How Do You Figure Out How Many Calories You Should Eat to Lose Weight?

Let’s be honest — calories can feel confusing. One person tells you to eat 1200, another says 2000, and then someone else swears you shouldn’t count at all. No wonder most women are stuck in a constant loop of “am I eating too much… or not enough?”

So let’s clear this up once and for all.

Step 1: Understand What Calories Actually Are

Calories are simply energy.Your body uses them for everything, from thinking and walking to digesting food and keeping your hormones balanced.When you eat fewer calories than your body needs, it uses stored energy (fat) to make up the difference. That’s called a calorie deficit, and that’s how fat loss happens.

But here’s the key:

Eating too few calories doesn’t make you lose weight faster. It usually does the opposite.Your body slows down to conserve energy, hunger hormones go wild, and before you know it, you’re elbow-deep in a bag of chips wondering what went wrong.

Step 2: Figure Out Your Maintenance Calories

Your maintenance calories are the number of calories you’d eat to maintain your current weight. Finding this does take some trial and error, and some real consistency in tracking food for a few weeks. Thats the only true way to know.

For most women, maintenance calories usually fall somewhere between 1600–2400 calories depending on how active you are.

If you’ve been eating a lot less than that for months (say, 1200–1400) and not losing fat, that’s a sign your metabolism may be downregulated, meaning your body has adapted to lower food intake.

Step 3: Create a Gentle Deficit

A healthy, sustainable calorie deficit is typically around 15–20% below your maintenance level.That’s usually enough to see progress without feeling deprived or sluggish.

For example, if your maintenance is 2100 calories:

• A 15% deficit would put you around 1800 calories per day.

That’s often the sweet spot ... enough food for energy, hormones, workouts, and sanity… but still in fat-loss mode.

Step 4: Check Your Progress and Adjust

No calculator can know your exact calorie burn. So treat your first calorie target as a starting point, not gospel.

Track your food and progress for 2–3 weeks:

• If you’re losing around 0.5–1kg per week, stay the course.

• If nothing’s changing, double-check tracking accuracy or reduce by about 100–150 calories.

• If you’re exhausted, starving, or constantly binging, you’ve gone too low. Bring your intake back up.

• If you're losing more than 1KG per week EACH WEEK (the first week doesnt count), then you can afford to go up a bit in calories. Try an extra 100 each day.

  
  

Consistency matters more than perfection. Your body responds to averages over time, not one “good” or “bad” day.

Step 5: Prioritise Protein, Sleep, and Movement

Calories set the foundation, but macros and habits build the house. Focus on:

• Protein: around 1g per pound of bodyweight helps preserve muscle and keep you full.

• Sleep: poor sleep increases cravings and slows fat loss.

• Movement: daily walks or workouts increase calorie burn without extra stress.

When these align, your body finally feels safe enough to let go of fat — not hold on for dear life.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need to starve to see progress. You just need the right starting point, steady consistency, and a willingness to tweak along the way.

Most women are surprised to find that eating more (strategically) actually helps them lose fat more easily — because their bodies can finally function the way they’re meant to.

If you want us to help you find your maintenance level, then track with you, join us.