muscle mass. As muscle burns calories at a higher rate than fat when at rest, losing muscle will result in you burning less calories at rest, and as such, will not help a fat loss process.

So if you are aiming for about 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss a week, this means you should look at creating a calorie deficit of about 3500 to 7000 calories a week. This comes out to a 500 to 1000 calorie deficit a day. You can read more about the calorie counting process at our article how many calories should i eat a day.

Also, be sure to talk to you doctor about our weight loss process if you have not done this already. They should be able to give you good guidance and know if there are any things you need to be aware of relating to your own health situation.